Republicans Tell Davis To Drop Election Challenge

Republican bloggers as well as Republican officials are calling for 1st District Congressman David Davis to wise up, admit defeat and walk away from challenging primary election returns.

He isn't taking their advice -- yet.

Blogger Rob Huddleston:

"It will only come back to hurt you - and your party - in the end."

And David Oatney says:

As distasteful as it might be in many cases, it isn't against the law for outside groups to "influence" an election so long as they don't attempt to do so less than 100 feet from a polling place. Do I think it is good that there may have been some "outside influence?" No, but I have my doubts as to whether Davis will be able to prove that such influence existed in large enough quantities to question Roe's victory in any sense, let alone a legal one. David Davis' notion of how Tennessee election law actually works is a blatantly false one."

GOP leader and Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey advises him to end it, telling him his challenge is a "major mistake."

Election officials say Davis' challenge is full of holes.

Davis released a press statement anyway, calling the election "perverted":

"I believe that there is clear and overwhelming evidence that the integrity of this primary was violated unlawfully by huge numbers of Democrats voting to change the outcome of the Republican primary,” said Congressman David Davis."

Huge numbers of Democrats in the first district? Just over 6,000 took part in the Democrat Primary, compared to a low turnout of some 50,000 for the Republican Primary.

The current law gives political parties the authority to challenge outcomes and call for recounts, but someone has to pay for that:

"As recently as last year, two Republican candidates challenged primary results - one in the 1st Congressional District and one in a state house race. State Republican Party officials says both matters were resolved without a full recount because either the candidate couldn’t pay for it or because the committee ruled it inappropriate."

On the plus side, Davis' complaints have brought more attention to the 1st District than I've ever seen. For much of his term in office, Davis found it effective to blame Democrats for just about everything. At least Davis is consistent.

Maglev Train Project In Tennessee

The cost of a high-speed maglev train from Nashville to Atlanta is estimated at over $5 billion and could take a decade to complete.

A report in today's Tennessean says the project is not a high priority yet, more likely one from Las Vegas to Anaheim will be the first.

This news arrives as the state is considering privatizing parts of the Department of Transportation in a money-saving effort. Could the savings be diverted to the rail project?

Kitchen Sink Bath At Burger King

A young man with funky hair and lots of tattoos (known as Mr. Unstable) working at an Ohio Burger King decided to take a bubble bath in the BK's kitchen sink. And is videotaped. And posts it to MySpace. Firings and sterilizing follows.

The video is here, along with the local news report on the event.

I like the lady stopped at the drive-thru who says after being told of the bubble bath episode "I don't want to eat my sandwich now."

Thank God the internet allows stupid to be shared on a global scale.

Rep. Davis Still Can't Believe He Lost

Still refusing to admit he lost his re-election bid, 1st District Congressman David Davis is continuing to seek scapegoats and claiming laws were violated. But Brook Thompson, state election coordinator says these efforts are all wrong:

"Thompson said he is sure that Davis is referring to a law whereby "somebody can be challenged based on their party affiliation when voting in an election."

But, the state election official stated, "The process is to challenge them at the polls on election day."

An election-day challenge would involve poll-watchers who, based on their own knowledge, could challenge someone who has always voted in one party's primary when that person suddenly seeks to vote in the other party's primary.

"It doesn't happen very often at all," Thompson said. "That's the law I'm sure he's referring to."

The state coordinator said the law allows for challenges on election day, but not afterward, adding, "I don't know of any election that has been challenged after the fact based on that law."

While Johnson City Mayor Phil Roe won the primary over Davis, my advice to voters is to cast your vote this fall for Rob Russell.

Cloned Pups Owner Has Strange History

I gave only a passing glance to the story of an American, Joyce McKinney, who paid a South Korean firm $50,000 to clone her dearly departed dog, Booger. This weekend the story got really strange. Seems she had been accused of kidnapping a Mormon missionary and kept him as a sex slave some 31 years ago, a story so lurid and strange it was bound to rise again. It did.

"When that young Mormon took a missionary trip to England, authorities say McKinney hired a private detective so she could locate and follow him.

She and a male accomplice were accused of abducting the 21-year-old missionary as he went door to door, taking him to a rented 17th-century "honeymoon cottage" in Devon and chaining him spread-eagle to a bed with several pairs of mink-lined handcuffs.

