Just days after AC Kleinheider is downsized at Channel 2, he signs on with NashvillePost.com

Adam “A.C.” Kleinheider, who until recently ran the respected VolunteerVoters.com site for WKRN-TV News 2, will on Monday join NashvillePost.com to augment the site’s breaking news coverage with a political blog.

Kleinheider ran VolunteerVoters.com for almost two years, amassing a loyal readership of local business and political leaders with his aggregation of and commentary on political blogs from all corners of Tennessee.

Kleinheider’s work will supplement the political reporting of NashvillePost.com veteran Ken Whitehouse, who among other stories recently broke the news that John Wilder will retire.

That was nice and quick.

His return to blogging is a welcome one.

I love Roger Abramson’s perspective and the sarcastic wit with which (those three words look weird next to each other) he shares his views.  He is currently guest blogging at Bob Krumm’s site, and has a great post on Rob Huddleston’s decisive action that is certain to push Fred Thompson into the presidential race.

I’ll admit it: I was skeptical as to whether Fred Thompson would run for president. But now I’m convinced. I’ll bet he is too. After all, none other than Rob Huddleston has told him to. I mean, that’s like getting a mandate from God.

Here it is: “I freely admit it - I have sent a message through backchannels to my former boss (Thompson) encouraging his entry into this race.”

Wow. That’s our Rob, a real “kingmaker.” Since I am not the “insider” Rob is, I am left only to imagine the conversation that took place:

Check out the imaginary conversation here.  It’s great stuff!

Thanks to some recently acquired emails from the governor’s office, we learn that officials in state government do read at least one blog - Bill Hobbs.

From our favorite local band

This whack job, with the toilet seat around his neck, defines feminism as the bullying and brow-beating of poor defenseless and vulnerable men like the whack job, himself.

If feminism causes gayness, then obviously we need lots more feminism.

Huh. Call me a glass half empty kind of guy, but I see a prospective problem here. Ever heard of the Shakers?

Another new blog has bloomed from the blogospherically fruitful plains of Tennessee. Dixie Thoughts (no relation to MooreThoughts) takes on AC Kleinheider’s review of The Path to 9/11

Several things confuse me about Kleinheider. One, he often seems to be writing out of necessity, as though something must be said about everything. This leads to the obvious question of whether he’s paid to blog and if so, whether he has a quota of sorts to meet or whether any sort of activity on the blog is job security, of sorts. There’s nothing wrong with being paid to blog, but if you’re paid by a media outlet to blog, it might be that your reporting is influenced by your patron.

Secondly, for a conservative, Kleinheider seems particularly relativistic, as though personal responsibility is gratuitous and it’s okay to brush aside the need to understand the cause of these events. It bears closer scrutiny.

What say you, ACK?

We have a new conservative blog in our midsts, the State of Franklin. It just got started, but be sure to bookmark it and check it out.

My favorite blogospheric 2nd Amendment advocate is celebrating his Blog Birthday this week. Go check him out, and join the party.

Ben sent out the notice on the weekend he was launching his own blog. You can find it here. And as a community service, Ben provides an address to send extra money to the federal government if you feel “undertaxed” (so naturally now, liberals can put their wallets where their collective mouth is).

Ben is a good man, who has fought to keep the tax burden low in Tennessee, in Nashville, and around the state. He’s going to have good things to say.

Music City Oracle gives no quarter to The Tennessean and it’s shabby coverage of an event of national importance

With the National Conference of State Legislatures holding its annual meeting in Nashville, one might expect that the local paper of record would provide extensive coverage, particularly with regard to issues discussed at the conference that have relevance to the state of Tennessee.

One might expect. One might be disappointed.

In fact, The Tennessean provided no coverage of a two hour session yesterday entitled “Critical Health Topics: Lessons from Tennessee.” The session, moderated by state representative David Shepard, featured presentations by state Safety Net Director Susan Cooper, DMA Health Strategies President Dr. Richard Daugherty, and XL Health Tennessee CMO Dr. David Hollis.

However, the paper did find time and space to talk about the name of Arizona legislator Jake Flake and to explain why attendees won’t get goodie bags.

That The Tennessean would be prone to do a story with the word “flake” in it fairly sums up their ability to do what the rest of us may consider “real world” coverage.

Roger Abramson mentions the tete a tete discussion between Robert Wright and Mickey Kaus. I read Wright’s book Nonzero in an economics related class a few years ago, and found it well written and thought for the most part the emphasis on memes was very well developed.

The link I noted above is actually an interesting discussion. I watched it for a couple of minutes, but have found it much easier to listen to.

Rob Huddleston, who I’ve been unreasonably hard on as of late, notes a coming confession.

Blog teasers are so much fun!

Michelle Malkin discusses the “Reuterization of war journalism” over at her place. Doctored pictures and facts that aren’t do not seem to be the sole bastard child of the Reuters “news” service.

