It is apparent that there is one adult homo sapien in this race and two hungry chihuahuas.

I’m not sure who prepped Van Hilleary, but having a cogent, effective response to anything was the exception, not the rule. Ed Bryant thinks he’s running against Harold Ford, Jr., not seeming to realize that he has a hurdle to jump in the meantime. Bob deflected and countered the other two’s attacks effectively, in my opinion. I want Bob to win – every regular reader knows that. I was certainly heartened by my candidate’s performance, and smiling on numerous occasions when Corker rebutted their attacks succinctly, effectively, and with humor.

The “thanks again for mentioning my name” line was fantastic. Corker made himself the positive focus of the debate, and it presented well.

UPDATE I’m watching the post-debate radio interviews, where each candidate was interviewed in succession. Ed and Bob were fine. Now Van is on, and he looks, well – he looks mad. He wasn’t comfortable with the immigration inspector vote coming up again on the radio. Quotes for the ages

“Bob’s whole strategy is to say he’s more Tennessee, or whatever”

“This isn’t about who built Krystal drive-thrus”

It shockingly appears that Van Hilleary is comparing himself to Ronald Reagan (no wait, he offered a disclaimer).

FURTHER UPDATE There was clearly a difference in assessment between those who were present for the debate, and those who watched the video stream. A lot of the background was lost in the transmission. From my kitchen table, Corker did well. Then again, those who were present and /or supporting Van or Ed had a different take.

At this point, perhaps because I’ve heard their attacks ad nauseum, every attack on Corker, no matter how seemingly legitimate at one time, appears to be an act of desperation. Both Ed and Van have been negative so long that they are beyond the saturation point. Instead, they come off as just not liking Corker.

If you’re going to go negative, as intensely and as early as Van-Ed did, you need to land some knockout blows. No such blows have been landed. Despite all these attacks, Corker’s poll numbers remain high.  After awhile, ineffective attacks morph into a cacophony of political pettiness, not effective criticism.

I have looked askew at the various political puff pieces by Harold Ford, Jr. and his supporters, implicitly promising he would single-handedly reinstate gasoline prices to somewhere near 77 cents a gallon (that’s 85 cents if you don’t get your gas from Raceway). How he intends to do this is still a mystery. The bigger mystery is how it’s the Republicans’ fault that gas and energy prices are high in the first place.

It’s Republicans who wanted to drill in ANWR (first under Ronald Reagan, then the 104th Congress, before Bill Clinton vetoed the bill).

It’s a Republican president who want to expand exploration and drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

It’s a Republicans president who supports our present foreign engagements so as to not endanger the world’s first and primary source of fossil fuels.

It’s a Republican president who is supportive of the expansion of nuclear energy.

It’s okay to say you’re for these things, too, but to cavort around the state acting as if you are the sole fix-it candidate for our energy concerns is too much to swallow. The Democratic Party is the party beholden to the extremist environmental groups that have stopped any expansion of exploration for domestic reserves. Ford ought to get off his high horse about the subject before he falls off.

UPDATE An addenda – it’s worth noting that 1/3 of American oil consumption is non-transportation. All sources of energy that can act as substitutes, whether it be natural gas, nuclear power, or coal (also a Republican supported source), reduce the demand for oil, and the price at the pump.

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Israeli fighters have flown sorties over the home of the Syrian president.

I would advise Bashar Assad it’s not a good idea to harbor Hamas leaders intent on pushing the Land of Abraham into the sea.

This is what I don’t get. The world thrashes Israel on a routine basis. The Arab world and the intellectual elite in the musky corners of Europe are nearly indistinguishable. The truth is that Israel could do a lot more than what they have. The Israeli restraint since their post-war founding is, quite frankly, admirable.

Syria should take notice.

At least on my side of things, things will be spotty until afternoon.

I haven’t begged much in the last week – so if you will, kindly click on the ads to your direct right. And fill up that Paypal tipjar if the mood strikes you!

The Gaza attack has begun. More here and here.

Good luck finding it on an American news station. Geeze.