There, investigators say, he was repeatedly forced to have sex with McKinney before he was able to escape and notify police.

In a 1977 court hearing mobbed by the British press, Joyce McKinney said she'd fallen head-over-heels in love with the Mormon man and acknowledged tracking him to England. "I loved him so much," she told a judge, "that I would ski naked down Mount Everest in the nude with a carnation up my nose if he asked me to."

But she denied a sexual assault, saying the young man was a willing partner.

In her call to the AP on Saturday, McKinney repeated the same argument her lawyer made all those years ago: There's no way she could have overpowered the young Mormon because he was much bigger and stronger.

"I didn't rape no 300-pound man," she said. "He was built like a Green Bay Packer."

McKinney and her accomplice spent three months in a London jail before being released on bail.

Press reports at the time that said the pair then jumped bail, posing as deaf-mute actors in Ireland to board an Air Canada flight to Toronto and eventually a bus to Cleveland, where investigators lost their trail."


Read the full story here.

Gas Explosions Shatter Toronto Suburb

"My girlfriend, Lisanne, said ``That isnt thunder`` and we both got up to look out the balcony window. We were completely shocked to see a huge pillar of fire that appeared to be 10-20 stories tall, and a black cloud of smoke that spanned the sky eastward toward Earl Bales park. My mind raced in a panic to understand what was happening. It looked as though a plane had crashed or a bomb had fallen. Could it be a terrorist attack? After a few minutes of watching, we were completely shocked to witness an amazing mushroom cloud explosion of flame and black smoke that terrified us entirely. I have never seen anything like it. It was so loud and big that for a moment I thought it was a nuclear explosion."

A horrifying and enormous series of explosions at a gas depot just outside Toronto rocked residents and forced evacuations, as others nearby filmed what happened (one huge explosion looks like a sunrise at the 1:50 mark in the video below). Reports are still incoming and no word yet about any fatalities. (More astonishing images and reports are here.)

Weekly Best Of Tennessee Blogs

I hope you take some time to read the best of Tennessee bloggers in this weekly roundup via TennViews:

• 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera: Regarding Edwards ("Perhaps if he had taken a look around once in a while, at all the good people who were helping him up, he might have realized that he didn't get where he was all alone. Then perhaps he wouldn't have felt so much like superman.") and Wordless Wednesday

• Andy Axel: Wires and Wood

• BlountViews: South Blount Utility: Consider bottled drinking water ("A resident in the South Blount Utility District said they got a notice of violation of safe drinking water standards indicating their drinking water was contaminated with high levels of lead.")

• Carole Borges: First Lady aka Miss Buffalo Chip ("It was a touching moment and a lovely display of Republican family values. Cindy blushed of course and looked flattered. You could almost see her already measuring the thongs she will wear in the White House.")

• The Crone Speaks: Racism Thriving?!? ("The very sad thing is, there are people that one wouldn’t readily categorize as being racist in any other situation, that do feel that Obama being president would "end" this country.")

• Cup Of Joe Powell: Davis Not Conceding To Roe ("One thing about Davis - he has consistently blamed Democrats for all the national and regional ills, and now he blames them for not being re-elected. Perhaps there were some cross-over votes, but he simply need look in the mirror to discover the reason for his loss. His inability to accept the outcome of the vote, to accept responsibility for himself, says volumes about his failings.") and Thoughts on Alexander Solzhenitsyn

• Don Williams: Bush puts Double-I brand on the Olympics–Insulting Incoherence ("Taking a stand against China’s big redemptive PR show by declining to attend would’ve been consistent and coherent. But complaining all the way to the show, and even at his reception in China this morning, smacks of incoherency, bad manners and outright hypocrisy.")

• Donkey's Mouth: The Dems Respond

• Enclave: But the tallest candle stick ain't much good without a wick ("Let's set aside the question of whether our expectations have sunk so low that we actually give kudos to politicians for just doing the right thing.")

• Fletch: Elkmont In August and Cool

• KnoxViews: KAG, signing off ("Katie Allison Granju signed off for the last time at Knoxville Talks yesterday. She did a fantastic job creating a great new local media sponsored blog and set the bar high for her successor.") and WBIR declares Bryant winner in Commission 6-A? ("Katie's only been gone one day and look what happens!") and Green Route Alert, Again! ("There is too much money to be made "developing" and paving the state for people who care about sprawl and the ruination of east TN to stay indifferent.") and Technology corridor not working out ("High tech companies aren't going to move to an area that doesn't support education and only graduates people qualified to work in call centers.")

