Weekly Best of TN Blogs (Late Edition!)

Here's the (late) edition of the weekly best of Tennessee blogs via TennViews. I was especially honored to have my weekly movie feature Camera Obscura honored with some linkage. And a big woot! for Cormac McCarthy and the Coens.

• 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera: McCain: the Aftermath: The straight talk express hits a speed bump. Plus, the buzz on the Wisconsin and Hawaii primaries.

• 55-40 Memphis: Clinton supporters are "the Rottweilers of politics." Plus: MO-bama!

• Ablogination: Hang it up, Hillary: Why Clinton should exit gracefully.

• Andy Axel (at KnoxViews): Home-Grown Terrorists Face Federal Charges: Charges pending in mosque firebombing, and how you donate to help rebuild it. Plus: McCain feels for the family.

• Aunt B.: Is helping take care of her dad and reminiscing.

• BlountViews: Liveblogging the TDOT Pellissippi Parkway Extension hearing, and commentary. Also, The Blount County Children's Home is at risk because of politics and development, and new immigration laws are working to create an invisible fence.

• Carole Borges (a new addition to the blogroll and roundup): According to the League of Conservation Voters John McCain has earned himself a big fat zero. Also, the "poverty draft."

• The Crone Speaks: Slave Labor: Moving Down the Economic Ladder: Growing poverty is creating a "slave labor" class. Plus: Some compelling reasons to vote for Hillary, and Bush's support of Musharraf.

• Cup of Joe Powell: Are Connected Tennessee backers a front for AT&T? Plus, the immigration situation in Hamblen County prompts Rep. David Davis (R, TN-1) to call for Homeland Security intervention. Also, check out this week's Oscar edition of Joe Powell's weekly Camera Obscura series on films and film making.

• Don Williams: An open letter to Hillary’s most ardent Obama bashers: Obama supporters have the high moral ground.

• The Donkey's Mouth: Conservation Voters give high marks to Tennessee Congressional Dems, plus TNGOP's Bill Hobbs says one thing on blogs and another in official press releases. Plus: The nominee must answer to TNGOP Chairwoman Robin Smith.

• Enclave: Questioning Bill O'Reilly's lynching remarks, the Darwinian tone of reporting on Nashville's homeless, and an unnoticed story about the Texas debate.

• Fletch: Gullscapes, Storms on the Horizon, A Dream and the Wind.

• KnoxViews: Campfield reports House wasting valuable time!, lively Texas debate discussion, and a convenience voting project in East Tennessee.

• Lean Left: Kevin: Mixing the Races is a Communist Plot!, KTK: Feeling Michele Obama's frustration, and Tgirsch: Chris Matthew's job is not journalism, it's to stir up...

• Left of the Dial: "I’m glad Bruce Pearl isn’t a cult leader because otherwise I might be selling all my worldly possessions right now."

• Left Wing Cracker: LWC goes to 11 in naming his ten favorite blogs and why.

• Liberadio: Bold general election predictions, Obama robbed in New York, and the year of the underdog in which Democrats growl.

• Loose TN Canon: Wisconsin primary says GAME OVER for Republicans.

• NewsComa: It's not about the sex, it's about the political favors. Plus, blogs are changing the rules.

• Pesky Fly: Nikki Tinker surrogate attacks against Cohen are the moral equivalent of receiving stolen goods, and more on the "are bloggers journalists" question. Plus: How to protest.

• Progressive Nashville: Life after Castro won't begin just yet, psychology of the candidates, and NYT dropped the ball.

• Resonance: Revealing campaign website traffic. Plus, an Obama/Bloomberg insurgency?

• RoaneViews: Thoughts on The Game. Plus: Eclipse of Sanity?

• Russ McBee: Serbian punk nationalists on the rampage, plus some interesting numbers.

• Sean Braisted: It doesn't look like Clinton intends to salvage her dignity. Plus: [R.] Neal over at Knox Views seems perplexed as to why Hillary couldn't "bring on the wonk to expose Obama's lack of depth on policy." This is a fascinating quote to me, because I think it sums up the arrogance of the Clinton camp really well. [..] Hillary is banking on the uneducated white vote to boost her campaign.

