I’m watching a replay of hearings concerning Hurricane Katrina on C-Span 2 (held on December 6). I’m stunned because Rep. Cynthia McKinney actually sounds somewhat reasonable. She ignored one woman’s claims (a woman who is a “community leader” and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, she kindly reminds the committee several times) that the levees were bombed on purpose. I would think such conspiracy would be right up McKinney’s alley.

The “bombing” woman is now fighting with Rep. Shays and saying, “Let’s be honest, baby! Who are you, Shays? What have you done for me? I heard “boom, boom” and that could only be a bomb.”

Now everyone is getting angry and interrupting one another … I love C-Span!

Did you know that even during slavery times that blacks comprised 90% of skilled labor in the entire United States? I’m not sure what that has to do with the hurricane, but it’s an interesting statistic.

Did you know that residents of New Orleans were threatened with germ warfare and radiation guns that would cause skin cancer?

Did you know that the military bragged on CNN about how many residents of New Orleans they killed every day?

Did you know that other “ethnics” continue to come to America and get respect while seventh-generation African Americans are treated badly? Hmm … perhaps the person making this assertion should tune into the Phil Valentine show and listen to the remarks about “the Mexicans”.

I think I may need to change the channel for a few minutes. I need a break from the ridiculous conspiracy theories. Hurricane Katrina was horrible and there is plenty of blame to go around concerning the response. However, the Bush administration did not use Mother Nature to inflict genocide on the black population of New Orleans. Despite what is being said by the speakers, it isn’t always about race.

Blogging for Bryant makes a pitch that Ed Bryant is most likely to beat Harold Ford, Jr. by continuing to cite a Rasmussen poll within the margin of error. This is done in conjunction with a Bryant appearance in Johnson City, where Bryant says

Bryant said he is consistently pushing what separates himself from Hilleary and Corker - the appointment of federal judges, gun rights and traditional family values.

Sounds like a rhetorical distinction without a difference. I would certainly like to see what one would consider evidence that Bob Corker isn’t a conservative on any of those issues. At least the Bryant campaign is finally following my suggestion regarding Van

I too would be shocked to see anyone get out, knowing the dynamics as I do. In the meantime, Ed and Van need to differentiate themselves if they hope to peel votes off one another. I don’t see how either one can win otherwise.

This sort of thing could get very, very interesting.

UPDATE We apparently have a misunderstanding as to where the burden lies in the comments below. A Van-Ed supporter defaults inexplicably to the position that Bob Corker is against guns, against families, and for bad judges. The proof that Corker is a conservative comes from the way he leads his life and what he says. You can check out the website if you want, if you care to read and explore other options. As far as how anyone can seriously question his commitment to the Second Amendment, conservative judges and family values is beyond rational discourse. The burden is on you, the individuals claiming he is against families, guns and good law to prove otherwise. He has stated where he stands. If all you can say is “he’s a liberal”, and cannot support that position, you’ve not met your burden. Try again.

According to Bill Hobbs, the president has secretly funded two “fake” news sites

I’m shocked - shocked! - that the Department of Defense has been paying freelance journalists to write news stories for informational websites set up to help our side win the war. The Los Angeles Times reports on the secret presidential directive that resulted in the creation of the “news” site to help us win the war in, uh, Kosovo. This latest news raises questions about how George Warmonger Bush was able to lead America into war in Kosovo while he was still governor of Texas, where Halliburton is headquartered.

Oh wait…he meant President Clinton. So all this time the Left has been right - the government does control the media. Knowing this, we now have a satisfactory explanation for the recent anti-Bush shenanigans of two most prominent fake “news” outlets, The New York Timesand CBS News.

Though Ayn Rand wouldn’t agree, John Hawkins makes a good case as to why the life lessons of Christianity can mesh with the tenets of Objectivism.

I tend to agree, and am intent, at some point in the future to write in more detail on the topic. This will irritate many humanistic objectivists to no end, and perhaps perturb some Coercive Christians (otherwise known as progressive). I don’t think many conservative Christians would have a problem with the foci of objectivism, though they certainly, as I do, would disagree with Rand’s ultimate conclusion.