• Lean Left: Send a Message in a Language They Understand ("Glenn Greenwald, along with Jane Hamsher of firedoglake and a variety of other pro-democracy bloggers and activists, is helping establish a new organization dedicated to targeting vulnerable Democratic candidates who work against progressive interests and civil liberties.")

• Left Of The Dial: Olympics Freak ("Only I would be watching judo, badminton, Chinese women lifting weights and some dude trotting around on a horse doing half-circles simultaneously, live from Beijing on a Saturday morning.")

• Left Wing Cracker: An open letter to Nikki Tinker ("How amazing it was to watch as you turned within 48 hours from an attacking Congressional candidate to a national pariah; "Worst Person in the World", indeed. As Vito Corleone once said, how did things ever get so far?")

• Liberadio(!): The Not-So-Veiled Partisanship of Congresswoman Blackburn ("And speaking of honesty, she and her friends standing in the dark in the House chamber might want to stop claiming that off-shore drilling will give us immediate relief from high gas prices. 'Cause it won't.")

• Loose TN Canon: Republicans obstruct vote to lower gas prices ("Once again, the GOP leadership sided with oil profiteers and used their power to help keep oil prices and profits high, while hurting the average American.")

• Nashville for the 21st Century: Election Day Is Here ("If passion alone won elections, it would be a landslide for Tuke this fall should he get the nomination.")

• Newscoma: Grief Brings Out The Best In People ("This is my second funeral in three weeks of people I grew up with. We drove our cars fast, hid out on back roads talking about our future and drank beer bought by those a couple of years older than us in corn fields still smelling of a fresh harvest. We were going to take on the world. We wanted to own it.") and Personal Reflections On Edwards Scandal ("Baby Boomers in politics amaze me. I’m not one of them, but I have to say, they have changed the world. I don’t necessarily mean that as a compliment.") and Advice To The Young 'Uns ("Don't sweat the small stuff. Treat other people the way you want to be treated. Do things you are afraid to do. Don't listen to Bill Hobbs, and eat more fruit.")

• The Pesky Fly: Delusions of Adequacy ("If this is the Chairman's take on the craziest sh_t to come down the pipe since, oh, I don't know, a member of the TNDP Executive Committee accused the Democratic presidential nominee of ties to terrorism, it will be very revealing indeed when Mr. Sasser finally does find something that puts a fire in his belly.")

• Progressive Nashville: Thank heavens for the white kids ("Thank heavens the white kids in Nashville's public schools are doing so well academically. If they weren't, our schools would look much worse.")

• Resonance: CBS News: "Bicycle Mania!" ("The piece discusses the increased interest in bicycling that has accompanied higher gasoline prices. I have noticed more people riding on the roads this summer; unfortunately, a few of them appear to have not yet mastered safety rules on riding with traffic.")

• RoaneViews: My letter from the Roane Alliance ("I have trouble understanding the separation between the Roane Alliance, a County Government function supported by our tax dollars, and the Chamber of Commerce.")

• Russ McBee: Knox County voters fall asleep ("Today's message is simple: all the GOB's have to do is wait long enough, and the voters of this county will forget whatever transgressions may have angered them in the past.") and Justice denied ("To shield itself from public accountability, the White House crafted rules which ignored centuries of legal precedent and tossed aside even the barest semblance of justice in favor of a system automatically tilted toward the prosecution.")

• Sharon Cobb: John Edwards: You're A Piece Of Sh*t ("Politics aside, let me tell you about Elizabeth Edwards.") and Let The Games Begin ("Also, please ask whomever is your choice for President why he bought 5-6 million dollars in advertising during the Olympics, knowing what China is doing in Darfur, Tibet, Berma, and other human and animal rights violations.")

• Silence Isn't Golden: Tyson Caves To...Someone ("Sorry wingnuts, you still lose.")

• Southern Beale: Tyson Plant Revises Holiday Plan AGAIN ("Of course the Malkin-tents are going to claim another victory, but hey, look at it this way: we liberals can snicker at them for defending a holiday with communist/socialist origins founded by the evil labor unions.") and 22 Days & Counting ("Here in Nashville I saw $3.69 at a Pilot station earlier this week. That’s a 40-cent drop from the high of $4.09/gallon back in July. Funny none of the stories about that Republican kabuki theater on offshore oil drilling bothers to mention that.")

