Kingsport Newspaper Still Refuses Coverage of Candidate Rob Russell

1st District Congressional candidate Rob Russell continues to get zero respect and zero coverage from Hank Hayes and The Kingsport Times-News. It's even more apparent they don't want voters to know much about the upcoming Democrat primary, and that they are willing to prevent news coverage of the candidates involved, unless it is coverage of the incumbent and his GOP challengers.

Hayes' refusals to provide coverage (previously mentioned) continues as Russell posted the following email exchange today on his MySpace page:

"After I had a nice interview with Tom Humphreys, the Nashville-based political reporter for the Knoxville News-Sentinel, I had to deal with the illustrious Hank Hayes and his "questions" -- the transcript of this morning's email exchange is below.

Hello:

Please forward these questions to Mr. Russell.

What qualifies you to be a United States congressman?

How much money have you raised for your campaign?

How many volunteers does your campaign have?

Do you have county chairs in all 12 district counties?
Hank

-----------------------------

Dear Mr. Hayes,

I would be happy to complete a legitimate questionnaire concerning my positions on relevant issues, such as the ones that I have completed for VoteSmart, Bristol Herald-Courier, and Knoxville News-Sentinel, and another recently submitted by the Greeneville Sun. The questions below seem to imply that I have to prove the financial worth of my candidacy to the Times-News before you will cover it -- no other media outlet in the district, or beyond, has required such proof.

Sincerely,

Rob Russell

---------------------------

Mr. Russell:

Can you tell me how many yard signs you have distributed throughout the district?

Hank

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Mr. Hayes,

Today I was interviewed by Tom Humphreys of the Knoxville News-Sentinel. This past Tuesday, I had an interview with the Editorial Board of the Bristol Herald-Courier. The amount of signage that I have distributed was not discussed, but campaign financing was, and I was more than happy to speak with them about that topic and answer their questions, since they were clearly interested in finding out my positions on the real issues that are important to voters in this region: the economy, energy, healthcare, and education.

If any other reporter at the Times-News is interested in actually informing area readers about the substance of my campaign, I will be very happy to speak to him or her.

Sincerely,

Rob Russell

------------------------------------------

Mr. Russell:

How many doors have you knocked on in the district?

Hank

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Lulu is engaged in a scream-fest, and I really can find better uses of my time than continuing to respond to Hayes' non-questions, so we'll just let it go at that.

= Rob

Why the animosity? Is it that Hayes has been called out for his shortcomings? Or do his editors send out the marching orders for this behavior?

What I find most surprising is that determining the merits of candidates is the responsibility of informed voters - not the media. If members of the media work to prevent information from simply being provided, they are working to prevent informed decisions in general. Why? Are they fearful of the decisions the voters might make if they have as much information as possible?

Kudos to the media groups who have been providing info, especially since it is only a few weeks away from the primaries.

Mega-Micro-Blog-Feed-Mobile-Alert-Pod Nation

As I writer, I spend hours (well, sometimes just minutes) at a keyboard and that just runs counter to today's modern-now-a-go-go Internet.

A short snarky sentence with a link is hot. Prose is not.

I tried to get the hang of using Twitter, where you're limited to a few words per posting, and used it mostly to hype this page. They have this little prompt on Twitter "What are you doing right now?" and the answer to that appears to be "Talking about myself."

I only subscribe to a handful of daily feeds and alerts and they are all about movies. I've known folks who have dozens and dozens of Internet bits constantly arriving via their media devices. It all makes me rather ancient as I search and then research and then read and then research and search some more. I might as well be transcribing scrolls from Greek into Latin with a quill under flickering tapers.

I recently started reading popURLs a few times a day. Now there is another mega-micro-aggregator on the Internets called Loud3r - where there are categories of info all gathered under even more cutesy uses of the number 3 instead of an "E", like "New3r", which is about gadgets and tech, "Glaci3r", which is about the environment or "Grind3r" which is all about skateboarding.

I admit I like popURLs because it is so constantly updated and it does usually lead me to read more and explore further.

