you missed it, Bill Hobbs is now back, fully blogging again at BillHobbs.com. Of particular note is the continuing TEA involvement in attacking SJR 629

The TEA Legislative Report editor then goes on to say the TEA has “no intention of entering into a running debate on this issue.”

I thought the TEA - which describes itself on its website as “an organization that advocates learning without limits,” would not seek to limit what its members might learn about Senate Joint Resolution 629, and might actually favor the free and open exchange of ideas and points of view on the issue. But I was mistaken - apparently the TEA prefers merely to lecture its members with a one-sided and inaccurate message and then shut down debate.

The TEA is, as mentioned many times on this blog, a union. It is not comprised of a bunch of teachers wanting to ensure the best possible education of students. It is comprised of quasi-Teamsters working to ensure there is no other possible education for students but public education, and by public, meaning that every negative aspect of an inefficient government bureaucracy be expanded and embraced. Fewer students mean less teacher members, which means less power.
As for TEA inaccuracy and uninterest in debate, I’m hardly surprised. The last thing the TEA may be is a First Amendment organization. The attack of the TEA on Bill Hobbs was a bit surprising, though. The TEA piles on, and Hobbs has become the official whipping boy of conservative blogdom. I suppose from the TEA’s perspective it’s better than actually defending indefensible ideas.

On her new blog (mentioned below), Representative Susan Lynn takes on the economic fallacies underlying Phil Bredesen’s Cover Tennessee proposal

Now the Governor wants the state to actually enter the insurance business by creating healthcare plans for the uninsured. Once implemented, steep enrollment increases are projected; eventually expanding limits to include even more Tennesseans.

Public policy analysis? Sparse benefits will ensure public lobbying for broader coverage year after year. Fee structures will entice businesses to drop current more generous health and prescription coverage for the state’s version. Guaranteed issue may encourage people to buy the insurance as they need it and drop it when they don’t. Rationed benefits, meant to curb usage, risk hurting people who are truly medically needy.

Rationing typically is used to curb the natural effects of supply and demand. In health care, it is precisely the absence of the  unimpeded interaction between supply and demand that has caused costs and health care usage to unnaturally increase. The solution to reducing health care costs and increasing availability lies not in taking the consumer/provider interaction out of the equation, but immersing the consumer and provider in it. This is Lynn’s idea

We could accomplish this by promoting Health Savings Accounts (HSA) in conjunction with a major medical policy. The premise is to save for minor illnesses and insure for major ones.

Because HSA owners decide how to spend their healthcare dollars they’re encouraged to become better consumers, pursue healthful lifestyles, and curb over consumption on their own.

They cost less too. HSA’s earn interest and grow with before tax dollars. HSA’s follow employees from job to job, through unemployment, into retirement and ultimately, can be passed onto heirs. Physicians work for patients and help them make good medical decisions instead of working for a healthcare bureaucracy to limit costs.

Precisely. If you’re using your own funds, or have an immediate financial stake in pursuing a healthy lifestyle, you will do so.  In turn, there is no overusage of health care and there is minimal incentive for health care providers to increase price if the real result will be a reduction in demand. As of now, with the way that the government handles health care benefits, the price of those benefits has become perversely inelastic. The cost to the consumer goes up, but the consumer doesn’t immediately feel the impact, so the use of what may actually be optional medical care continues at the same or greater rate. There is no reduction in demand for an increase in price. Lynn is right on this one. And for all his extended use of game theory and bait-and-switch on the issue of TennCare, Bredesen is dead wrong.

It must be the weekend for new quality conservative bloggers. A new anonymous blog has popped up entitled Music City Oracle. Of particular immediate interest to me is this recent post

In a story that has not received any press coverage, the Jackson Clinic is asking an administrative law judge to rule that the Department of Labor and Workforce Development violated the law by making changes to the workers’ compensation medical fee schedule without providing notice or a hearing.

There’s nothing quite like seeing a shadow government step outside its bounds.  The Department of Labor  claims that the  adjustments were  “minor”, and did not require public notice and comment. Here are the changes they deem “minor”

Last year, the department adopted provisions in the fee schedule that paid physical therapists treating workers’ compensation patients less if they worked for a “physician affiliated” facility than they would be paid if they were independent. In February, the Department suddenly announced that it had adopted changes (effective May 1) to the physical therapy reimbursement rules. Under the changes, a physician could be fined $10,000 if he referred to a physician affiliated physical therapist. The Commissioner of Labor said that no notice or hearing was required since the changes were “minor.”