• Tennessee Guerilla Women: NBC Says Bill Clinton Will Speak at Convention in Order to Get Media to Shut Up ("Gawd. Can we please get term limits for the pundits?") and Hillary: 18 Million Cracks in the Glass Ceiling (Video)

• TennViews: The ballots are set and we're off to the races ("We've updated the TennViews 08 Candidate Central database to advance the primary winners and set the field for November.") and Volunteer State 39th in Volunteering ("Forty-five percent of volunteering in Tennessean is performed in the religious sector, whereas that number is 63% in Utah. Are Tennesseans heathens or is that just a Mormon thing?")

• Tiny Cat Pants: Like a Coat You Somehow Slip On Without Noticing ("This, this I believe explains the virulent anti-Mexican sentiment here in the South. Who doubts Faulkner, right? And when he says "The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past." don't we believe him?")

• Vibinc: Cashing in at MCS ("In an editorial over a the CA newly installed Superintendent, Kriner Cash lays out his plan to help the districts most at risk students find success. The prescription, 2000 college aged tutors. I have to say, this is a brilliant idea.")

• West Tennessee Liberal: I'm Proud of Memphis ("I'd hate to be an incumbent Republican in two years. It's going to be a bloodbath.")

• WhitesCreek Journal: Yeah! ("The whole world loves Barack Obama. He's really popular. That's why we shouldn't vote for Obama.")

• Women's Health News: HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt Issues Blog Post on Proposed Regulation ("Regardless of intent, the regulation certainly could functionally allow the defining of contraceptives as abortion.") and Lying Liars Who Lie (About Reproductive Health) ("I've come across several blog entries recently that recount stories of women being lied to by their healthcare providers and/or being lectured on the basis of their provider's personal values.")

Olympic Opening A Stunning Event

The jaw-dropping, high-tech opening to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing - held as the event continues to be wrapped in political controversy and debate - was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen on television.

Tens of thousands of performers and costumes played out the 5,000 year history of China aided by gigantic state-of-the-art screens which were rolled out on the floor of the stadium and circled the entire interior as well. Every detail was under intense control (it is China) as every movement and every image celebrated the nation's past and their hopes for the future - though not much was revealed about the present and more recent tumultuous history of Communist control.

As troubled and unruly as the months of warm-up for this Olympics has been, once inside the stadium, China showed off it's might with astonishing displays.

Creative consultant Steven Spielberg left the project back in April, but his imprint was certainly visible. But under the direction of filmmaker Zhang Yimou the show was the very definition of Spectacle, blending the pageantry of the past with the most modern theatrical technology available today.

Any attempt to top this opening show by 2012 for the next Olympics has an incredibly high mark to reach. In fact, for many years to come the creation of any stadium show will have the massive shadow of this one looming overhead and few will be able to accomplish one-tenth as much.

The image of the globe inside the stadium is from the Daily Mail, whose review notes:

"Hollywood will study the DVD for years to come and plunder Beijing's visual tricks. Another sign, this, that China believes it can match any country in any department. This was a feast for the eyes cooked not from the books of ancient culture so much as the latest Microsoft manuals.

"The most arresting image was of a giant rice-paper globe around which dangling figures contrived to run, some of them upsidedown, while our own Sarah Brightman sang the 2008 Olympic anthem from the North Pole position.

"A sporting message, yes, but a political one as well. Nothing is beyond the Chinese, it said, even running upside-down. They want the future's flaming torch. They want the power."

Davis Not Conceding To Roe

Defiant David Davis tells Kingsport reporter Hank Hayes that "if" he lost his bid to return to Congress in yesterday's election it was someone else's fault.

"I think we won the Republican Primary with Republican Primary voters yesterday. I think he ultimately won the election with Democrat switchover vote.”

Davis also is refusing to concede the election and is pondering a recount.

One thing about Davis - he has consistently blamed Democrats for all the national and regional ills, and now he blames them for not being re-elected. Perhaps there were some cross-over votes, but he simply need look in the mirror to discover the reason for his loss. His inability to accept the outcome of the vote, to accept responsibility for himself, says volumes about his failings

Republican David Davis Loses Congressional Seat

Republican voters say "No" to a second term for Congressman David Davis, as challenger Phil Roe takes the party's nomination for the 1st District.