If I start to copy this style, would that make me a Writ3r? Will the info be shared Quick3r? Will I still be a Think3r?

Will it gather gajillions of Read3rs?

I know I am ancient as all this hooey reminds me of a song from "Jesus Christ Superstar" called "What's The Buzz?" And if you go here to read the lyrics, you can also see a video from the movie and download a "What's The Buzz?" ringtone.

Yeesh.

Kingsport Reporter Is The Decider

A peek at Kingsport Times-News reporter Hank Hayes' email on why he does not cover Democrat candidates for Congress is presented via DeMarCaTionVille. Hayes is the Decider of who gets news coverage, and he has decided that it's a Republicans-Only issue.

Hayes writes:

"I tell people, both Republicans and Democrats, that “For me to cover your campaign, there has to be one.” It makes people mad, but that’s the way I feel.
---
"My feeling is just because their name is on the ballot, that doesn’t entitle them to coverage."

But the blogger wisely observes:

"Coverage depends on how Hank feels about your campaign.

As far as I’m concerned if Russell has been running hard enough to be considered a serious candidate by voters in this neck of the woods, this makes him newsworthy. And none of the reasons Hank listed justify his absolute willingness to hold the GOP paintbrush.

Therefore, I say - Bad Hank! Bad! Shame on you! Flackery will get you nowhere. (Unless you’re Bill Hobbs and have enough guts to make those very outrageous Hobbsian-type statement which I wouldn’t recommend because normal people get fired for those things… or you’re playin’ this like Thaddeus and your feelings can be bought.)"

Congress Cowers, Endorses Illegal Spying

Years of intentional deception and illegal actions from the White House were ignored and then embraced as good policy by the U.S. Congress with the passage yesterday of the FISA legislation. Unchecked power from the Executive branch of government continues to grow - at the expense of all else.

The fact remains - immunity was given to illegal acts though few knew what violations had been made.

The deception and the misinformation were clearly presented to members of the Senate by Senator Russ Feingold:

"Mr. President, it could not be clearer that this program broke the law, and this President broke the law. Not only that, but this administration affirmatively misled Congress and the American people about it for years before it finally became public. So if we are going to go back and discuss these issues that I thought had long since been put to rest, let’s cover the full history.

Here is the part of the story that some seem to have forgotten. In January 2005, eleven months before the New York Times broke the story of the illegal wiretapping program, I asked then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales at his confirmation hearing to be Attorney General whether the President had the power to authorize warrantless wiretaps in violation of the criminal law. Neither I nor the vast majority of my colleagues knew it then, but the President had authorized the NSA program three years before, and Mr. Gonzales was directly involved in that issue as White House Counsel. At his confirmation hearing, he first tried to dismiss my question as “hypothetical.” He then testified that “it’s not the policy or the agenda of this President to authorize actions that would be in contravention of our criminal statutes.”

Well, Mr. President, the President’s wiretapping program was in direct contravention of our criminal statutes. Mr. Gonzales knew that, but he wanted the Senate and the American people to think that the President had not acted on the extreme legal theory that the President has the power as Commander in Chief to disobey the criminal laws of this country.

The President, too, misled Congress and the American public. In 2004 and 2005, when Congress was considering the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, the President went out of his way to assure us that his administration was getting court orders for wiretaps, all the while knowing full well that his warrantless wiretapping program was ongoing.

---

"Mr. President, I sit on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, and I am one of the few members of this body who has been fully briefed on the warrantless wiretapping program. And, based on what I know, I can promise that if more information is declassified about the program in the future, as is likely to happen either due to the Inspector General report, the election of a new President, or simply the passage of time, members of this body will regret that we passed this legislation. I am also familiar with the collection activities that have been conducted under the Protect America Act and will continue under this bill. I invite any of my colleagues who wish to know more about those activities to come speak to me in a classified setting. Publicly, all I can say is that I have serious concerns about how those activities may have impacted the civil liberties of Americans. If we grant these new powers to the government and the effects become known to the American people, we will realize what a mistake it was, of that I am sure."

