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The New York Times notes in an article today that the Democrat Party’s hopes in taking back the Senate rest largely with the victory of Harold Ford, Jr.

“Anyone who thinks the South in 2006 is the same as the South in 2004 is mistaken,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York and chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Both parties have a huge interest in what happens here. Democrats must pick up six Republican seats to regain control of the Senate, a formidable task. The most competitive possibilities, party strategists say, are probably Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Ohio, Montana and Missouri.

If everything breaks perfectly for the Democrats on election night, the sixth seat would be from either Tennessee, an open seat being vacated by Senator Bill Frist, the Republican majority leader, or Arizona, where Senator Jon Kyl, a two-term Republican, is running for re-election.

“Tennessee could very well make or break whether we take back the Senate,” Mr. Schumer said.

In that case, I’m voting for “break”. Schumer’s conclusion that the South of 2004 is not the same as the South of 2006 is puzzling. Certainly, the South of 2006 is different from the South of 1906 - somewhere in the middle Senator Schumer runs awry. This is the kicker, though

Mr. Ford is known as something of an ambitious maverick in his party; he challenged Representative Nancy Pelosi of California for the minority leader’s job in 2002. According to Congressional Quarterly ratings, he voted with his party 83 percent of the time in 2005, below the average Democratic party unity score of 88 percent. Republicans say he is still the most liberal member of the Tennessee delegation.

Mr. Ford agrees that “the most toxic word in the political vocabulary in this state is liberal” and fights the ideological characterization. He is an accomplished, seemingly effortless campaigner, slipping comfortably between the old cadences of Southern populism, “new Democrat” optimism and the rich oratory of the black church.

Whether it’s 83 percent or 88 percent, in Tennessee it’s a failing grade.

AC Kleinheider points out two of the more definitive ingrates in the blogosphere, making their opinion known as to Memorial Day, and in their own words, self-righteously ridicule the very concept of patriotism. David Reynolds approvingly quotes Vache Folle

We don’t participate in any patriotic mumbo jumbo on Memorial Day. We’re sorry all those millions died for the state, and we don’t want to encourage anyone else to die by acting as if those combat deaths were anything other than a colossal waste of lives. They all died senseless deaths, and the standard Memorial Day fare is an attempt to make sense of the senselessness and to encourage folks to sign up as cannon fodder. Also, politicians are always involved in the hope of having some of that glorious combat deadness rub off on them.

I have no use for cynics - and particularly, no use for those who believe no one died to give them the unadulterated right to blather nonsense (to borrow a poorly chosen word).

The author of the Vache Foole blog proudly claims to be an anarchist, which is all fine and well, and quite a workable political philosophy once the concept of the state becomes extinct (good luck with that one). The approving quoter notes “Liberty” in his blogline, but seems to care little for what it takes to ensure it. He also sees fit to mock his parent’s observance of Memorial Day because growing up, he didn’t understand it

I am almost ashamed to admit I spent most of the time I was presumably supposed to be reflecting on my grandfather, who died a year before I was born, or my Great Uncle Houston, who I could barely remember, or my Great Aunt Norene, who I never met, or my Uncle George, who was killed in a freak accident when I was a baby, I actually spent pondering whether I would ask for a Hot Fudge Sundae or a Banana Split.

As I grew older, I learned that Memorial Day was actually designed to honor dead war veterans and not dead relatives. I know many of the dead relatives we honored with our visits on Memorial Day were not killed in wars. As a matter of fact, I don’t think any of them were.

Understanding seems to remain elusive.

American military service is one of the most honorable pursuits anyone can undertake. Those who disagree stand on shaky moral ground. Detractors can only find exceptions to well-observed rules when bashing the military of this country, whether that constitutes the trite “supporting the troops but not the mission” line or those such as these bloggers who show outright disdain for those who have fought and died to ensure the continued existence of the United States, who since its inception has been the leading killer of tyrannical regimes across the globe. The numbers freed are staggering.

Unfortunate but scattered mistakes such as My Lai or perhaps Haditha do not cancel this fact out. Why anyone would think it does (or else, more accurately, thinks it should) remains a mystery. At least that’s recognizable as an objection, as weak as it would be. The two links I noted above are conclusionary at best.

Apparently, Ed Bryant supporters are now unknowingly parroting Harold Ford, Jr. supporters when attacking Bob Corker.

What can we called this new mixed breed? B-ord? F-ryant? Har-ed?