The unofficial totals being reported at 11:54 pm show 25,916 for Roe and 25,416 for the incumbent Davis. Roe won in Sullivan and Washington counties, as expected, and carried the nomination in close battles in Carter and Cocke counties. Roe's win happened as I predicted it would: a win in the two large counties and in just two of the less-populated counties.

Did Democrats vote in the GOP primary to unseat Davis? Perhaps.

In the Democrat primary, Rob Russell won the nomination, also as expected. However he has a large, but not impossible task against Roe. With less than 6,000 votes cast in that primary, versus the 50,000 or so votes in the Republican primary.

Over in West Tennessee, I was happy to see that incumbent Congressman Steve Cohen was getting huge margins of victory over Nikki Tinker. Good to see the majority of folks rejecting Tinker's grim approach to politics. Sen. Obama blasted Tinker this afternoon, but with voting already underway, the real victory belongs to the voters in the 9th District.

Oh, and as best I can tell, the last time an incumbent in the 1st District lost a renomination bid was 1932, when Republican Oscar Lovette was defeated by Carroll Reece, who decided he wanted the congressional office again. Reece held the office from 1921 to 1961 for the most part, seemingly able to take the nomination whenever he wanted.

Tinkering With Racial Fears

The last few weeks sure have been ugly in the political landscape of Tennessee. It was bad enough watching the residents of Polk County and Copperhill on CNN showing off their prejudices. And the Ugly is out full bore in the Democrat battle in West TN between incumbent Congressman Steve Cohen and challenger Nikki Tinker.

Tinker has been called out for running a 'reprehensible' campaign, which Kleinheider and Michael Silence have been following. News reports by the hundreds are eyeing the battle too.

Sadly, I'm sure the folks at FOX (and others, too) will continue to fan the flames of racial fears on a national level, as they did last night referring to a "race war" in American politics.

Sending Your DNA Into Orbit

It's being called "Operation Immortality", an attempt to launch a saving throw for humanity into outer space.

The truth is much simpler. Richard Gariott, the video game tycoon, is the next "tourist" taking a flight to the International Space Station and he's running a contest to promote his new video game, "Tabula Rasa" in which U.S. residents can get a digital DNA sample and/or game character placed on a memory stick (aka The Immortality Drive) which he will ferry to the ISS.

The ISS really just needs to start selling advertising space on the exterior of the orbiting platform.

The recent commercial efforts for space earned one failure this past weekend when the latest SpaceX launch apparently exploded and thus lost the ashen remains of poor James "Scotty" Doohan and astronaut Gordon Cooper aboard the craft.

Richard Branson meanwhile is working on a mere $200,000-per-ticket fare for short orbital flights.

Until the price decreases, I'll have to settle for sending a digital-code version of this blog out into the universe via this site.

Paris Hilton Ad Scorches McCain

Dude -- I mean, Senator McCain -- got totally burned, owned and then idly dismissed by the one celebrity he thought was too dumb to boil water.

Her video was in response to his, true, but hers may just be the best of the entire 2008 campaign. I mean, forget Willie Horton ads or swift-boating, 'cause when Paris Hilton can zap you with effortless sarcasm, it's time to just wrap up your presidential hopes.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Can Rep. Davis Survive on Thursday?

One thing few folks are talking about here in this corner of the 1st Congressional District - that's the primary on Thursday. But of course, it is only Tuesday, so they have tomorrow to talk about it out loud amongst themselves.

The Big Question for Thursday is in the Republican Primary - can incumbent David Davis survive? I am thinking the answer is "No."

He won by a slim 22% in the last primary race, and there were many GOP candidates out for votes. This time, the battle is a two-man deal, with Johnson City's Phil Roe raising more campaign dollars (by a very small amount) than Davis. Here in Hamblen County, the one thing I've noticed is that signs for Phil Roe are everywhere, and few for Davis are evident. If Roe can win in Washington and Sullivan counties, and maybe in one or two of the smaller ones, he's the likely winner. If he can't carry Washington and Sullivan both - the race goes to Davis.