It’s 2005, and the DNC is already requesting every public document pertaining to Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a likely GOP 2008 contender. From the Boston Globe

Nearly three years before the 2008 presidential election, the Democratic National Committee is already digging for dirt on one potential candidate in the race: Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.

Earlier this month, virtually every agency in state government received public records requests for ”any and all records of communication” involving Willard [Mitt] Romney dating to 1947, the year of his birth. The letters, each dated Dec. 7, are signed by Shauna Daly, who only provided a post office box in Washington, D.C., as her address.

A spokesman for the Democratic National Committee confirmed yesterday that Daly is employed as its deputy research director. Prior to that, she worked as a campaign staff member for presidential candidate John Edwards, the former Democratic senator from North Carolina. She also worked on other races since graduating from Smith College in 2001, including a US Senate race in Florida.

This, of course, comes approvingly from the same newspaper that just asked Romney to resign immediately as he has announced he was not seeking reelection to a second term

By thumbing his nose at Massachusetts after less than three-quarters of one term as its chief executive, Mitt Romney, yesterday surrendered his clout and squandered his legitimacy. If, as it appears, his heart and mind are no longer in Massachusetts, he should resign.

Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey is inexperienced. But the state would be far better off in the hands of someone focused on state problems, rather than someone touring the country ridiculing the people he was elected to serve. Romney has joked in several states that, as a Republican here, he feels like ”a cattle rancher at a vegetarian convention.”

It’s rather juvenile to blame Romney for winning statewide office despite their being so many socialists in Massachusetts. It’s clear, and has been for some time, that the Globe just doesn’t like him, and cannot fathom how a fiscally conservative Republican governor got elected in a state where the senior senator’s last name is Kennedy.

So remember, Republicans - let’s not forget to always take the kid gloves off. We tend to fight too nice.

I need to watch it because I like to grade the quality of the propaganda of the uninformed, but this is telling

David Hardy reports that MTV is airing an episode of True Life about young gun owners. Fast fact: I was called to be on the show. I’m kinda shocked it took them so long to air it since they initially called me in early 2004. Anyway, since I didn’t kill any animals or people, I wasn’t considered a representative of what they wanted to show as the gun owning population in the final cut. Funny since I thought that those qualities made me quite representative of the average gun owner. I also gave them the names of several promising young shooters who compete and are doing well, but I guess they weren’t stereotypical enough for MTV either.

The show wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if it were about the truth. I suppose I’ll have to watch it to have a final take. To include 2 of 4 criminals as representative gun owners is prima facie biased. I don’t hold hope for the rest of the script.

Thanks to Say Uncle for the link.

Michael Silence has some, as well as Say Uncle. The medium is maturing, and with that some basic rules are being formed.

Uncle makes a good point regarding what makes a blog effective, while Silence discusses the movement in more general terms. As far a blog’s readability, I agree with Uncle - if you don’t have an RSS feed of some type, I’m not reading your blog. There are one or two without feeds that I read, but I only do so every couple weeks, if that. If you want to get your content out and get linked, a feed is a must.

Additionally, bad format hurts a blog. I’m not a fan of anything not on white. A blog is not a place for a bunch of bells and whistles. That’s not what makes a blog great. Blogs are built on content. If there is no content, there will be no readership and no linking. Combining that with frequency of posting and you have a very readable, good blog.

Silence posts about the growth and evolution of blogdom in general. The blog has legitimized itself by doing what other media and news outlets have at times refused to do. If you want detailed and frequently updated content on a particular subject, or a tireless attention to detail on a breaking issue, you no longer go to a MSM outlet. You find that niche blog doing the grunt work. The Katrina aftermath is a great example, as well as the phoniness of the Rather documents. If it weren’t for blogs, Dan Rather would have wrongly ridden off into the sunset as a nonpartisan and respected journalist. It was this blog with Bob Krumm’s help (pre BobKrumm.com) that noted on Teddy Bart’s Roundtable that Bob Tuke predicted questions about Bush’s guard service before the Rather flap surfaced. In short, those who know are in the know because they know which blogs to go to. Tennessee government is better covered and analyzed by Bill Hobbs, Michael Silence, Rob Huddleston, Bob Krumm, Mark Rose, Adam Groves (sorry if I missed anyone) and the rest of us than any particular MSM outlet.