ACK gets the nod on this one.

How utterly classic.

UPDATE I have been forthwith challenged by one of the more infamous Blogging for Bryant supporters (both contributors have weighed in in the comments) to debunk the letter written by the newest Ed Bryant ally, the perpetrator of Forward with Ford.

Ahem.

Here we go, in pure Fiskian fashion.

I totally agree with The City Paper that Bob Corker’s record must be studied in historical context (“Study Corker’s record in context,” p. 6, May 25).

In this editorial, however, The City Paper misses the mark when it justifies the “hard decisions” that Corker made as mayor of Chattanooga while opting to ignore the truth about Corker’s record.

Well, nothing has been said as of yet. The straw man of “context” has been dutifully set up in preparation for being knocked down. I hold my breath - the suspense is killing me

While his most recent TV ad claims that Corker lowered property taxes to their lowest rate since the 1950s, the facts paint a different picture. The facts are this: Corker raised property taxes in Chattanooga by 25 percent. Corker even publicly stated on several occasions that he had no intention to roll the tax increase back and the facts show he never did.

That’s a mischaracterization of the ad, and Ford’s minion, as well as Rob and JB, all know it. Because of Bob Corker’s governance, the city’s taxes fell, a lot. Then again, as of late Democrats aren’t exactly known for fiscal policies that spur economic growth

So how can Corker claim to have lowered property taxes to their lowest rate since the 1950s? The city’s taxes were lowered not because of anything Corker did, but because of a countywide property reappraisal that took place three months after Corker left office! Three months!

Leaving aside the overuse of ! (seemingly Ford supporters prefer exclamation points and Van supporters prefer ALL CAPS), to say that property taxes went down “not because of anything Corker did” is ludicrous on its face. The growth of Chattanooga that enabled the lowest property tax burden in decades stems directly (not indirectly, sorta, or kinda) from the vision and governance of Bob Corker as mayor. As soon as Ford or Bryant show me an unbiased poll asking Chattanoogans how much they wished they recalled Mayor Corker, these attacks continue to hold no water.

The facts are that Bob Corker takes a similar approach to taxes as Don Sundquist and no creative 30-second TV ad can hide that.

Actually, Bob Corker opposed the state income tax. That’s on the record. I have more than adequately addressed this complaint in desperation by Bryant, Hilleary, and now Ford supporters, on this blog.

As a reliable commenter notes below, it is funny to see a Democrat make such a contorted argument.

From those wily capitalist Russians

Astronaut’s Golf Shot Pulled From Next ISS Spacewalk

The Russian Federation has partnered with Element 21 (E21) Golf Co. of Canada for a marketing effort outside the International Space Station. I guess they missed this

Golf club by NASA. As I recall, Shepard got a hole-in-one on an unusually long par 16.

From Professor Cornwall, the number of new business startups in the United States progressed at nearly half a million a month in 2005 (the actual number works out to 11 new businesses a minute).

There’s nothing like a good bout of self reliance to put government back in its proper place.

Those who paid for and designed this billboard in an Alabama wet/dry vote indisputably suffer from a bout of rife insanity.

For those still undecided, WWJD was put to rest with the the first miracle, which would seem to signify a vote for “wet”.

By now, it is no longer a secret that George Galloway has condoned the potential assassination of Tony Blair. Eugene Volokh weighs in

By the way, I do agree that the assassination of an enemy Prime Minister is, as a matter of the laws of war, quite a different matter than the deliberate targeting of civilians who aren’t participating in the war effort. Likewise, a Nazi attempt to assassinate Winston Churchill during World War II would not have been a war crime of the same sort as Nazi deliberate murders of civilians. (Depending on the circumstances, it might not have been a war crime at all, or it might have been a far lesser violation of the law of war.) Similarly, if al Qaeda were to simply attack the Pentagon, that too would not be a war crime on the level of deliberate targeting of civilians, though of course it would amply justify continued military retaliation against those who are making war on us. (I can’t speak with similar confidence about the actual 9/11 attack on al Qaeda, because it involved a hijacked civilian aircraft, which might make the analysis different.) Not all of one’s enemies’ military attacks are at the same time inherently atrocities — for some, the actions’ moral repugnance stems from the ends to which they’re aimed, rather than the means that are used — though the attacks should be dealt with by force even when they aren’t atrocities.