At this website, there are three “sample” emails from some of the other supporters of candidates in the 23rd State Senate District 23 race (obviously, there’s nothing regarding Chip, who is still running tv and radio ads at a rate of 3 to 1 over the nearest competitor. The latest ad is running at the top of his website here).

Being so connected, I guess TeamGOP knows that there are increasingly credible rumors that Tom Neill has broad support in the still-present Franklin Democratic establishment. This was especially noted during a recent fundraiser, where a Republican attendee actually wondered whether he was in the right place.

This is the kind of thing that typically gets you branded a “phony”, or something to that effect, from this particular Tennessee activist group. I guess not this time.

The 23rd race is to be decided solely by the Republican Primary in August. I can understand why the shrinking number of Democrats in Williamson County would pick a Republican horse to get behind. However, why any of the six Republicans candidates would be courting Democratic support is puzzling.

UPDATE For what it’s worth, of the three candidates pictured at the link above, only one was actually present for the unproven allegations responded to on Monday.

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The New York Times (on the heels of last week’s piece in USA Today), had an article yesterday on the development of Nashville, specifically the new construction downtown

While giving Mr. Giarratana credit, people involved in development say the change in attitude toward downtown living also reflects corporate relocations. There have been nine in less than three years, most recently Nissan North America, which will complete its move from the Los Angeles area next month.

“So many people have relocated from other areas and they expect an urban environment,” said Thomas D. Turner, executive director of the Nashville Downtown Partnership, a nonprofit development agency.

As a result, Mr. Turner said 1,600 units had been built in the greater downtown area, 994 are under construction, 517 are taking reservations, and 1,200 more have been announced. By 2009, there will be a projected 4,200 new units added to the market, including the Gulch, an entirely new neighborhood.

Very cool. It’s nice to be noticed.

Thanks to the delightfully named William Williams of the City Paper for the heads-up.

Why is he riding Bob Corker about his tax returns like he’s got a burr in a very uncomfortable place?

Van thinks he’s making a larger point about “sleight of hand” – you’ve got to be kidding.

UPDATE Yes, that was my email read on air.

American Idol finalists were Southern for a reason

Text-savvy Southerners may help explain why all five “ American Idol” winners hail from south of the Mason Dixon line, according to figures from The NPD Group, reports RCRNews…. “Cingular has partnered with the show’s producers to provide text-message voting solely from Cingular phones, so it’s certainly possible that Southern subscribers might have more a voting edge than those in other regions in the U.S.,” said Drew Hull, wireless industry research director for NPD. “Had ‘American Idol’ partnered with another carrier with a higher percentage of their subscriber base in another region, the results might have been different.”

Anything’s better than that annoying Nextel walkie talkie.

Rex Hammock notes the brewing rivalry between the two cities (well, at least Atlantans see it as a rivalry)

Nashville vs Atlanta — the faux competition: murder by numbers dvdrip The mayor of Nashville just emailed me (and a few thousand others, no doubt) a link to this story in today’s USA Today that continues the meme regarding some imaginary competition going on among Nashville, Atlanta and Charlotte for “big fish” status in the Southeast. (Upon reading the story, I’m assuming Florida — except for Daytona Beach — isn’t actually in the Southeast.) I’d like to once more say that being another Atlanta — or Charlotte, for that matter — is the last thing Nashville wants to be. In fact, I’d like to encourage people to ignore all this anti-Atlanta hype being generated about what a wonderful place Nashville is. Really. Ignore the anti-Atlanta hype about Nashville’s new symphony center. It’s swell, but, hey, it’s no aquarium! And pay no attention to yesterday’s anti-Atlanta unveiling of the new headquarters for Nissan USA. It may be nice, but Atlanta has Six Flags. Also, don’t forget, they had the Olympics there once.

Yes, pay no attention.

UPDATE Newschannel 5 has a story on the topic as well

“There’s a buzz about Nashville for a number of reasons.” said TK Davis, design director at the Civic Design Center

He said Nashville has a lot going for it.

“Its quality of life really. When our city is evaluated as a creative city and an economic proposition, it really looks good,” he said. “When people come to visit, they’re very impressed.”

There’s already big changes in Nashville: the new symphony hall, a brand-new ball park and the Signature Tower, which will be the fourth tallest in the nation.