One blogger says of the race:

"Two members of Tennessee's wingnut patrol face primary challenges from other wingnuts hoping to capitalize on discontent within the wingnut base. In TN-01, freshman Rep. David Davis (who won the last primary with 22% of the vote) faces a rematch with 2006 contender Johnson City mayor Phil Roe. And in TN-07, Marsha Blackburn is up against Shelby County Register of Deeds Tom Leatherwood, who released an internal poll showing him within striking distance. These races don't seem to be about much other than "my turn," and Dems aren't in a place to capitalize in these deep-red districts (R+14 and R+12), but they're worth keeping an eye on."

Another blogger, the ultra-conservative David Oatney says:

"The only person running with a chance to win is Johnson City Mayor Dr. Phil Roe. Roe's actual platform is not substantially different from Davis ... The only thing David Davis is truly guilty of is that he almost seems as though he is taking his likely victory for granted. Phil Roe's people really appear to be working the district a lot harder than Davis' crew. If Roe upsets Davis, it will likely be because David Davis rested on his laurels."

If Oatney has doubts about Davis, then I'd say other ultra-conservatives are considering a switch too.

In the Democrat primary, the race belongs top to bottom to Rob Russell. And he continues to make more efforts to get out and be seen - he's appearing tonight at the Greene County Fair, but unless he's giving away free funnel cakes, I don't know how many folks will stop to talk with him at his booth. Actually, given the current heatwave here in ET, maybe he should be handing out free water and lemonade.

Thoughts on Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Sometime in 1974, I was lugging around this gigantic book with the weird name of "The Gulag Archipelago".

Fortunately, living in a small town on the Cumberland Plateau, the title was just a bit too strange and the author's name, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, too foreign, to cause any curious person to dare ask me what that book was about. Carrying that book around for the months it took me to read it, I could see so many folks just filing away information about me - that is a one strange boy, their eyes said.

I was strange. Still am, really.

But that book got etched into my mind. Ostensibly a chronicle of life in a prison camp in the former Soviet Union, it is so much more. It is a marvel of writing, sometimes deeply personal, sometimes darkly comic, wrapped in politics and madness, attempting to grasp the utter dehumanization of the individual and the society which was ingrained into the lives of not just a nation, but the world in general.

I learned that tyranny and terror were incredibly powerful tools which could warp the thoughts and actions, sometimes with colossal bluntness, sometimes with precise skill. Could anyone survive the systematic insanity the police state created?

Around the time of the book's publication, Solzhenitsyn's face was often in the news. His long beard made him look like a relic of the both the recent and the ancient past. His views, so often expressed through the prism of his political ponderings, were difficult to decipher. He wasn't willing to play the part the media had made for him, The Dissident. Eventually, he faded into the background.

I was sad to read of his death - he had lived in the U.S. in his own style of personal exile. He continued to write, but his books were hardly best-sellers anymore. The comments and the posting on Gawker, for example, are as obtuse and odd. While he might have been able to capture the effects of a world gone mad, the world never knew what to make of him.

His account of life and politics in the Gulag trilogy are among the great works of the last century. Reading the books will still challenge and startle and inspire. Perhaps that was the best he could have hoped for.

Tennesseans Prefer The Lies

A CNN story about residents of Polk County, TN shows a small but vocal group of seemingly intelligent folks who prefer fictions about Sen. Obama over facts. Dan Lehr writes about the story and the willful refutation of what's accurate for his blog for WTVC- TV. Others on the internet (here and here for example) have been on this report too and Tennessee comes off quite badly, all in all.

CNN reporter Gary Tuchman noted it was the mayor of the town which captured their attention:

"We called business leaders. We called mayors. And this particular town, Copperhill, has a very gregarious mayor who said he would be happy to go on camera.

And he guaranteed, everyone in town will want to talk to you.

And, indeed, they did. So, that’s why we went to Copperhill. But we could go to all 50 states and do the exact same story, Wolf.

Recently I was talking with a long-time friend, a very smart, thoughtful fellow who likewise spouted a stream of meaningless hooey about Obama he'd read and heard which have been talking points for the Tennessee Republican Party for months now. It was sad to hear him say these things, and worse, to realize he is far more ready to believe them. After a long talk, I hit a sizable obstacle in his logic which no amount of talking could alter, it seems - his unspoken fear of a non-white person being President of the U.S.

That's what it really is - a deep-rooted fear of another race. Period.