My point, therefore, is not that Galloway’s position is an endorsement of the most serious sorts of war crimes. Rather, Galloway’s position simply shows, as the title of the post indicates, that he’s on the side of his country’s (and my country’s) enemies.

The world is a much clearer place when you take people at their word. From Volokh, Christopher Hitches notes Galloway’s treachery at Slate.

The Carnival of the Capitalists this week is, well - extensive. Check it out down under here.

Here I present the most unpopular man in the Davidson County Clerk’s office.

Sorry, Billy - no Disney World this year. My formerly disabled superior didn’t get his promotion and has come back to take my bonus.

From the New York Times

Cities are circulating storm-preparation checklists, counties are holding hurricane expositions at shopping malls and states are dangling carrots like free home inspections and tax-free storm supplies in hopes of conquering complacency.

But the main strategy, it seems, is to scare the multitudes of people who emergency officials say remain blasé even after last year’s record-breaking storm season.

To persuade residents to heed evacuation orders, the Florida Division of Emergency Management is broadcasting public service announcements with recordings of 911 calls placed during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

“The roof has completely caved in on us,” a woman cries as chilling music swells, only to be told that rescuers cannot come out during the storm.

Speaking of the tactics, Craig Fugate, Florida’s emergency management director, said last week at a news conference in Tallahassee, “We’re going to use a sledgehammer.”

This save-yourselves approach comes after government agencies were overwhelmed by pleas for help after last year’s storms and strongly criticized as not responding swiftly or thoroughly enough to the public need. Now, officials have said repeatedly, only the elderly, the poor and the disabled should count on the government to help them escape a hurricane or endure its immediate aftermath.

How anyone can be “blase” after last year’s rout of storms is beyond the realm of rationality. Fools ride out hurricanes - period.

At a Home Depot, Brenda and Jerry Dyche of South Fort Myers were shopping for a generator last Wednesday. With that and a new roof, they said, they had no reason to flee.

“We’d just as soon be in our house,” Mr. Dyche said. “Where are we going to go? I-75 is a parking lot by the time they evacuate everybody.”

Likewise, Ronda Burke, who did not go inland last year to avoid Hurricane Rita but stayed on South Padre Island, Tex., to watch over her new health food cafe, Naturally’s, said she would probably do the same this year if necessary.

“We feel about our store like you feel about a person,” said Ms. Burke, whose husband took their two young children to higher ground as Hurricane Rita neared the Texas coast (and eventually came ashore far from South Padre Island). “We’d probably ride it out again.”

Generators in South Fort Myers must come with anti-flood force fields. And I’m not sure you can’t watch the weather channel (found even more easily here at weather.com) and make up your own mind as to when you decide to leave your six inches above sea level home. As for riding out a storm on South Padre Island - have fun with that.

For lack of a more eloquent thing to say, the hurricane season this year ought to be interesting.

UPDATE It seems that mass incompetence is more deadly than high winds.

It must be my day to disagree with AC - his take on the political ramifications of the failure of the minimum wage hike to pass seems overdone

While voting down a bill that helps no one is the proper course, it is not good politics. Because if the bill affects little positively then one could surmise that it affects few negatively as well. The political reward of passage far outweigh the policy risk of economic disaster.

Being against the minimum wage just sounds bad. Sure, Republicans understand the issue but Yellow Dog Democrat types do love their populism and nothing is more populist than a minimum wage increase. “Every man a King”, a “chicken in every pot” — all that jazz.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Democrats brought this issue up for just this reason. Opposition to a minimum wage seeks to attack the Republicans populist sensibility with Yellow Dogs that they built up on the social issues.

I’m not convinced. The state Democrats have more on their plate than that, and what ended up actually being a strained half-effort by their own leadership on the minimum wage bill isn’t exactly convincing. The Democrats let it get watered down early. In this state, it’s not going to be an election-worthy issue - there are other, much more pressing issues to be thinking about than this

Democrats will attack and attack on this issue in upcoming campaigns. They will say that this proves the heartless, elitist stereotype of the Republican is true.

Now, it may be true but being against a raise in the minimum wage doesn’t prove any of it. It will hardly matter, though.

In a party so full of pragmatists I am surprised no one stood up and warned their brothers-in-arms not to fall into this election year trap.

I would rather them do just that. Sorry, but I’m getting a rather intense chicken little vibe, here. The sky may be falling around some of us Republicans, but it’s certainly not over this.