His complete comments from the floor can be read here.

Also:

G8 Leaders Feast On Irony at Summit

It sounds like a cliche, a very poorly made joke, or cheap movie plot: leaders from around the world gather to hold talks about poverty and hunger and dine on culinary feasts prepared by 60 chefs flown in for the occasion. Irony is much thicker than any gravy.

President Bush, along with leaders from Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia, are meeting in Japan at a conference estimated to cost 285 million pounds. On their first day of talks about food shortages worldwide, they had a 6-course lunch and later an 18-course dinner, all washed down with fine wines and champagne.

A few months back, reports of food riots over basic staples such as rice were in the news. At the conference, the U.K.'s Gordon Brown urged his nation to reduce the demand for "unnecessary food" and to eliminate wasteful eating habits. Then the feasts began:

"As the champagne flowed, the couples enjoyed 18 "higher-quality ingredients", beginning with amuse-bouche of corn stuffed with caviar, smoked salmon and sea urchin pain-surprise-style, hot onion tart and winter lily bulbs.

With translations helpfully provided by the hosts, the starter menu (second course) read like a meal in itself. A folding fan-modelled tray decorated with bamboo grasses carried eight delicacies: kelp-flavoured cold Kyoto beef shabu-shabu, with asparagus dressed with sesame cream; diced fatty flesh of tuna fish, with avocado and jellied soy sauce and the Japanese herb shiso; boiled clam, tomato and shiso in jellied clear soup of clam; water shield and pink conger dressed with a vinegary soy sauce; boiled prawn with jellied tosazu-vinegar; grilled eel rolled around burdock strip; sweet potato; and fried and seasoned goby with soy sauce and sugar.

That was followed by a hairy crab kegani bisque-style soup and salt-grilled bighand thornyhead with a vinegary water pepper sauce. The main course brought the "meat sweats" – poele of milk-fed lamb flavoured with aromatic herbs and mustard, as well as roasted lamb with black truffle and pine seed oil sauce. For the cheese course, the Japanese offered a special selection with lavender honey and caramelised nuts. It was followed by a "G8 fantasy dessert" and coffee served with candied fruits and vegetables.

This was washed down with Le Reve grand cru/La Seule Gloire champagne; a sake wine, Isojiman Junmai Daiginjo Nakadori; Corton-Charlemagne 2005 (France); Ridge California Monte Bello 1997 and Tokaji Esszencia 1999 (Hungary).

The G8 leaders had earlier made do with a "working lunch" of white asparagus and truffle soup; kegani crab; supreme of chicken; and cheese and coffee with petit fours. The lubrication of choice, for those drinking, was Chateau Grillet 2005."

IOther events of note at the summit:

"I wish for a world free from tyranny: the tyranny of hunger, disease and free from tyrannical governments," was George Bush's wish, handwritten on a piece of parchment and tied to a bamboo tree as part of the Japanese Tanabata festival.

The annual ceremony, which this year coincided with Japan's hosting of the G8 summit, is based on the myth of two star-crossed lovers condemned to meet only once a year in the Milky Way on 7 July. Every summer Japanese people write prayers on thin strips of paper and hang them in bamboo branches in the hope their wishes will be granted."

Wishes tied to tree limbs may be as effective a policy as the G8 can create.

Tennessee Kudzu - New Fuel Empire?

It grows fast and it seems to be everywhere. A man in Cleveland, TN says he converts kudzu into fuel and he's ready to go into production across the eastern half of our state:

"In the basement of a Cleveland, Tennessee home, Doug Mizell's experiment in energy appears to be taking off. He's found a way to turn kudzu into fuel. Mizell says "if it blows a good blue flame like that, that means there's purity there."

Mizell's spent the last decade perfecting a process to refine kudzu into commercially viable ethanol. Monahan says "cellulosic which is the way we're going, is from plant refuge, we basically can use anything that grew and convert it into ethanol."

And since this ethanol isn't corn or soy based, it won't impact food prices. It takes 10 to 15 pounds of plant material to make a gallon of fuel, at a cost of about $1.30.