• Sharon Cobb: Karl Rove trolling in Alabama, Obama wins the debate, and Clinton and McCain are trying to "boil the hope" out of you.

• Silence Isn't Golden: Some working people are more important to Clinton than others, memo to Hobbs: Better Uses For $8 Million , on O'Reilly's racist remarks silence is complicity, plus Act Now To Save RIF!. Oh, I almost forgot. GoldnI exclusive: Tuke in!

• Southern Beale: It seems John McCain’s "straight talk" is as crooked as a dog’s hind leg. Plus, a bright future for solar energy.

• Tennessee Guerilla Women: Clinton: Shame on you Barack Obama, Hillary's accomplishments, and Women Have Seen this Movie, We Know the Drill

• TennViews: Pam Strickland is looking for leads for a project on how "health care and legal issues contribute to the cumulative problems of poor children, particularly children of color." Plus: Student voter registration: Yes you can, and, Clinton at the State of the Black Union, and Brian's Memphis showdown preview, with a rundown of what Tennessee had to do, which they did.

• Vibinc: Crunches the delegate numbers and comes to some interesting conclusions.

• Whites Creek Journal: Whites Creek Steve's impressive Great Backyard Bird Count list, plus more commentary on the bill to require DNA testing of fathers listed on Tennessee birth certificates.

• Women's Health News: Rachel critiques CNN's Tips for Savvy Medical Web Surfing with some valuable tips of her own, plus more on DNA testing for birth certificates.

Connected TN Backers A Front for AT&T? (Part 2)

I have a couple of updates to add on my post from last week regarding the creation of state and national programs focusing on expanding internet access which also seems to work not only as a PR machine for AT&T but as a lobbying agency as well. A flurry of activity has been taking place and rapid changes are ahead.

Here is my original post, and I did share some of these concerns via email with Michael Ramage, a former BellSouth employee, who now heads Connected Tennessee. I truly appreciate his willingness to correspond with me about these issues.

My email to Mr. Ramage:

Michael -

Thanks very much for your email. My previous email apparently had the wrong address! So a few questions:

First, in Kentucky, your company backed House Bill 337 allowed the Bell companies to get into the pay television marketplace in Kentucky without having to obtain franchises from municipalities across the state.

Similar legislation is being promoted in TN as well. It seems curious to me the legislation is preceded by the creation of the Connected organization.

The usual build-out requirements which cities/counties require of current cable and cable internet providers is excluded from such legislation. I think the term usually used is “cherry-picking” customers, which means more poor and rural areas will receive service last, if at all.

By receiving government funds to operate, it’s as if some of those funds are being used to lobby for changes favoring AT&T expansion into the internet/cable markets.

Also, Connect Kentucky CEO Brian Mefford, before the Senate Commerce Committee on April 24, 2007, reported that Kentucky is on track “to be the first state with 100 percent broadband coverage,” with Leichtman Research Group data showing that, at the beginning of 2007, Kentucky was 46th of the 51 states and Washington, D.C., in residential broadband penetration.

The mapping project being public is important, certainly, and making it available to the public is also vital. But how often is such mapping used to encourage legislation which would provide tax breaks?

Mostly my concerns are that former BellSouth employees are leading the Connect efforts - in Kentucky, in Tennessee and at the national level too - and that encouraging support for legislation creating a national program are simply part of the lobbying efforts to change laws regarding existing franchise agreements.

If the TN legislature seeks info today regarding broadband availability and reach, a report from a government-funded organization such as yours would support AT&T's efforts would they not?

Are any current cable-internet representatives on the boards of the Connect organizations? Or representatives from municipal-owned franchises?

Thanks for your time and I appreciate very much your responses.
Joe Powell

Mr. Ramage's response:

Joe,

I appreciate the email. I am glad to have the opportunity to help clarify Connected Tennessee's purpose and role.

Connected Tennessee received a grant to implement Governor Bredesen's Trail to Innovation based on the recommendations of the State Broadband Taskforce. The Taskforce had representation from state government, telephone, wireless, cable, municipals, cellular, CLEC and more. The pending bills were not issues that weighed on the taskforce during their recommendations that led to the creation of Tennessee. Later, the taskforce determined they would not get involved with the video franchise issue.