UPDATE And after checking the links on the above post, I must note that taking political analysis from the Enclave isn’t what I’d call good policy.  It’s not exactly the place where non-committed Marxists go to vote.

That is what I’m hoping will happen

According to ESPN legal analyst Roger Cossack, any witness who testifies before a grand jury is allowed to discuss his own testimony but cannot talk about the testimony of other witnesses. Major League Baseball has had no comment on Bonds’ contention that it asked him not to talk about steroids.

Bonds said it would hurt if, after he is done playing, an asterisk was put next to his records.

“It would hurt. I would be disappointed,” he said. He also said he didn’t know if that would happen but in his heart he believes it will happen.

However, he told Gray that he doesn’t believe Major League Baseball is attacking him personally by investigating steroid use; he thinks baseball is doing what is best for baseball by looking at the whole period.

Yes, and what is best for baseball is ensuring that the record books are clean. An asterisk and some correction fluid sound good to me.

My good friend Mark Rogers gets beaten down by some poor guy who thinks that Tennessee issues passports.

I’ll remember to contact the Georgia governor for a visa next time I visit my folks in Savannah.

Former Enron advisor and New York Times political columnist Paul Krugman, darling of the analytically illiterate Left, doesn’t seem to bother reading the subjects of his criticisms. From Jason Lee Steorts at NRO

Paul Krugman needs a course in remedial reading. That’s the conclusion to be drawn from his New York Times column last Friday, in which he called my NR cover story “Scare of the Century” part of a “disinformation campaign” about climate change.

Krugman writes that, “as evidence that global warming isn’t really happening,” I offer “the fact that some Antarctic ice sheets are getting thicker.” I did indeed note the thickening of Antarctic ice—about which, more in a moment—but I never claimed “that global warming isn’t really happening.” Rather, I wrote that “global average temperature has risen by about 1 degree Celsius or less since the late 1800s.” No serious person on either side of the global-warming debate questions this. Nor do serious commentators doubt that human activity, by increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, contributes to global warming. I acknowledged all of these points.

That’s really the difference. Few debate that global warming isn’t occuring at some level. The debate instead hinges around the cause - though you wouldn’t know, there is a rather weighty argument that the current state of warming is part of a larger, pre-human cycle. This is a nuance that Krugman apparently misses

Who’s Thinking?
So much for Krugman. Equally baseless criticisms of my piece have come from the liberal web publication Think Progress, which says that my article contains “several serious errors and omissions” and that I am guilty of “distorting evidence” and “mislead[ing my] readers.” Think Progress accordingly published a “debunk” that is nothing of the sort. Let’s consider it point by point.

As a greater blogger than I routinely says - read the whole thing.

UPDATE More selective attentiveness from Paul Krugman. Who is Enron? Why am I here? And more to the point, let us not forget this asinine quote from January 29, 2002

I predict that in the years ahead Enron, not Sept. 11, will come to be seen as the greater turning point in U.S. society

What a schmuck.

More anti-capitalist screed from the Huffington Post. What is there about job creation and lower prices these commies just don’t like?

The failure to currently exist does not preclude one from living on in fashion 

As the warmer weather and round-the-clock daylight of summer draw tourists to Alaska, ivory shop owners anticipate the inevitable questions from visitors about mammoth ivory.

“Most people don’t even know about it until they come up here, and then they see it in the store and go, `Hmmm, mammoth ivory?’” said Barbara Lynd, owner of Alaska Arts and Ivory. A few customers have asked where they can go to see a live mammoth.

“They’re not really clued in to the fact that they’re extinct,” Lynd said.

It is clear I could not work at Alaska Arts and Ivory more than, say, a couple of customers.

From the “can’t think outside the box” department

A home-schooling mother on the Metro public school board? How about this: I don’t know much about baseball, and my children do not take part in the game, but suppose I told you that I know what the team and the coach need to do to have winning team. Doesn’t this sound ridiculous?

Home-schooling is a choice and may be preferred by some people. I do know, however, that we have two daughters and two grandchildren who went to public school and all graduated with honors. We appreciate their dedicated teachers and their schools which are open to all children to be educated so they can become good citizens.

To elect someone from outside the school system just does not make sense.

Delores L. Cook
Nashville 37221

Ms. Cook is right about one thing. If we made the school system more like baseball, where everyone had to compete, everyone would win.

If you want to help with Chip Throckmorton’s campaign for State Senate 23, and aren’t on the email list, go and sign up now.