If anything, the last two years have seen the ascension of the blog as a legitimate format. Questions as to whether blogs are a positive development in the information revolution are answered affirmatively by everyone, save those in danger of exposure over something they’d rather keep hidden. When someone criticizes blogs for merely existing, always consider the source. CBS, for instance

People are pretty smart in assuming that if a blog is making a case on one side that it’s partisan. The problem is when a blog pretends to hold neutrality but is actually partisan.

That’s just funny.

2006 will be a year of sifting. Quality blogs will continue, and some with less commitment will wither. Longevity will depend on content and dedication. With contentious elections coming up, the political blogs will gain more of a following. Silence notes that readership has somewhat leveled off. This is likely true, until another chunk of the public figures out that blogs are the best and quickest source of information. When that happens, another bump in readership will occur.

The conclusion? Blogs are becoming more and more useful and powerful as a medium. In Tennessee we have an unusually high concentration of good and informed writers discussing state and local politics and current events. That gives us an interesting niche, and acts as a model for other blogospheric miniverses elsewhere. That’s the truly impactual growth I’m interested in seeing.

UPDATED for additional content.

UPDATE Silence adds some more

To prove that bloggers and Google News robots can’t do the work of trained reporters, Reader executive editor Michael Lenehan proposes a yearlong journalism strike. “I am urging reporters and editors around the world to put down their notebooks, close their laptops, hang up their phones. Lie down and be counted! Let’s have no reporting, no editing, no application of any human intelligence whatsoever to events public or private till January 1, 2007. I’m calling it the Year Without Journalism. Let’s all relax, let go, and float blissfully in the information-free state (excuse me, I mean free-information state) that our public awaits so eagerly. … Let’s see if Wonkette can deal with the devious bastards in the executive branch any better than Judith Miller did.” (Via Romenesko)

Cool. Then bloggers wouldn’t have to write about plagarism, gross errors, slanted reports, incomplete reports and columnists getting paid by the government.

Ouch.

I was recently in a deposition, where the deponent, who followed direction well, did not answer with certainty when she wasn’t certain. In fact, she may have stuck to this rule a little too well. After four questions in a row where she immediately answered “I don’t recall”, the deposing attorney asked

Q. Do you have some mental disease that affects your ability to recall facts?

A. I don’t recall.

Classic.

I’m back after quite the hiatus. My parents and brother were in town for a few days (my sister went to Belize with her boyfriend for Christmas, poor girl) and then I needed some time after their departure to relax and recover. I remember how to type, though … it’s just like riding a bike!

I’m copying Nathan’s topic of restaurant experiences in his recent post, but my thoughts have more to do with general lack of manners.

I was standing in the waiting area of a restaurant with Nathan’s granny (I never knew any “grannies” until I moved to Tennessee … they were always “grandmothers” or “grandmas”), who is nearly 80 years old. There were five teenagers (four boys and a girl) who were sitting on a long bench also waiting for a table. It never occurred to these adolescents that they should give up a couple of seats to a woman with a huge pregnant belly and a senior citizen! I was able to stand and didn’t mind the opportunity to stretch my legs, but I was bothered by the principle behind the incident.

The instinct is no longer automatic to offer your seat to someone in greater need of it than you. Too many of us are just looking out for number one and feel no obligation to those around us. The “offering a seat incident” is related to the loud yapping on cell phones, the failure to hold doors and the insistence on entitlement that is held by many people today. Each new example makes me sad and frustrated.

Life will not be pretty for our child if we find out that he did not offer his seat to someone who could use it more than him. But, I believe that our child will learn proper manners when he is three and four years old that will preclude any such problems when he is older.