Connected Tennessee has not and will not take a side on the issues you mentioned in Tennessee. It is important for us to work with all providers. Our goal is to expand the presence of broadband. That service may come from a telephone company, a cable company, a wireless ISP, a CLEC or a
municipal provider. We are technology and vendor agnostic. Our only goals are for the expansion of broadband services into unserved areas and the increased adoption of those services everywhere. In order for us to be successful, we will need the help of all providers.

Connected Tennessee has worked with all types of providers and will continue to do so. The purpose of our mapping efforts is to show where coverage is, but more importantly to show where gaps are. While the mapping is on-going, we are also leading grassroots demand creating and aggregating efforts in every county. We are already at work in more than a third of Tennessee counties. Based on our local findings, we can promote measures to encourage build out into rural areas. Our legislative recommendations would naturally be focused on helping extend broadband into unserved areas. We are not promoting any bills during this year's session. We will examine all available data and determine if anything should be promoted in next year's session.

Connected Nation and Connected Tennessee have partnered with a number of organizations. Among them are Comcast, National Cable Telecommunications Association, Communications Workers of America, AT&T, and the CTIA. Our partners, both at the state level and national level, cross various platforms and technologies. For us to be successful, it is important for us to remain neutral to any provider or platform.

I hope that this helps to address some of your concern. I do appreciate your interest and would encourage you to let me know if you have any questions regarding our efforts.

Regards,
Michael Ramage, Executive Director
Connected Tennessee

I can't say he answers eliminated my concerns and doubts. For instance, I asked about representatives on the existing Connected boards from other internet providers, and Mr. Ramage replies that Connected has "partnered" with other communications companies, but the response is really "No - they are not our boards".

Info on board members for national program here, the TN program here, and KY is here. Other than BellSouth and officials from the policy and government offices in KY, no other communications corporation appears to be placed in any position on the company's boards.

I admit I am hardly an expert in the fields of IT or ISP - I simply noticed some curious correlations. And yes, I was not happy to appear to be hostile to the spread of access to the internet, because I am not. And I am not the only one who sees problems with Connected.

Broadband Reports wrote last week:

"If Connected Nation is a for-profit incumbent lobbying and sales vehicle dressed up as a national broadband policy, it would be one of the most ingenious business ploys in the history of telecom. It would kill multiple birds with with stone by preventing more progressive and substantive policy changes from taking root, funneling state funds away from local providers and into the hands of incumbents, and allowing the nation's largest carriers to game penetration statistics to mask half-hearted rural broadband deployment.

All on the taxpayer's dime."

And a press release yesterday regarding the state of TN and AT&T about medical records got some attention - but as the Nashville Post noted, what was truly being reported was an ever-closer relationship between AT&T and Tennessee government. And recall what Ramage wrote in my email regarding legislation? "Not this year ..." which leaves plenty of room for the years after.

R. Neal wrote at KnoxViews yesterday on the announcement:

"So it is good to see Tennessee taking the initiative. But this deal looks more like a way to funnel federal grant money to AT&T than any kind of breakthrough statewide electronic medical records system. It also takes more money out of our health care system in the form of profits for AT&T. But, the state can't operate it's own internet, so it makes sense to outsource that and to negotiate the best deal. Were other backbone providers invited to bid?"

I too applaud and encourage efforts to expand access. It is vital for economic and cultural development, for tech and industry, for education, for medical care -- billions of dollars are at stake and so are millions of jobs. With so much at at stake, then even greater care must be taken as the state and the nation write laws and create programs. The decisions and consideration being made today will affect the state and the nation for decades to come.

The rapid rise of internet usage has been made thanks to many innovators from all types of creators and owners - corporate, government and also from those outside such ranks too. The internet is a challenge to traditional forms of media power. Including voices in these decisions from all of these levels of development - from ordinary and talented American minds - isn't just a nice gesture.

3 Reasons

Briefly, here are three reasons the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan matter and why the support for such efforts overseas and the Bush presidency continues to disappear.