Before: phsyician affiliated physical therapist gets paid for treatment, but less than an independent.

After: physician who referred to the physician affiliated therapist is fined $10,000.

It appears that “minor” depends on one’s point of view. The problem is multifold. First, a rogue government agency is creating new rules with an impact reaching into the millions of dollars. Second, this change is likely to actually push health care costs higher and increase the cost of doing business in the state.  Neither is good. And on its face, neither is justifiable.

There we have it. Not only can Phil Bredesen not control the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the Department of Safety, and TennCare. He also cannot control his own Department of Labor.

Jim Bryson, anyone?

It has come to my attention that Representative Susan Lynn has started a blog. It’s well written and since she started it, well updated. Be sure to check it out!

Susan also has assured me that the minimum wage bill in the General Assembly is unlikely to pass. Those who support free markets, oppose union overreach and have read the simplest of elementary economics books can now all rejoice.

Rich Eisen on the NFL network has announced the Titans will be selecting Vince Young.

I do hope the rumor is legit.

Nathan and I received a card of congratulations on our new arrival from Governor Bredesen and his wife today. Between you and me, I don’t think it was personally signed by “Phil” and “Andrea” themselves (who knew we were on first-name basis with our state’s head executive?).

The point of the card is to remind new parents to get their baby immunized. A tear-out tab is included to take to the doctor’s office. My favorite sentence of the card is as follows:

“Please take your infant to be immunized before two months of age.”

Catherine celebrated her three-month birthday on Saturday. Whoops! Gotta love that government efficiency!

Despite the lack of timely concern from the Governor, Catherine has had all of her required immunizations up to this point. And, I think she somewhat enjoys them. After getting stuck the first time, she screamed for a second and then glared at the nurse with a “is that all you’ve got, woman” look.

It is a nice gesture for the Governor’s office to mail out these cards. However, I hope that Tennessee doesn’t see a rise in diphtheria because some parents didn’t get their congratulations/reminder to get your kid stuck with needles-card in time!

In all seriousness, it worries me to think how many new parents need a card from the government to remind them to maintain the wellness of their child.

I usually put Catherine to sleep by singing along to whatever dedicated songs happen to be selected that evening by Delilah, the leading mistress of nighttime love songs (on 92.9 FM). This is largely out of necessity, since I only know the words to two lullabies. I go through “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” every night, but that only gets you so far. And, I refuse to sing a lullaby that ends with a baby falling out of a tree along with her cradle. (For the record, the 3:00am feeding is accompained by the gentle voices on Fox Sports Radio and no singing … we have a system and it works for us.)

I was forced to switch the dial away from Delilah this evening because she started playing something by Cher. Seeking talk radio as my alternative, I caught some of the “Demagnetization Rally” hosted by Phil Valentine and broadcast on 99.7 FM today. I am wondering if the contradiction between the following statements was caught:

Statement One: “These people need to learn English if they expect to live in our country!”

Statement Two: “Metro schools paid $12 million last year in ESOL classes” (followed by loud boos and hisses)

Ummm … if we want immigrants to learn English, then shouldn’t ESOL courses be an important part of the curriculum for the schools in which such instruction is needed. I am sorry that the parents didn’t deem it necessary, or were unable, to teach English to their children. However, doesn’t it benefit the assimilation process and the cries for “English only” to make sure the children learn to speak good ol’ American?

For those who might not know, Dwight Lewis is a regular columnist for The Tennessean. For all that I own and hold dear, I cannot figure out why he merits the position he holds. His writing is weak, his columns mostly consist of cutting and pasting from other people’s writing or emails, and his views are rarely substantiated.

Besides the chum printed a few days a week in the paper, we have actually had a personal experience. In 2003, Sarah was running for Metro Council. She went in to interview with the editorial board, of which Lewis is a member. She was asked what her vision for Nashville was , and it consisted of two immediate goals. One was to increase the incentives for downtown development and living, the other was to work to reduce the size of council to make it more effective as a representative body. Lewis laughed at both, telling her that it was too expensive to live downtown and no one wanted to do it, and that a smaller council could simply never represent the people effectively.

Well, then. Wrong on both counts. One only needs to look at the Viridian (almost done), the Signature Tower (nearly 50 floors, all-residential, to be built), and every old warehouse and feed shack downtown being turned into loft apartments, and you can see how “in touch” Dwight Lewis is. As for the size of council, Lewis’ favored mayor is even technically in support of it. He simply doesn’t get it (it being the all-encompassing “it” symbolized by ).