As for the folks in Copperhill and Ducktown - they are folks who a willing to commit to something no matter what the consequences. For decades, the operations of copper mines in the basin were conducted at a very high cost: for fuel, they "cut down every tree and burned it", and the resulting sulphuric acid by-product of the mining returned as rain which left a dead landscape where nothing could grow in the ground for a 50-mile radius. (See more on this from a children's history of Tennessee. If memory serves, at one time the bright orange scar in the Ducktown Basin was once visible from space. I understand they have been aggressively trying to replant trees and clean up the water since the early 1990s.)

Some folks seem to be willing to dig in their heels hold fast to an idea, no matter how destructive.

Image of Ducktown Basin circa 1912

'Hannah Montana Is Our New Secretary of Awesome'

Consider this as follow-up to yesterday's post.

McCain Says Obama's Number One

I've heard some goofy campaign ideas - but for the John McCain presidential campaign to promote this idea that his opponent is the "biggest celebrity in the world" puts McCain is on the sidelines, watching his opponent carry the day.

Claiming that none but Obama has the title of champ for worldwide celebrity fame is, given the nature of fame, more than just waving a flag of surrender. McCain's folks were darned near congratulating Obama for hitting the top of the charts. What's McCain's next plan: croon the tune "You're The Tops" to him via a video valentine??

Yeesh. Is Bill Hobbs working for McCain or something? What? He is? Oh well then ...

Just read what was written in the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

"Campaign manager Rick Davis said the Spears and Hilton photos were included to "demonstrate that the focus of the Obama campaign has been as much to create that celebrity status of his as it is to discuss the hard issues that the American people are forced to debate during the course of this campaign."

(Ouch. So Obama is focused on both discussing hard issues and still becoming wildly popular, eh? Yeah that's just awful ....)

"What we decided to do is find the top three international celebrities in the world," Davis added.
"And I would say from our estimations, Britney and Paris came in second and third."

McCain adviser Steve Schmidt also chided Obama as "the biggest celebrity in the world."

(Yee-ouch!! That had to sting!! In the world, you say, not just in the US of A? Yes, how ... terrible??)

"It's backed up by the reality of his tour around the world. He has many fans," Schmidt said. "The question that we are posing to the American people is this: Is he ready to lead yet? And the answer to the question that we will offer to the American people is no, that he is not."

Someone is paying for McCain's crew to talk like that about his opponent?

It reads like "Of course he's a success, the press loves his style, he's photogenic and comes across great on TV and magazine interviews and he's capturing the imaginations of people around the world, he is on top of his game -- but ... uh .... John McCain is ... nothing ... like ... that. .... Hmmm. Let me rephrase that ..."

Just sad, really, really sad.

New Info on Info

I marvel at the discussions about reading, writing and every other thing on the Internet which aim to study just what good it does us, or if it does us ill.

As some have noted - concerns about Information are as old as .. well, as Information:

"The continuity I have in mind has to do with the nature of information itself or, to put it differently, the inherent instability of texts. In place of the long-term view of technological transformations, which underlies the common notion that we have just entered a new era, the information age, I want to argue that every age was an age of information, each in its own way, and that information has always been unstable.

The writer of the essay, Robert Darnton has other ideas to consider, too:

"Other stories about blogging point to the same conclusion: blogs create news, and news can take the form of a textual reality that trumps the reality under our noses. Today many reporters spend more time tracking blogs than they do checking out traditional sources such as the spokespersons of public authorities. News in the information age has broken loose from its conventional moorings, creating possibilities of misinformation on a global scale. We live in a time of unprecedented accessibility to information that is increasingly unreliable. Or do we?

I would argue that news has always been an artifact and that it never corresponded exactly to what actually happened. We take today's front page as a mirror of yesterday's events, but it was made up yesterday evening—literally, by "make-up" editors, who designed page one according to arbitrary conventions: lead story on the far right column, off-lead on the left, soft news inside or below the fold, features set off by special kinds of headlines. Typographical design orients the reader and shapes the meaning of the news. News itself takes the form of narratives composed by professionals according to conventions that they picked up in the course of their training—the "inverted pyramid" mode of exposition, the "color" lead, the code for "high" and "the highest" sources, and so on. News is not what happened but a story about what happened."