Tonight Sarah and I went to have dinner with my grandmother and uncle. I’m not a huge fan, but my grandmother likes O’Charley’s so we went to the one in Hermitage. Surprisingly there was a wait of about 25 minutes. Once seated, the fun began.

It took 15 minutes for the waiter to stop at our table. I had been watching him beforehand, and noticed that every time a table wanted something, he ran to the back to get it, then went to the next table, repeat. Having spent some time as a server, I saw the writing on the wall. Once he got to us, we went ahead and ordered our food at the same time as our drinks. Those living here in Nashville know that it was a chilly night, so I felt like ordering soup with my meal. Sarah ordered a salad.

Time passed. More time passed. Then the entrees came out. No soup. No salad. Not even any complimentary bread. Meanwhile, no lemon in my tea, but lemon in my uncle’s tea, though it was unsweet instead of sweet. The food was left, and the waiter was told of the tea problem. He took the tea and left. More time passed. Then he proudly brought the check to us to show that the soup and salad had been removed, sans tea. Then he left again. This time my uncle misses his lemon, so I offer back to him the remnants of his old lemon, which I had squeezed to death. Unsurprisingly he declined the offer. The lemon was dead.

At no point were we asked how the food was. At no point did he apologize. Half an hour later he stopped by again and offered to refill our drinks for the first time. I asked to see the manager, and conveyed very politely what the service had been like. She was polite and understanding, and offered us a free dessert. None of us cared for dessert, so she asked what we would like to do. We asked for refills, and I simply responded that she should do whatever she thought was fair.

This is where O’Charley’s redeems itself. She comped the entire meal, and gave us two $10.00 gift cards to use next time. My grandmother still wanted some bread with her salad, and the manager (Jenny was her name) said our server would bring it and apologize. He plopped the bread down, but then left only after hesitantly offering to refill our drinks again. If he had been gracious and apologized I would have left him a decent tip.

Lesson One - be sure you don’t sit in Joe’s section at the Hermitage O’Charleys. Lesson Two - the O’Charley’s management cares about its customers, and for that reason, I’ll certainly be going back.

According to The Tennessean, renovations of Legislative Plaza are near completion

The bulk of a $14.3 million overhaul of the legislative complex should be ready for the General Assembly’s special session beginning next month, officials said yesterday.

A nearly $3 million project to complete upgrades to five hearing rooms and to install multimedia presentation systems should be finished by mid-January. Previous work on those rooms last year included mold abatement and carpet replacement.

Surprisingly, the Department of Justice did not request onsite facilities as part of the improvements.

The United Nations has certified the vote in Iraq as fair

The United Nations official, Craig Jenness, said at a news conference organized by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq that his U.N.-led international election assistance team found the elections to be fair. He said the number of complaints was less than one for every 7,000 voters. About 70 percent of Iraq’s 15 million voters went to the polls.

Now I’m wondering whether it’s legitimate. We need another opinion. If Jimmy Carter calls the election unfair, I think I’ll feel better.

Yeah, white folks are being denied their voting rights. From ABC News

Using the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the government has alleged that Brown and local elections officials discriminated against whites. It is the first time the Justice Department has ever claimed that whites suffered discrimination in voting because of race.

“When I read the letter, it was junk, you know, bogus,” Brown told ABC News.

The Justice Department says Brown and local elections officials disenfranchised whites — challenging their voting status, rejecting their absentee ballots and telling voters to choose candidates according to race.

Brown says he has merely tried to keep white Republicans from voting in Democratic primaries. He says the lawuit is all political — an attempt to discredit him because the Democratic Party in eastern Mississippi has been doing so well at bringing new voters to the polls, which may mean someday soon that Mississippi, a red state, could turn blue.

Wow, a bona fide admission against interest - election officials admitting outright that citizens were prohibited from voting based on their party affiliation and race. What’s truly amazing is that, like the dark days of civil rights in the South, it’s said as if it is justified as the natural order of things. No matter what one thinks, two wrongs don’t make a right.

Thanks to Glenn for the link.

This week’s Carnival of the Capitalists is up here.