Which brings me to his column today, which offers a conclusion without a means. Sort of like wishing for world piece and telling the good guys to disarm. It’s about guns. A friend heard a shooting in his blue collar neighborhood, and today’s column was inspired

I thought about my colleague and the shooting in his neighborhood after reading a story out of New York Tuesday saying the mayors of 10 major U.S. cities had gathered at a summit on gun violence that day, with organizers saying the federal government is not doing enough to stop the spread of illegal weapons.

“If the leadership won’t come from Congress or from the White House, it will have to come from us,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quoted as saying in the Associated Press story. The story said Bloomberg was heading the summit along with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.

“Gun crime is a national problem that needs a national response,” Menino was quoted as saying, adding that many guns used in the 73 homicides in Boston last year came from other states.

The mayors hope to create a loose coalition that will trade crime fighting information, work together on city and state legislation and form a louder voice in Washington.

That sounds like a terrific idea, even here in Nashville where there have been 27 homicides this year. That’s almost the same number as this time last year, so it’s apparent more is needed to reduce the high incidence of violence we’re seeing.

Gun control summits aren’t ever a good idea, actually. The focus is always on more laws, the class of which are broken with impunity as it is. True, gun violence is bad. It’s the deadliest kind. There are a variety of solutions that may work, such as more police in high violence areas (instead of writing traffic tickets in Donelson and Hermitage, why don’t we put more patrols in Antioch?). Ceteris paribus, It is proven that the frequency of apprehension is more of a deterrent than the magnitude of the punishment. In short, more laws will only affect those who follow them. Lewis continues. Here’s where the fantasy world descends from the heavens

And while all of the homicides have not included guns, most have. That’s why the anti-gun summit taking place in New York was a good idea, and it’s also why we need stricter gun laws here in Tennessee.

Having done enough criminal defense, I see the assistant DAs in Nashville already pressing on the gun issue. The laws are there, and guns typically come with other crimes, such as Aggravated Robbery, Aggravated Assault, Attempted Homicide, etc. If you use a gun, you’re going to do some time. The punishment is already there. The difference in doing 6 years or 8 years in the Tennessee Department of Corrections is negligible to your average criminal defendant. They’ll still get paroled. More restrictive laws like Lewis advocate won’t accomplish a thing.

But as Bloomberg and the other mayors were having their anti-gun summit in New York, another group was criticizing their actions.

The group, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, called the anti-gun summit a session “to devise more schemes to restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens, which will only lead to more crime because people will be unable to protect themselves.”

“Rather than devising and suggesting more restrictions on the rights of law-abiding gun owners, these mayors need to recognize that urban violence is a symptom of deeper problems that their bankrupt social policies perpetuate,” CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron said in one of the many e-mails his group sends out across the nation.

Every time I see such an e-mail I wonder if Waldron’s group will ever see the light. Will they ever realize that guns are taking the lives of too many people in America, or do they really care? •

Well, Waldron is right. Urban violence doesn’t occur because of guns. Urban violence stems from societal decay. Chanting “gun control” is an easy, feel good endeavor. Focusing on fixing real problems, like the illegitimacy rate among black urban families, is not.

It’s hard to argue with Lewis, as one can’t assign much logic to Lewis’ position, anyway. It’s an emotional and intellectually inconsistent one. Picking and choosing parts of the Constitution is a favorite past time of those seeking immediate public policy gratification without regard for the long term effects. Gun control doesn’t work, anywhere. The laws are there, and are enforced as much as practicable in many jurisdictions. The Second Amendment is as legitimate as any other part of the Bill of Rights. I do wish liberals would start treating it that way.

One need only look to the Left to see that the conservative cause is not losing ground. From Drudge

‘PROGRESSIVE’ MEDIA STALLS: ‘AIR AMERICA’ IN AUDIENCE PLUNGE NYC, ‘DAILY KOS’ BOOK SELLS ONLY 3,600 COPIES
Wed Apr 26 2006 11:39:51 ET

Left-leaning new media has hit turbulence at the marketplace, newly released stats show.

A book hyped by major media as documenting a progressive revolution of “blogs” and political power, DAILY KOS ‘CRASHING THE GATE,’ has sold only 3,630 copies since its release last month, according to NIELSEN’s BOOKSCAN.

[NIELSEN claims only 2,062 copies of DAILY KOS have been purchased at the retail level; the rest coming through 'discount' outlets. The NIELSEN figures do include online sales from AMAZON.COM, and others.]