-- Inside the world of war profiteers:
"Inside the stout federal courthouse of this Mississippi River town, the dirty secrets of Iraq war profiteering keep pouring out.

Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war's largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand.

The graft continued well beyond the 2004 congressional hearings that first called attention to it. And the massive fraud endangered the health of American soldiers even as it lined contractors' pockets, records show."

Taxi To The Dark Side:



No End In Sight:

Camera Obscura - Oscar Weekend; Return of Akira and Repo Man

I read an article recently where some film critic was bemoaning the hideous-ugly depressing nature of movies nominated this year for an Oscar award. As if, for instance, last year's winner "The Departed" was a slapstick comedy of errors. Which, okay, it sort of was.

Best-picture Oscars seldom if ever go to light-hearted fare. Praise for Art from a Business point of view is going to take itself Seriously. So it goes. I usually find the show itself interesting from various technical perspectives - the staging, the lighting, the attempt to make a somewhat dull awards ceremony into a visual event.

I do hope to see the Coen brothers take home many prizes for "No Country For Old Men". Since their first film, "Blood Simple" and onward they have created an impressive body of work as director and writers. Their scripts are truly astonishing prose on their own and their visual style seldom over-indulges so the viewer says "ahhhh, nice" - instead there is a tremendous subtle and understated brilliance. It's part of the reason their films are so easy to watch again and again.

Plus, the source for their film is Cormac McCarthy's novel, and McCarthy is far overdue for recognition as one of the best living American authors.

There is a madness to movie-making. You have to be a little crazy to leap into the ill-suited collision of Art and Business. And yet anyone armed with a camera and some creativity can make a movie. That's pretty much the storyline in the new movie opening this weekend from Michel Gondry, "Be Kind, Rewind". After accidentally destroying their stock of movies for rent, the guys who run the store start remaking every movie they can and offer those for rent instead.

Gondry's odd visual and verbal style, such as "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", is deeply self-referential. He makes movies about how we as individuals create a narrative, a movie, of our own lives.

That's why it doesn't matter what film wins an award - we have our own favorites, movies we made into Best Pictures, because for some reason we connect to them and they become expressions of ourselves.

OTHER MOVIE NEWS

First, a big shout out and thanks to Newscoma who pointed out a great movie blog, Cinebeats. It is ultra-groovy as it digs thru stacks and stacks of seldom-seen classic movies from the '60s and '70s. Their 4-part list of the Best DVD releases of 2007 is an excellent guide to must-have movies.

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After 20 years of cult fame, the Japanese anime classic "Akira" will turn into a live-action film, produced by and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. He'll play the role of Kaneda and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt gets the juicy role of Tetsuo. The sci-fi storyline has elements ranging from "Rebel Without A Cause" to "Carrie" and much more.

The anime movie is forever entrenched as a groundbreaking and jaw-dropping animated film, which has had a huge influence on American films since it's release. If you have never seen it, you have missed one of the most impressive pictures of the last 40 years. So see it.

Now I don't think making it live-action will improve it one bit. Some stronger acting, yes, but there is no way the original could ever be topped.

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"World War Z", an "oral history of the zombie war" is getting a script from J. Michael Straczynski and is being produced by Brad Pitt's film company. The Max Brooks novel of a zombie apocalypse (noting worse than that!) is sort of like what would happen if Ken Burns did a documentary take on a George Romero-style war. Wonder if the movie will have that sad fiddle music?

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More proof of my geeky, nerdy love of odd films - I was happy to read that the great '80s punkish sic-fi movie "Repo Man" is getting a sequel. Director/writer Alex Cox, however, has made the sequel as a graphic novel (that's fancy talk for big ol' comic book).

Our hero Otto, who disappeared with the aliens at the end of the movie, now uses the name of Waldo and returns to Earth after spending some ten years on Mars.

The title to look for: "Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday".

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Good-bye and fond farewell to the Gill-Man.

Ben Chapman, who was the man in the monster suit in "The Creature From The Black Lagoon" died yesterday. I'll never forget when my family went to Florida one summer and we stopped at a place called Silver Springs. Once our guide told us this was the location for the Black Lagoon movie I was totally terrified and happy all at once. I could see and understand just how a camera angle and a good location can make movie magic.