Next step, producing this product for market. Monahan says "we're looking for funding to build our first small plant, what you'd call a demonstration plant to help prove to our major investors that it works."

Monahan says a major fuel distributor wants to purchase two-thirds of their first year's production to cut into gas sold throughout the Tennessee Valley. "The distributor we're talking to just wants to get it out there at 10% in all gas."

For more details, you can explore Doug's website, which has all the info on 'kudzunol'.

Kicked Out of The Garden

Here's a controversy that's got plenty of hot button issues - land use, immigration, food, poverty, celebrities, court battles, media bias, government corruption, the search for Justice, political activism and much more.

"The Garden" is a documentary which follows the convoluted events surrounding an urban community garden in South Central Los Angeles - some 14 acres of carefully tended agriculture which emerged in the area after the riots in the early 1990s. Hundreds were using the land, many more than that were fed by the crops and a few years ago the farmers were told they were being evicted, despite all promises to keep the garden intact.

The must-see trailer for the film is here. It has just begun the festival circuits and more press attention is likely to follow. The story is as twisted as movie plot and several celebs got involved, like Willie Nelson and others, including actress Daryl Hannah, who wedged herself into a tree on eviction day. (I'm not sure that helped the cause.)

Was the sale of the land illegal? Did the city conspire to bulldoze the farm? Are the South Central Farmers ordinary folks or crazed activists? (Wikipedia has a page devoted to the debate.)

Kicked out of the farm, locals continue nightly vigils at the site, demanding the right to return to The Garden.

Weekly Best of Tennessee Blogs

I did try this holiday weekend to NOT talk about politics. I failed. Since late last year, thanks to R. Neal at TennViews, what I and many others write and post about politics and culture is gathered up for these weekly roundups. And now even the official News folks are talking about what we're talking about.

"The progressive blog roundup made the paper in this Sunday editorial section column by Michael Silence: To the best of my knowledge, it is the strongest, or most active, coalition of bloggers in the state dealing with issues and politics. On the right side of the aisle, I'm not aware of any group blogging as widespread as the one at tennviews.com.

We now resume our (ir)regularly scheduled program...

• 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera: Because what is more patriotic...: ... than being 110% heterosexual?

Aunt B: The Three Best Inventions: I mean, we talk a great game as a country about how families need men. But, if we’re not raising men with basic understandings of stuff, like history, like baseball, like what to do with yourself other than get into trouble, then what benefit are they to a family, really?

• BlountViews: In fact, Judge Meares is part of a growing nationwide movement for judicial campaign finance reform, led by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor who is campaigning for massive changes to the way judges get elected.

• Carole Borges: Dear Keith Olbermann, please put your ego back in the box.: I have always liked Keith Olbermann's snarky, edgy political take on the mad mad world of politics, but lately his ego seems to be getting so large it is blotting out the good points he often makes.

• The Crone Speaks: Is Rush Limbaugh Worth $50 Million a year?: Seriously, this family is the poster child of everything that is wrong for the "little people" under Republican control of government, and they never saw it. Why? Because they were sucked into the rhetoric of Rush’s rhetoric. See also: Rats Fleeing the Sinking Ship

• Cup Of Joe Powell: Tennessee's Official Rockabilly Highway: Tennessee now has an official Rockabilly Highway, thanks to efforts of those in the state legislature. On Friday, officials unveiled the signs which will now mark a 55-mile stretch of Highway 45, from Mississippi to Interstate 40. See also: The Power of Clothes

• Don Williams: On Barack Obama and ‘the art of the possible’: So how does Obama repay you? He does the utterly predictable thing and steps down off the pedestal you put him on, and so you feel all betrayed.

• TNDP: Lamar Alexander fails to follow through on Environmental Policies: A self-proclaimed champion of the environment, calling it one of his "passions", Lamar’s pitiful voting record is revealed as the article garners comments from the League of Conservation Voters.