Downtown Nashville will not be the size of cities like Atlanta anytime soon, but city leaders don’t want that.

See, Atlanta – nothing to worry about. Then there’s the USA Today story

Atlanta has been buffeted lately by one dose of bad news after another: Its Ford and General Motors plants, along with two military bases, are closing. Delta Air Lines is struggling. BellSouth is being merged into San Antonio-based AT&T.

The news here in the longtime home of country music, meanwhile, has been all good. Nashville has landed eight corporate headquarters in the past 2½ years, says Janet Miller, who recruits businesses for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.

The city is reaping the kind of national accolades from magazines such as Kiplinger’s and Travel & Leisure that can make even die-hard Atlanta boosters tear out their hair: Hottest city for business. Smartest place to live. Even — horror of horrors to competitors in the genteel South — America’s friendliest city.

Huh. Okay, maybe Atlanta does have something to worry about. Their response

Atlanta’s chief booster scoffs at the notion that these rivals can dethrone his city.

Not unless they “go out there and put Hartsfield (-Jackson International Airport, the USA’s busiest) on wheels and roll it up the interstate,” says Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. “Our competition is not the Charlottes and Nashvilles. Our competition is Frankfurt and Singapore and Shanghai. … The Southeast is like a great big curved mirror. The focal point of that mirror is Atlanta.”

Atlanta’s tallest skyscraper, the Bank of America Plaza (1,023 feet), has been the South’s tallest building — and the tallest in the USA outside New York or Chicago — since its completion in 1992. Signature Tower would hit 1,047.

Easy there, killer. We don’t mean any harm. Or maybe we do

For now, Nashville is basking in its success. “Nashville and the middle Tennessee area are truly a city and a region that are on a roll,” says Michael Neal, president and CEO of the Nashville chamber. “We’ve added about a half-million new jobs since 1990. In 1990, our per capita income was 5% below the national average. Now, it’s about 8% above.”

City leaders say that Nashville, whose principal industries are automobile manufacturing, music, higher education, for-profit health care, publishing and tourism, is attractive because of its location, climate and diversity: The city has 11,000 Kurds, the largest population in the USA, and a large contingent of Iraqi nationals.

Its low property taxes help, too. There’s no state income tax and property taxes are 50% lower than in Memphis, Purcell says.

Forgetting that before Purcell took office property taxes used to be 25% that of Memphis, everything else is peachy. But Atlanta (and Charlotte, for that matter) may be jumping the collective gun in mounting a fortified defense. Nashville is growing and doing well, but we are still 30% of the size of metro Atlanta. Atlanta is still the southern hub, and that’s fine. Charlotte remains a banking center. No problem. It’s plain now though that Nashville (and Tennessee) is on the forefront of economic expansion. With another growing city on the map, the South, already the largest region in the country, can only benefit. The perception that the region is somehow backwards and lacking in progress has been cast to the wind. Denizens of all three ought to be pleased.

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We have competing lists in the Tennessee blogosphere as to what one ought to be required to have a working knowledge about if one is to be considered American. Aunt B posted her list, which was countered by Lee over at Digital Nicotine with an alternate list.

Looking at both lists, I have to say that I tend to agree more with Lee, whose list is more history centered than music focused (I would think not being familiar with N.W.A. would actually make you a better citizen). If we’re going to include music, we can at least have some dual-purpose items such as We Didn’t Start the Fire, which gives a 20th century history lesson in song form, or at the very least a reference list for later.

It’s also telling that Vietnam is listed in B’s list, at the expense apparently of any required knowledge of World War II or the Cold War. I must question the decision that the historical aberration trumps the historically established trend. Further, the preference for poets is a bit unnecessary. I think you can be a fine citizen if you weren’t terribly informed about a collection of socialists who possessed the ability to rhyme. Besides, how can Whitman and Thoreau make the list, but FDR and Reagan do not?

In fairness, Aunt B does note that the list is nonexhaustive. It’s just some people and events would come to my mind first, while others, like the poets and Madonna, would be somewhere in the 18th tier of required learning. Lee’s list is filled with stiffer stuff, though I would probably replace the Oregon Trail with something more substantial. And broaden some events, like Gettysburg and Normandy to the entire wars they were fought within.