Godspeed to the Gill-Man.

Defeating Outrage-Fatigue

You say you can't believe it? That it's time to take to the internets and pour out your blog-a-licious timely and vital response to the issue which has become the Talk of the Day?

Writing about "that darn so-and-so" will mark you as a leftover from the 1950s - and unless you're writing a retro-blog, it lacks the cutting edge of today's now-a-modern-go-go girl and guy.

So how to say it, since there is so much outrage today (on any topic) that a newish syndrome had to be invented "outrage-fatigue"? (Some symptoms of it here.)

I'm happy to help, providing a Punditry Lexicon so that you can properly and captivatingly provide the right word to express your displeasure with the issue/person/social ill of your choice.

Forget saying "Outrage" - just look at the many variations offered:

abuse, affront, atrocity, barbarism, damage, desecration, enormity, evildoing, harm, hurt, indignity, inhumanity, injury, insult, mischief, misdoing, offense, profanation, rape, rapine, ravishing, ruin, shock*, violation, violence, wrongdoing

blowup, boiling point, cat fit, conniption, conniption fit, flare-up*, fury, huff*, hurt, indignation, mad, resentment, ruckus*, shock*, stew*, storm*, wrath

aggrieve, boil over*, burn up*, defile, deflower, desecrate, fire up*, force, ill-treat, incense, infuriate, injure, insult, jar*, madden, maltreat, mistreat, misuse, oppress, persecute, raise cain, raise hell, rape, ravage, ravish, scandalize, shock*, spoil, violate, whip up*, wrong

acrimony, animosity, annoyance, antagonism, blood of a bitch, blow up*, cat fit*, chagrin, choler, conniption, dander*, disapprobation, displeasure, distemper, enmity, exasperation, fury, gall, hatred, huff, ill humor, ill temper, impatience, indignation, infuriation, irascibility, ire, irritability, irritation, mad, miff, outrage, passion, peevishness, pet, petulance, pique, rage, rankling, resentment, slow burn*, sore, stew, storm, tantrum, temper, tiff, umbrage, vexation

abomination, antisocial behavior, atrocity, breach, break, caper, case, corruption, criminality, delict, delictum, delinquency, depravity, dereliction, enormity, evil, evil behavior, fault, felony, hit, illegality, immorality, infraction, infringement, iniquity, job, lawlessness, malefaction, malfeasance, misconduct, misdeed, misdemeanor, mortal sin, quickie, racket, scandal, sneak, tort, transgression, trespass, unlawful act, vice, villainy, violation, wickedness, wrong, wrongdoing

But wait! There's more! If none of the above seems to emote your particular irritation, there are six - count them!! - six pages of replacement words available to you via Thesaurus.com.

Me, I think my new favorite is "Malefaction" - sounds like a good biblical-style of outrage.

Law Would Demand Mandatory DNA Testing and Other Fun Current Events

Rachel points out another proposed Tennessee law which has massive implications for all:

"Under a bill sponsored in the Senate by Tate (SB3717) and in the House by Hardaway (HB2964), a genetic test will be required to confirm paternity in order for the father to be listed on the birth certificate, regardless of the relationship between the parents. So, happily married and faithful husbands and wives, you’re suspect until proven otherwise by a state-ordered DNA test, regardless of whether you ever have a legal need to confirm suspect paternity. Single mothers? Well, it’s just assumed that you’re liars and out to cheat some man at such a rate that state-mandated DNA testing is warranted. [How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?]

I understand that this legislation is likely proposed in order to prevent men who are not truly the biological father from being liable for child support. However, I don’t understand why paternity tests couldn’t be required at the time of a paternity or child support dispute, rather than requiring the test for everyone. Why can’t my husband freely and voluntarily assert paternity, and leave mandatory DNA testing for the situation in which it is necessary to have confirmed, accurate information for legal proceedings? Birth certificates can already be amended via a court order if the wrong biological father was previously listed.
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I have some advice for state news-writers. Just prep the headline reading "Rep. Campfield's Proposed Bill Dies In Committee". Could just save some time.

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The Florida public school system which has decided it is acceptable to teach Science in Science classes, as long as they say the phrase "theory of evolution".