• Enclave: Local Community Not Waiting for Federal Government to Address Mortgage Crisis: I don't see anyone in Metro Nashville making these kinds of plans. We would rather subsidize our mildly supported hockey team. And, God knows, the first thing a family whose adjustable rate mortgage has just rocketed skyward wants to do is to catch a Predators' match. See also: Liberal blog readers...

• Fletch: Barefoot on the Beach

• KnoxViews (Doug McDaniel): Iraq Veterans Say Wes Clark is Correct: As a veteran (Desert Storm) myself, I get cranky when Democrats tuck tail on issues related to the military. As Brandon Friedman states eloquently on the Vote Vets blog, there is no reason to cede authority on military matters just because of John McCain's service during Vietnam. See also: Republican essay contest, and Puppy mill raid update

• Lean Left: "If Waterboarding Does Not Constitute Torture, Then There Is No Such Thing as Torture": Probably quite a lot of people would smile at the thought of Christopher Hitchens being tortured by agents of the insane and illegal war he cheered into being. It is tempting to view it as ironic justice.

• Left of the Dial: Pyro Mania: Over 1,100 people bought tickets for a train ride to downtown for the city’s annual display along the Riverfront but the train only holds 750. That left many waiting at stations in Lebanon and Hermitage as a full train blew past them. And they’re pissed:

• LeftWingCracker: OK Tennessee Democrats, it's time to bring your focus back home for a minute!: We are five weeks and one day from the actual election, and two weeks and two days from the start of Early Voting in Big Shelby, and almost THREE in FIVE Democratic voters have not made up their mind?? Whatcha waitin' on, folks, CHRISTMAS???

• Liberadio(!): Who Killed Estelle Richardson?: The Davidson County Medical examiner ruled her death a homicide and her murder still remains one of Nashville’s unresolved cases. On Monday, we interviewed prison rights activist, Denver Schimming, about the case.

• Newscoma: Winston Rand - He Was A Pretty Good Guy: I have to say that Winston was always kind, smart and clever. He will be missed and our thoughts and prayers go to Roomie. See also: Snickering ‘at the sheer effrontery’

• The Pesky Fly: The Full DLC Looks like Obama is in full DLC play-not-to-lose mode. Let's just hope he doesn't go windsurfing.

• Progressive Nashville: Patriotism, Part 2: Republicans look at the strength and wellbeing of America, while Democrats concentrate on the strength and wellbeing of Americans. See also: America at its best

• Resonance: Monday Gloomy Economic Outlook Blogging: People (including high-ranking officials in the U.S. government) have been suggesting that the worst of the financial mess is over. It's not. To that point, Lawrence Summers: "It is quite possible that we are now at the most dangerous moment since the American financial crisis began last August."

• RoaneViews: Pyro Patriot: West Roane Volunteer Fire Department has plenty of stuff you can blow up to show how patriotic you are. Their supplier in China is so patriotic that they blew up a whole fireworks factory.

• Russ McBee : Byron Dorgan, oil speculators, and the supply question: The speculators may simply be acting as canaries in the financial coal mine, sending a message that they expect supplies to decline (and prices to skyrocket) in the near future.

• Nashville for the 21st Century: Bredesen-O-Meter: Now, perhaps people won't be stupid enough to think McCain is literally George Bush's clone, but any careful observer could see that over the past few months Sen. McCain has abandoned his Maverick credentials in favor of adopting positions close to, or mirroring, those of the Worst President in the History of the United States.

• SharonCobb: My Thoughts On Rush Limbaugh's Record Breaking Deal Through 2016.: My first thought when I read that Rush Limbaugh has signed with Clear Channel for a gazillion dollars through 2016, is Clear Channel wants to have Rush on the air through the two terms of President Obama's tenure in the White House to keep the fighting between the left and the right going. See also: What Does It Mean To Be Pro Israel?

• Silence Isn't Golden: Hobbsie Steps In It, Again: It must be tough to be so unable to find anything about your own candidate to praise that you're reduced to outright lying about your opponent. See also: Advice For Someone Who Probably Won't Take It

• Southern Beale: Obama’s Faith Based Idea Will Work: Count me among those liberals welcoming Barack Obama’s announcement about giving faith-based groups a role in his administration. See also: Never Give Up! Never Surrender!