I guess if I’m going to critique others’ lists I ought to have my own. Consider it a work in progress. And I’ll limit it to 25 just like Lee and B did.

UPDATE Aunt B has responded to my critique. The socialist poets are apparently very important to her, which I suppose is just fine. I can’t say I frame my belief in American exceptionalism around anything Whitman, Thoreau or Emerson ever said (she seems to think I lump Twain with the others – I don’t). To start, she actually sounds a lot like Ronald Reagan

Because, if you don’t understand that “America” is not just a place on a map, but a collection of hopes and dreams for how things might be better or different than they were back in the old country or under those other forms of government, that “American” is not an ethnic identity but an identity made out of a shared belief in a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, if you don’t understand that each of us has the right and the obligation to share in defining what America is and what it means to be an American, then you really don’t deserve to call yourself one.

And if you think that you have to be a lawyer or a politician to “earn” the right to dream about America and how it is and what it can be and to help implement that, then I feel bad for you.

I don’t think that anyone debates the first paragraph – I certainly don’t, though maps can be helpful from time to time. The second paragraph is puzzling. I’ve never heard anyone say anything remotely close to that anywhere, nor does that flow from anything I cited as more important. Then there’s this

But, I think that understanding the Cold War would be hand in hand with understanding Viet Nam, anyway. And how can you turn on your TV and see the news about Iraq and think that having an understanding of Viet Nam isn’t critical to understanding what it means to be an American?

Actually, the problem is there are too many people who think the Vietnam experience applies to everything, no matter how stretched the comparison. Iraq is like Vietnam like a kumquat resembles a cow. The dissimilarities far outweigh the similarities. I’ve quickly noted them before here.

Apparently there’s not much common ground to be had. The great capitalists of the 19th century were robber barons. World War II doesn’t count because others experienced it besides Americans, though my grandfather would have vehemently disagreed with that one (which if we’re logically consistent, ought to throw Vietnam out as well, since the French, Chinese, Cambodians, and – oh yeah – the Vietnamese, experienced it firsthand). Then there are misstatements such as this

And we’ve seen repeatedly that non-traditional wars don’t work–that you can’t fight ideologies or behaviors with the military (or the militarization of the police). And yet, we still have seen our War on Communism, the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty, the War on Terrorism, none of which have actually gotten rid of the ideology or behavior*, but instead just served to make Americans used to having the government monitor every aspect of their lives.

Actually, one can certainly fight wars against “ideologies or behaviors” – it’s been done a ton. You can’t fight for social policy, but that’s not what war is for, and no one who is serious considers the fight against drugs and poverty to remotely be a “war”. On the contrary, the war on communism has gone on for some time through a variety of chapters, freeing hundreds of millions. Only three countries are left who openly embrace the sad ideology, and one (China) is slowly expanding freedoms. Unmentioned in her response was a war on two other ideologies called National Socialism and Shintoism, which went by the wayside through unmitigated warfare (nevermind it though, as winning World War II wasn’t truly an American experience). The War on Terror (admittedly poorly named, as we are truly fighting militant Islam) has just begun, and significant progress has been made on a variety of fronts.
The wars on drugs and poverty have been sorely ineffectual because they aren’t really wars. And to close, as I need to get this appellate brief done tonight

From where else but from Whitman and Thoreau, I ask you Mr. Moore, do you think you inherited this idea that you, an ordinary American just like anyone else, had something to say that was worth being said?

Gee, I don’t know. Perhaps Tocqueville’s description of America? Or maybe Harriet Beacher Stowe? Thomas Paine? There are a lot of other places. Whitman, et al are fine for what they were. The saviors of free expression they ain’t.

I guess I need to get my list of 25 together for real now.

UPDATE UPDATE Roger Abramson weighs in on the list affair.

Roger Abramson thoroughly exposes one – and he gets paid, which is the real travesty.

My favorite is still Dwight Lewis

download FACT Australia 2 (A Global tour) – CD1 album by Carl Cox (and don’t forget the masterpiece here

and here , either).