Yeah, theory (which does not mean a "wild guess") is a fairly important in Science. Here's the Top 10 Myths many believe about Evolution.

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Not sure if it's related, but a church in Florida is urging its married members to have sex every day for 30 days. Single folk, however, are to be excluded from the ... ah, the ... um ... drive.

Some In Lynchburg Spread Lies About Obama

I don't know what's wrong with saying of a particular candidate for public office "I just don't like them" and then moving on.

Instead, armed with every mass-emailed lie about Barack Obama, these church folk in Lynchburg have at him and call instead for an American theocracy. After all, as one gal says, "It says In God We Trust on our money!!" (via Rocketboom)



At least the videographer received a fine looking lunch.

Connected Tennessee Backers A Front for AT&T?

A recent examination of a program to expand internet access, which began in Kentucky and then moved into Tennessee and now goes under the name Connected Nation raises some concerns that the entire project is basically a PR machine for AT&T.

Media analyst Art Brodsky provides a look at how the project is advancing and who is advancing it:

"Their judgment, broadly stated, is that Connect Kentucky is nothing more than a sales force and front group for AT&T paid for by the telecommunications industry and by state and federal governments that has achieved far more in publicity than it has in actual accomplishment. Connect helps to promote AT&T services, while lobbying at the state capitol for the deregulation legislation the telephone company wants.

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"Connect v 2.0, the version we have today, emerged in 2004 under the new governor, Ernie Fletcher (R). From the start, there were two elements that drove it – the presence of BellSouth and of Fletcher staff and supporters. The man described as the one who came up with today’s program is Joe Mefford, who spent more than 30 years in the old AT&T and BellSouth before retiring and moving to the Kentucky League of Cities. He was the head of BellSouth’s Kentucky political action committee. Joe Mefford conducted the initial meetings on the new Connect Kentucky plan, according to one close observer of the process. This source, like many in Kentucky, asked not to be identified because of the continuing power of BellSouth.

Today, Joe Mefford is the state broadband director for Connect Kentucky. Fletcher announced his new “Prescription for Innovation” on Oct. 8, 2004, at the 75th annual Kentucky League of Cities convention. (The relationship with the League continues today, through a $130,000 contract awarded by Connect in 2006 for project management.) Commerce Cabinet Secretary Jim Host was one of those in charge of the new program.

While the Fletcher connection came first from Joe Mefford, who served on Fletcher’s transition team after his election it then expanded to Joe Mefford’s son, Brian, who came to Connect’s parent organization as CEO in June 2004 after working in Fletcher’s gubernatorial campaign and then for six months for Host in Fletcher’s Commerce Cabinet – the equivalent of the state Commerce Department. Through the transformation, Brian Mefford became head of Connect Kentucky. He has since graduated to president and chief executive officer of Connected Nation, with a salary of $150,000 in 2006, according to Connect’s tax form."

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"Newspapers, AARP, rural telephone companies and the state attorney general opposed the bill. The Louisville Courier-Journal said in a March 22, 2006 editorial: “There’s no reason the Kentucky Senate should rush to judgment on House Bill 337, which would deregulate some telephone services in Kentucky at the expense of those who live outside the major metropolitan areas. It may seem strange that such a measure would find so much support in a rural-dominated body like the General Assembly, but lobbyists for the big telecommunication companies (BellSouth, AT&T and Alltel) seem to have had more sway with lawmakers than the folks back home in rural and small-town Kentucky.”

Recently, mapping of KY and TN internet access was offered via Conneted Nation, but Brodsky notes this disclaimer:

"The last word on the mapping goes to the more general disclaimer on the Connect Web site: “The information provided herein by Connect Kentucky and is partners is believed to be accurate but is not warranted and is for informational purposes only. While all efforts are made to ensure the correctness and accuracy of this information, and to make corrections and change errors brought to our attention, no representation, express or implied, is made as to the accuracy of the data presented. Connect Kentucky and its partners assume no liability for the accuracy of the data.”