• Tennessee Guerilla Women: Trouble in Obamanation: Liberal Angst: A growing number of longtime Obama supporters are withholding financial and other forms of support for Barack Obama until he comes back to the left. .. Gee, does this mean all these liberals are really Republicans? Must be! See also: Can Wives Be Presidents?

• TennViews: Surprise, surprise! AT&T files first statewide cable franchise application: Yes, and thanks to the lobbyists and consultants, who include... See also: Chris Lugo on Independence Day

• Vibinc: Tough Financial Medicine: So while you're out there bitching about trials and triangulations, I know I will be, don't forget the harsh reality that gas has surpassed the price of milk, which will most certainly start rising faster. That means everything else gets more expensive, and I need to start lobbying to allow farm animals in the city with all my backyard space. I should probably fix the fence first...

• WhitesCreek Journal: Forward Backward Reverse Inward Twist: I am thinking that McCain is pretty flexible for an old person, and in order to get an adequate description of his abilities, we should be watching the Olympic Diving trials now taking place in Knoxville for some ideas. See also: Born on the Fourth of July

• Women's Health News: Her Name was Esmin Green: Esmin Green sang gospel music at church. Esmin Green was a mother with six children. Esmin Green was a black woman who died on the floor of one of New York City’s public hospitals while waiting for psychiatric care and being ignored.

Dr. Horrible's Singing Blog Gets Release Date

The new online-only (for now) web musical sci-fi comedy "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog" now has some release dates, as just announced by director Joss Whedon. He says the three ten-minute episodes will roll out thusly:

"ACT ONE will go up Tuesday July 15th.
ACT TWO will go up Thursday July 17th.
ACT THREE will go up Saturday July 19th.

All acts will stay up until midnight Sunday July 20th. Then they will vanish into the night, like a phantom (but not THE Phantom – that’s still playing. Like, everywhere.)"

Yes, a future downloadable version (for a fee) will be made available shortly after the free premiere and, yes a DVD is also in the making. More details and a teaser trailer were presented just a few days ago right here.

The Power of Clothes

I think I have missed the mighty digital opportunity offered by the internets and the blogs -- Fashion is what should be writing about, Fashion trumps all.

I keep forgetting to learn the Power of Clothes, and I'm sure I pay that price often. But this post is not about me - it's about Us.

Take the case of the FLDS group, the religious group which made the news when law enforcement in Texas raided their compound and took custody of hundreds of kids after allegations of child endangerment and child marriages were received. A media maelstrom followed, then a judge ordered the whole deal was botched from the get-go and now the group has become a Web Sensation for Fashion

"The FLDS has launched an online store where members of the general public can purchase the dresses, long underwear, and other ranch-wear "as seen on TV."

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the Web site FLDSdress.com, was initially created to give Texas authorities a place to purchase the clothing, so children in state custody could maintain their traditional clothing.

The children have been reunited with their families, but the Web site now serves another purpose. The FLDS hopes to raise money through sale of the clothing to help support families from the Yearning For Zion ranch who now live in rental homes in cities like San Antonio and Austin. Some families have returned to the ranch, but many have not.

The Web site said the clothes are made to meet the "FLDS standards for modesty and neatness." And all of the clothes are hand-made "with joy and care" by the FLDS women."

Whatever the status of the group and their criminal woes, I am left simply pondering if indeed Fashion is sooooo important that God's attention is on clothes. Many in the world must deeply, truly hold to the idea. The wrong clothes (and/or facial hair) can bring death and damnation (according to some.) Salvation has a dress code. Who knew?

Fashion is the new Fashion in Politics too - at least it is in Sweden.

There (and boy howdy does this story smack of some weird viral advertising) a 17-year-old Swedish girl, Isabella Lowengrip, runs the and I mean THE most popular blog in that country, Blondinbella -- which apparently began as a political web site to promote the values of and recruit members to a political party in that country.