He is writing mostly to shore up support for the institution of The Library, an actual building and location with real books and papers you can hold in your hand. And yes, studying the creation of those books and documents also indicate vast amounts of information had been shuffled to fit the needs or concerns of it's creators.

A recent report in the NY Times takes a look at reading and the Internet, called "Online, R U Really Reading?":

"On paper, text has a predetermined beginning, middle and end, where readers focus for a sustained period on one author’s vision. On the Internet, readers skate through cyberspace at will and, in effect, compose their own beginnings, middles and ends.

Young people “aren’t as troubled as some of us older folks are by reading that doesn’t go in a line,” said Rand J. Spiro, a professor of educational psychology at Michigan State University who is studying reading practices on the Internet. “That’s a good thing because the world doesn’t go in a line, and the world isn’t organized into separate compartments or chapters.”

Just recall that no one really taught classes in how to use text messaging, and yet somehow, Tennessee ranked last month as the "Textiest State in the Southeast". (And is "textiest" even a real word??)

Condolences for Shooting Victims in Knoxville Church

UPDATE: Potent video from the aftermath of the shooting at the Knoxville church via Knox News Sentinel reporter Frank Munger.
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UPDATE 2: Early investigations indicate the accused killer targeted the church for what he perceived to be the political beliefs of members - being "liberal", being "Democrat", and supporting the gay and lesbian community.

-- More here in discussion of these topics: "Well, this is what happens when you foment hatred in order to win elections."

- A pastor speaks out.

- Framing this event as a politically motivated hate-crime appears to be unavoidable, something sure to set off an internet firestorm in this area of typically Conservative East Tennessee, and it is a key aspect of FBI involvement, especially given the incendiary statements from the accused killer, Jim Adkisson.

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I'm wondering today how a shooting spree and some recent events might be linked. Others are too.

Yesterday morning I was reading at a few regular local web sites when at KnoxBlab the news came across about a shooting spree at the Tennessee Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville. The postings were within minutes of the event, and it was at least a few hours before the local traditional media outlets had the reports. Today the story is being well-tracked online and in reports and posts at No Silence Here, and at many other sites too.

I had just been reading one writer yesterday morning at the Blab who had an electrical problem at their house and had asked for some assistance. They community responded quickly, with much help, and it wasn't long before a fellow poster had arrived at the home to effect repairs. As wacky as some might see community boards, I had always noticed a strong sense of emphasis on the word "community." People seek aid on many things, from recipes to electrical problems, and yes, even to just sharing news on a terrible tragedy like a stranger walking into a church service and opening up with a shotgun on the crowd.

I visited some friends an hour or so later, and we talked about the shooting and theorized that the church had recently hosted a Planned Parenthood seminar, that some in the area had voiced opposition to the event. I've received many emails from the church myself over the last few years, via other friends, who see much worthwhile the church's stance on so many issues - a stance of tolerance and building acceptance, building community. And no, that is not the case in every church you might attend, only some.

And by this morning, it was apparent the shooter, tackled by church members and quickly taken into custody by law enforcement, was telling officials about his hatred for "liberal" groups, about how the event had been planned, a 4-page letter left by the killer in his car. I hated to realize our theory of yesterday seems to have been based in fact.

I have also noticed in the last few weeks - at numerous blogs in middle and east Tennessee - a spike in online comments raging with racism and hatred toward anything deemed "liberal" or "non-white". I am not linking to any of them, no. I read them, perhaps you did too. Some were nasty and vicious and all were deeply disturbed and wrong, wrong, wrong. But it helped formulate my theory as I had noticed such a sudden spike in taking these views public - as if they were really wanting more than just to "sound off', a sense they wanted to do something.

Someone did.

The inevitable debate about owning and carrying a gun wherever you go arrives fast on the heels of the story. The use of a gun to kill will sadly occur if someone wants to use the gun for that purpose no matter what the law might be. From reports so far, there were many in the church who sacrificed their safety to end the threat. And anyone can and has used any political belief or religious view to rage and kill against other people. They can also use beliefs to effect change in far more positive ways.

An aberrant event does not equate as "proof" of something, other than the reality that people can do bad things to other people for any manner of reasons or delusions or both.

So while the internet hums with talk of the event and what it means on so many levels of experiences, I can best offer only my deepest sympathies and condolences to all involved in this tragedy. I hope you take a moment to send them your best thoughts as well.