As this program is being touted in Washington now as the model for expanding access, a careful examination of it's claims, government funding and successes and failures is warranted. One Kentucky official referred to this rapidly accepted model as an example of "... putting the fox in charge of the henhouse to take a BellSouth executive and his son in charge of expanding broadband when they are supposed to be neutral."

Will Connect Tennessee have a major influence on how the current legislature decides the debate on franchise laws in Tennessee?

Rep. Davis Calls Homeland Security to Hamblen County Over Immigrant Concerns

Hamblen County residents are in dire straits, they say, because of the rise in Hispanic immigrants, legal and illegal. This past Saturday Congressman David Davis and State Senator Steve Southerland gathered for a fundraising pancake breakfast held at a local VFW in conjunction with a group called T-FIRE to add their voices and promises to the discussion. Congressman Davis has vowed to call in Homeland Security and other federal agencies to address what some see as a critical state of affairs.

WATE-TV filed this report on Saturday's event, quoting some local residents:

"You go to the post office and they don't even know what slot to put their mail in," says Charles Cook.

But many illegal immigrants who have come from Mexico say life in Morristown is good and they have made life better.

"I think it is very good for the United States because we make jobs and pay taxes and help this country," an illegal immigrant told 6 News.

Of course, many inside and outside of Hamblen County disagree and want tougher immigration laws.

"I want to see the borders closed and if you are not an American citizen, then you go back home," says Cook.

Rep. Davis says illegal immigrants and their children in Morristown are overcrowding schools, creating long lines at emergency rooms, and some are even participating in gang activity.

Davis is now calling on federal and state immigration and Homeland Security agents to meet with local police in early March to work out a plan.

"Local law enforcement deals with this issue every day," Davis says. "They feel like it is a federal problem, not a local problem. The federal government needs to step up to the plate."

WVLT-TV noted that just over 100 people attended the event and filed this report and video:

"You know it's costing us an arm and a leg for hospitals, health care, schools,” said Bob McFarling, a Morristown resident. “We have to have special teachers."

"This is America and this county has more Mexican Flags flying in it than any place besides Mexico, I believe” said Teddy Ray Mitchell, another resident."

T-FIRE, an "immigration reform" group founded in Hamblen County, says the problem is that business knowingly hires illegal residents.

In a related story, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports Hamblen County Sheriff Esco Jarnigan says there is a local problem with bootlegging, citing an incident from September of last year:

"In September, Jarnagin and deputies raided a mobile home where the Hispanic residents were selling beer by the can without a permit. Inside they found a stock of beer — nearly three dozen 12-packs, three 30-packs and numerous loose cans.

The two caught running the operation pleaded guilty, getting $100 fines and probation.

"This guy did not have an inflated price. They were just furnishing a service," the sheriff said.

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"Nashville police say it isn't apparent that bootleggers are operating in the city. Spokeswoman Kristin Mumford said the department has not arrested anyone for bootlegging since the carding law took effect.

Other Tennessee sheriffs in counties with large immigrant populations also haven't noticed a bootlegging boom.

"We haven't heard of any cases whatsoever," Bedford County Sheriff Randall Boyce said.

He laughed and added, "They haven't thought of it here, probably — and they will soon, I bet."

The 2006 census shows the Hispanic population at 10%, and my own observations and discussions with a wide range of city, county and local leaders have revealed the largest number of Hispanics are from Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras. Still, many locals have begun calling Morristown "Little Mexico." So there is a lumping together of many issues, often under one idea and usually painted with a very broad and inaccurate brush.

And by far the most common complaint I hear is that "hearing people speaking another language in my town" is a terrible thing. Yet, some of the largest employers in the county are firms based in Japan, Germany, France, Italy, the U.K. and Canada.

For more background on the current status of attitudes related to immigrants both legal and illegal, I featured several reports from the Houston Chronicle which did a series of articles on Hamblen County in fall of 2006.

A documentary, "Morristown The Movie", which showed recently at UT in Knoxville also provides a look at the immigration issue, which I mentioned previously.

Ironically, some with groups like T-FIRE complain that schools are occupied with teaching English to immigrants -- as if not teaching them were somehow a better idea. Resolving the often irate and angry concerns of residents will be a major task for Rep. Davis' proposal. Will other counties and cites follow his lead?