Instead, the blog is chiefly the Fashion Voice for millions. She posts about shopping and clothes and fashion trends (and earns a hefty income from advertisers).

"She does have 200,000 readers a week, apparently - and that’s the same as some newspaper sites, which must terrify the newspapers. Regardless, the blog does appear to be one of the most popular in Sweden. According to Löwengrip herself, that’s because she “cares about her readers and doesn’t scare them away with a site that looks like a homepage from the 1990s”, and because she’s open and shares stories and photos from her life - unlike Swedish politicians.

Get your Swedish Fashion Fix here at Blondinbella. (WARNING: um, it's all Swedish to me).

See Also: The shoes of the Pope continue to make news headlines.

Also See Also: The successful folks in Loudon County, TN are suffering from "retail leakage".

ABC Seeks East TN Family for Extreme Makeover

The makers of ABC's Extreme Home Makeover: Home Edition are now seeking East Tennesseans for their next season, and you need to act now if you have a nomination for them to consider - the deadline is July 7th, so time is limited for you to move on this one. If you are like me, I'm sure you can think of a family who would not only qualify but benefit greatly from the team at Extreme Home Makeover, and you might change some family's lives for the better!

I received a press release from them today and here it is:

ABC’s EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION SEARCHING FOR HEROIC FAMILIES

HOLLYWOOD, CA – June 30, 2008

Do you know a hometown hero whose house is in need of an Extreme Makeover? If so, the producers of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition want to hear from you. Ty Pennington and his crew have been all across the map and now they want to drive that famous bus to your neighborhood. The producers are looking for families in East Tennessee for their new season.

“We’ve set our sights on finding American heroes for our sixth season,” says Casting Director Quintin Strack. “We’re looking for the people in your community that are giving something back despite the challenges they may be facing at home.”

What does it take to be picked for an Extreme Makeover? The producers look at three key elements in every family’s story; the house, the need, and the family’s involvement in their community.

Strack says, “we are in search of real heroes…people that have amazing strength and who have put their own needs aside to help someone else.” In addition, to heroics, the producers consider the condition of the family’s home. “This is a very important element. We can’t ask hundreds of volunteers to demolish a perfectly good home or even a house with just a few minor problems. These houses must to be in dire need of help.”

To be eligible, a family must own their own single family home and be able to show producers how a makeover will make a huge difference in their lives.

Interested families should e-mail a short description of their family story to: ExtremeEastTennessee@gmail.com

Nominations must include the names and ages of each member of the household along with a description of the major challenges within the home. Also be sure to explain how this family is heroic, or a positive role model in their community. If possible, include a recent photo of the family. Don’t forget to include a contact phone number.

Nominations must be received by July 7, 2008. Don’t Delay!

Each episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is self-contained and features a race against time on a project that would ordinarily take at least four months to achieve, involving a team of designers, contractors and several hundred workers who have just seven days to totally rebuild an entire house – every single room, plus the exterior and landscaping.

The lives of the lucky families are forever changed when they learn that they have been selected to have their home walls moved, their floors replaced and even their façades radically changed. The result should be a decorator’s delight… if it can be done in time.

Each episode begins with team leader Ty Pennington’s now-famous “Good morning!” wake-up call, when he, along with the other designers, surprises the unsuspecting family with news that their home has been chosen to receive a makeover. Then viewers witness not only the unbelievable transformation of the house, but during the final and emotional reveal, they see how the home makeover has impacted the lives of the deserving families.

The design team includes team leader Ty Pennington, with designers Paul DiMeo, Paige Hemmis, Michael Moloney, Ed Sanders, Tracy Hutson, Tanya McQueen, Eduardo Xol and John Littlefield. New designers for this season will be Rib Hillis and Didi Ayer.

***About ABC-TV’s Extreme Home Makeover Edition*** “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” which has won back-to-back Emmy Awards as Best Reality Program (non-competitive), is in its 5th season on ABC. The program is produced by Endemol USA, a division of Endemol Holding. Anthony Dominici is the executive producer; and David Goldberg is the president of Endemol USA.