Meanwhile, the just released radio Winter Book [Jan-Mar 2006] from ARBITRON shows AIR AMERICA in New York City losing more than a third of its audience — in the past year!

Among all listeners 12+, it was a race to the bottom for AIR AMERICA and WLIB as mid-days went from a 1.6 share during winter 2005 to a 1.0 share winter 2006.

During PM drive, host Randi Rhodes plunged to 27,900 listeners every quarter hour, finishing 25th place in her time slot, down from 60,900 listeners every quarter hour in the fall.

A network source says the radio ratings released today do not reflect the overall growth of the broadcast.

“The demos are better, and listeners trust AIR AMERICA to give them the real truth on issues and the Bush presidency,” says the insider.

I am typically not one to make hay of others misfortunes for the sole sake of spite and mockery (well, sometimes), but the Kos numbers truly surprise me. I could write a book and find some way to get three thousand copies “sold”. On the other hand, the Air America story is not so surprising. That diminishing trend has existed for some time. Just listen to Randi Rhodes and you won’t wonder why. The content and presentation is simply not good. You can hate Limbaugh all you want, but you have to admit he’s entertaining. And he started and succeeded in New York. Not so with Randi and the rest.

I believe Air America died in Washington, DC late last year. Now it’s dying in New York, the bluest of the blue and the largest of the large. Air America has discovered a way to play Sinatra backwards. If you’re a liberal talk show host and you can’t make it in New York, good luck anywhere else.

UPDATE Apparently Drudge’s numbers were off a few thousand - actually, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 books were sold. Still, my original point stands.

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research has sent out it’s monthly misuse email just now. The topic? Art, of course

The 37th annual Nashville Film Festival will finish its weeklong run on Wednesday, but not before the event devours over $85,000 in public funds—including $34,500 in state taxpayers’ money.

In addition to the $34,500 in state-funded operating support for the film festival courtesy of the Tennessee Arts Commission, Davidson County taxpayers were looted for an additional $50,635 in public support through a grant from the Metro Nashville Arts Commission.

Among the films included in this year’s Nashville Film Festival are:

* Music Is My Life, Politics My Mistress, a documentary about the late artist, trade union leader and American Communist Party activist Oscar Brown Jr.
* Super Powers, a movie in which a young couple tries to save their marriage by dressing up as super heroes in the bedroom
* Hung, the story of a group of lesbian friends who decide to “try out penises for a day”

I’m not one of those conservatives who thinks the government should not be involved in any art. I enjoy our Bicentennial Mall, and enjoy, well - real art. Not fake art. A group of lesbians trying on penises wasn’t even art in ancient Greece, and they were fairly liberal about many things sexual.

Take a slab of marble. Make it look like something divine. That’s art. Take a canvas, and create a new look, a new mode of presentation that looks like something. That’s art.

I just grew up thinking that art ought to be inspiring. It should make us see something around us, or in ourselves, that is apparent but elusive. At the very least the work itself ought to generally be considered admirable. Art has devolved into a state where there is no appeal to the masses. Some will blame this on a decaying popular culture. No doubt that holds true to a degree. But the response by the (post)modern artistic community has been sorely lacking.

Give us something we want. Art didn’t use to be the subject of mass government subsidy. It used to be self supporting - an obvious celebration of talent. Without that hook, I must say that the quality of what is now considered art is disappointing.

There. That’s my say. And remember the next time that Metro Nashville proclaims a lack of funding for schools, that $50k was spent on porn screening for an art festival. That ought to at least be a couple of janitors

By tightening up the staff ratios slightly across the district, the board hopes none of the schools feel the impact of that reduction.

“I’m pleased that we made a choice to add back 40 custodial positions,” [Pam] Garrett said.

“Every staff position in the district is important.

“Not only do custodians do the obvious, keeping and maintaining the buildings, they’re positioned to be a viable adult-student link.”

Sigh.

A recently released poll notes

AP/AOL Poll: More Than Half Of Baseball Fans Say The Sport Hasn’t Done Enough To Curb Use Of Steroids

They’re right. Baseball hasn’t banned Barry Bonds yet.

Van Hilleary, erstwhile known as “Straw Man”, proclaims yet another straw poll victory in Johnson County in an emailed press release.

What does this mean?

Nothing. But I enjoy pointing out all the pointing out that Van does with the straw polls. If straw were gold, he’d be a mint.