Jay Bush over at Blogging for Bryant has some good points in a post tonight, but then heads off into anti-Corker hysteria. From the MetroPulse

Corker’s financial advantage will be very helpful. He has an opportunity to use television advertising to overcome a lack of name recognition outside his home base. But Bryant and Hilleary have run a lot of races at the congressional-district level and have won them. Both have recently run statewide races. Even in losing, they gained valuable experience. Corker has to demonstrate that he has the organizational ability to mount a statewide campaign. He is an able man and may pull it off; but he has a steep learning curve.

In response to that statement by Frank Cagle of the MetroPulse, B4B says this

As evidenced by the recent dismissals of two top GOP consultants, a nonexistent statewide grassroots network and his inability to gain any traction in the polls, Corker’s campaign appears to be in disarray. Despite fundraising success, those dollars haven’t translated into positive name ID, as shown in the latest Rasmussen survey. The moderate Corker continues to run from his record of raising taxes and support for abortion rights - claiming to now be a pro-life conservative - but Tennessee Republicans don’t seem to be buying the ‘new and improved’ Bob Corker’s conservative line. So far, Corker has neither proven he has the organizational ability to mount a statewide campaign or that he’s got a message that resonates with conservative Republicans.

A few things before I turn back to the History Channel and go to bed. First, contrary to wishful hopes otherwise, the money Bob Corker has raised has yet to be spent. To say that all “those dollars” have not resulted in no name recognition is willfully wrong. Second, to my knowledge, and anyone watching objectively, Bob Corker has run from nothing. He’s tolerated some rock-filled snowballs from the Van-Ed camp, but nothing more. And finally, to deride Corker for being unproven in a statewide campaign is laughable coming from either a Bryant or Van supporter. Van has demonstrated the ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and Ed is no more “proven” than Corker, with significantly less resources this time around. It’s possible that the hard core right who cryptically will not support Bob Corker will coalesce around either Van or Ed, but I seriously doubt it. The supporters of either that I run into are rather committed, irrationally so at times. Perhaps I run in circles that are too political, and the less attentive primary voter will be more apt to shift. but that time is far from now and I’m not seeing it yet.

To conclude, to you Van-Ed folks - mock the superior fundraising of Bob Corker all you want if it makes you feel better, but until the Corker campaign begins shootin’ those bullets, it’d be wise to stay your positions.

The Channel 5 special on Tennessee legislative ethics is excellent. If you’re not watching it, turn it on now - it’s on until 7pm.

UPDATE It doesn’t end at 7pm, but 7:30pm.

That’s the number, so far, of dead people voting in Memphis in the Terry Roland / Ophelia Ford race. And some of these stiffs aren’t even fresh, having voted ten years after dying

“I certainly have no idea how any of this could have happened,” said Johnson, but election Commissioner Richard Holden says he does.

“It clearly exists as a result of someone committing a felony,” said Holden.

Felony? In elections in Memphis? Let’s see…who would do that? Who in Memphis is a politician and a felon…oh yes

Why again are we not seating Terry Roland? I love the argument by Harold Sr. and select Democrats that the dead are actually voting Republican. True, those voters may have been Republicans when they were alive and productive members of society, but the precincts where they’ve been voting have been run by Democrats for some time.

I would love to see the voting patterns of those individuals pre and post-mortum, and see if there were any distinct changes in primary voting habits. Surely Harold Ford and brother John aren’t that stupid.

It’s been three days since Christmas ended, and liberals are still writhing about the semantical non-war war on Christmas. Taking the “Christ” out of Christmas by singing about Christmas…this could only be logical to a liberal.

Like many subsets of society, students like to complain. I know this having been one, and see it daily with Sarah’s job. But when you read something like this Washington Post story about Iryna Vidanava, a Belarussian immigrant grad student with three jobs, one of which is editing a “subversive” periodical in her native Belarus, who commutes from where she lives in Washington, DC to Balitmore for school, your patience grows thin. Those excuses about work schedules and the like just start sounding absurdly silly.