There’s nothing like sloppy misinformation to atrophy and sabotage otherwise good causes. Hizbullah is a genocidal organization proxying for a genocidal regime, and our supposedly trustworthy news services are letting powerful images that are as real as Roger Rabbit infiltrate the telling of the story and falsely frame the context of the facts.

At least with the Soviets we knew they were lying.

The new version of the Red State super blog is back up. It’s worth checking out.

I am happy to announce the founding and grand opening of Blogging for Corker. Myself, Truman Bean of Conservatives for Corker, and one individual working under the clever pseudonym Ray M. Fockeray, will be contributors, with others potentially added in the coming days.

So, go check it out. It’s nothing but good stuff. This side of MooreThoughts will continue as before, with an occasional double post on both sites. Enjoy!

I have been roundly criticized for noting that Chip Throckmorton was the only candidate in the State Senate 23 race who attended the illegal immigration forum in Franklin last Thursday. Various bloggers have noted my past opinions on illegal immigration, and apparently think me something akin to an immigration “sell out” for that blog post (just scroll down a bit).

Somehow, this makes me less of an upstanding individual, as if I’ve been anything but obvious about everything I do. As ACK at Volunteer Voters puts it

If you’ve seen Chip’s latest commercial you know how hardcore he is on this issue. The thing is Nathan Moore never has been as Sean Braisted clearly points out. He, and his wife, have been stridently pro-immigration on their blog. They are securely to the left of the Party’s grassroots on this issue.

This is the hallmark of the shill blog. Highlighting and promoting issues and tactics in which you don’t believe to benefit your candidate.

MooreThoughts needs to change its name to Blogging for Throckmorton.

And we’re still pro-immigration. Pointing out that a candidate I support went to a town hall forum meeting concerning the #1 issue of the day isn’t “shilling”. The news is not that the forum occurred, but that no other candidates went to it.

You can support a candidate, and his actions, and his stances on issues, and not fully agree to the Nth degree. At no point have Sarah or I ever been in favor of completely opening the immigration floodgates - immigration needs to be legal. The difference lies in the best course to the same end.

I also think it’s a tad overblown (and simplistic, really) to decide that all we talk about at MooreThoughts is Chip Throckmorton’s candidacy for state senate. Yeah, we both support Chip, and want him to win. But gee - scroll down. Last week you could have said we were “Blogging for Israel”, or last year called us out for “Blogging for New Orleans”. I write in support of candidates I want to see win and issues I find interesting. Most blogs either done one or the other, but not both.

While we’re here, though, I need to address some of the undercurrents to this criticism. It is quite easy, really, to sit on the sidelines and attack all candidates for what they do and don’t do, and every step they make or don’t make. It is quite another to support a candidate for office and to write and act on his behalf. I blog for Chip. I blog for Bob Corker. I will be blogging for Bob Krumm after Thursday. In short, I blog for people who can enact the policies I would like to see in place. With none of these individuals do I see completely eye-to-eye on everything. But policy changes don’t occur without electoral success. Policy changes are made by getting individuals elected to office. Nothing you want will ever happen if you don’t select candidacies to support, and support them. Whether blogospheric or brick-and-mortar fanatical, ideological purity is the enemy of good government.

So there - that’s why I wrote that post. I’ve been accused of “shilling” and survived. I am supporting candidates I don’t fully agree with on all issues, God help me. And somehow, I certainly still believe myself fit to continue to comment on the day’s events and the impending elections. Go figure.

Anonymous comments haven’t been a problem on our blog. I guess we at least irritate people enough they feel compelled to stand astride history and yell out their name and position if nothing else. However, I’ve noticed a lot of it, on a lot of other blogs. And I’m not a fan. It’s one thing to consistently work under a pseudonym and to build a body of work - it’s quite another to have no name, or a myriad names, and spout off one-trick cheap shots and unsubstantiated information wherever one pleases. I mean, for the most part, all bloggers know which names belong to which IP address anyway. If this is your MO, you might as well stick with the same name. It’s political hackery of the weakest sort.

For what it’s worth, I seriously doubt that any of that anonymous stuff works anyway. I just find it obnoxious - a visibly distasteful boil on the open exchange of ideas.

The new courthouse has conference rooms all over the place. And hi-speed Internet jacks in them. Why there is no open Wi-Fi signal, or at least an encrypted one where officers of the court could access it, is mind boggling.

So, anyway. I’m waiting, as often happens in criminal court on Thursdays in Davidson County, and can sit here and be productive - you know, productive, as in blogging about the ability to blog where I’m at.

Ain’t life grand!

Adam Groves rounds up the myriad endorsements running around the Tennessee political and blogospheric scene.

I don’t guess I technically “endorse”, because quite frankly, I’m honored enough that anyone comes here to MooreThoughts.com to actually see what I think (or at least under that pretext, but truly directing their respective browser to our humble domain to actually read what my talented wife is writing). Who I support, from the US Senate down to school board, ought to be rather clear from my posts.

So, no formal endorsements here. No candidate questionnaires. Just unmitigated advocacy.