The Tennessee Educators (sic) Association has gone on the offensive, attacking SJR629, Jim Bryson’s proposal to limit the growth of state spending

Since Tennessee is already near the bottom of most rankings in investing in education, such a constitutional cap on spending would be severely limiting and irresponsible. SJR 629 is largely modeled after the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) which was enacted in Colorado in 1991. The 1991 provision had such a negative impact that Colorado voters last year suspended several key provisions of the amendment. SJR 629 is sponsored by Sen. Jim Bryson (R-Franklin) who recently announced that he would seek the Republican nomination to oppose Governor Phil Bredesen in this year’s election. The resolution is scheduled for a vote in the Senate Finance, Ways & Means Committee on Tuesday, April 25. TEA members are urged to contact senators on the Finance Committee and ask that they vote “NO” on SJR 629. The message should be that SJR 629 would place a “straitjacket” on the funding of essential state services, including public education. It would tie the hands of future legislatures in attempting to address the changing needs of state government.

Well, first of all there is no proven correlation between per-pupil spending and results. That myth continues to be touted as fact by educators unions without fail. Somehow the “changing needs of state government” are almost always going to include growing the size and reach of said government. The TEA’s view is myopic at best. That’s one fallacy. Hobbs takes them to task for another

Colorado’s TABOR is an extensive and complex constitutional provision that affects not just the growth of the state budget but also tax increases, creation of new taxes, and increases in bond debt - at both the state and the county and city level. And Colorado’s TABOR requires voter approval in referenda for any spending over the year-over-year growth cap, for any tax increase, for any new tax, and for any increase in bond debt.

By contrast, SJR 629 really only does three things:

1. It changes the Tennessee constitution’s existing cap on the annual growth of the state budget to allow it to be broken only if two-thirds of the legislature approves, rather than the current simple-majority vote.
2. It puts unspent surplus funds in the state’s rainy day fund.
3. Once the rainy day fund reaches a set target, additional surpluses go to reducing the state sales tax.

SJR 629 does not affect local or county budgets or taxes, has no impact on the state’s bond debt, and does not require or authorize voter referenda on such issues.

To be an educators union, one would think they would be…well, educated. Or at least generally informed. But certainly not completely clueless. Not only are they wrong in their comparison to Colorado’s experience with TABOR, they are wrong is their assessment as to what really happened in Colorado

The TEA compounds the deception by claiming that Colorado’s TABOR had “a negative impact” on Colorado’s state budget, leading voters there to “suspend” TABOR in a recent election. In a related comment,, TEA asserts SJR 629 would place a “straitjacket” on the funding of public education and “would tie the hands of future legislatures in attempting to address the changing needs of state government.”

None of that is true.

A decade ago, a few years after adopting TABOR, Colorado voters approved “Amendment 23, which exempted public education from the TABOR cap, and in fact required funding for public education to grow faster than the rest of the state budget. It was that decision which made Colorado’s budgetary position increasingly untenable. A few months ago, Colorado voters approved a plan to break the TABOR limits for five years, in order to “catch up” on the spending cuts caused by that state’s education lobby’s insatiable lust for tax dollars.

Hobbs goes on to note that with SJR629 in effect, the TEA could actually make the better case of diverting funds from less useful government programs to education. Sounds reasonable to me, but the union doesn’t want that. Unfortunately, the TEA’s scope and public policy goals are far in excess of obtaining funds for education. It’s government they want - bigger but not necessarily better.

Remember folks - the TEA is a union. They do not represent a single student. This in itself is fine, but the TEA makes an effort not to be straightforward about it, couching their rhetoric in “for the children” soundbites, which is something that the UAW or Teamsters can’t do. They oppose any proposal that would limit their power, which trumps the needs of education itself. Their opposition to SJR629 is no more noble than that.

Mark Rose has a rather powerful post regarding the moral lowground occupied by those fighting against the democratically selected “Choose Life” license plates in Tennessee.

Then again, abortion hasn’t been a democratic issue in over three decades.

What did we miss???

The Moores have returned in near-record time to the homestead. Blogging will resume in earnest today.

I leave town and we lose a Ford in the Senate.

Maybe I need to leave Nashville more often.

We are currently in Savannah for my sister’s wedding this weekend. As one can imagine, the schedule will be tight.

More to come later.

We have help from the “goddess” on how to define violence.

Did you know that “poverty is an insidious form of violence”?

Or that “abandonment is a covert form of violence”?

I didn’t either.

Because they’re not. For more silly overthought and introspection, feel free to click thru.

Those following the Kopp slime of Bill Hobbs should find humor in this.