Tennessee's Official Rockabilly Highway

Tennessee now has an official Rockabilly Highway, thanks to efforts of those in the state legislature.

On Friday, officials unveiled the signs which will now mark a 55-mile stretch of Highway 45, from Mississippi to Interstate 40. State Representative Jimmy Eldridge of Jackson is here in the photo showing off the new sign along with Rock-A-Billy Hall of Fame representative Henry Harrison in this photo from the Jackson Sun. Their story on the event is here.

A few years ago I was doing business in that part of TN and MS, and recalled stories I had heard of how in the late 1940s and through the 1950s the area was full of honky tonks and clubs where legendary musicians made history - folks like Elvis and Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly and Johnny Cash, and many others whose names faded into the past. Today, the music is so popular, our state has dueling Hall of Fames (one is the International, mentioned above, and the other is the non-hyphenated, non-international version which is based in Nashville).

One of the performers who found fame on the road and the radio back in the day was Janis Martin, also known at the time as the Female Elvis. She passed away last September, but was performing right up until the end and the following clip is from 2006 as she offers a little rock history and wails on her guitar.

Weekly Best of Tennessee Blogs

Via TennViews:

• 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera: Wordless Wednesday

• Tiny Cat Pants: Will Campfield ever realize the bitter poetic injustice of his being a servant of the people of Tennessee while at the same time working to deny legal personhood to some of those people?

• Carole Borges: Understanding how these girls think might actually spur people to make changes that would help problem teens. Usually it's easier to just condemn them.

• The Crone Speaks: The average campaign contribution payoff is around $9000 for those dems that changed their vote to support retroactive immunity. Maplight has the list of who made how much. Plus: Countrywide taken to court by the Illinois AG.

• Cup Of Joe Powell: Interview With Congressional Candidate Rob Russell, plus: Super Giant Exxxtreeeeeme Summer Edition Madhouse Marathon... quite possibly the best movie blog of all time and space

• Don Williams: Tell me you don’t believe Barack Obama’s a secret Muslim, or that the "fist bump" thing he and Michelle do contains terrorist overtones. Evidently thousands or millions of people believe such nonsense..., plus: Activists, priests, scholars, artists, musicians, writers, teachers, environmentalists and others from a range of spiritual traditions accomplished much June 21 and 22 as they initiated Peace On and With the Earth, a conference to explore the relationship between peace and the environment.

• TNDP: a new religious left movement?

• Enclave: ...Ben puts words into the mouths of Social Gospelers that they never would have uttered because it is politically expedient for the anti-revenue mob to discredit mobilized progressive Christians with half-truths about who they are and what they want to "steal." Plus, judicial activists legislating from the bench, Part I and Part II.

• Fletch: Tuesday Afternoon

• KnoxViews: Supreme Court rules against Obama!, plus: Authorities shut down largest known TN puppy mill operation

• Lean Left: Heller Open Thread

• Left of the Dial: Should marijuana smoking be allowed in airports before one takes a flight? ...who would you rather sit next to on a flight: a drunk or a stoner? Plus: George Carlin’s Legacy

• LeftWingCracker: You know, two years ago, Harold Ford Junior thought he had HIS race won, too; that didn't work out so well, did it? Obama needs to tighten up, and fast. Plus: George Carlin: Baseball v. Football

• Liberadio(!) interviews David Sirota

• Newscoma: They are creating holes when it comes to civil liberties. And I’m with much of the progressive blogosphere when we see that Barack Obama said he would filibuster this bill last year and he didn’t. I ain’t happy, campers. Obama simply blew it. Bonus: I Need To Start My Own Hippie Newspaper

• A Pesky Fly Must Read: The Top Five Reasons Why The Republican Party is Good for Democrats

• Progressive Nashville: Who's getting stimulated here?, Bonus: A Bill Gates memo to staff re. Windows usability

• Resonance: 2008 Cherohala Challenge Photo Ride Report, plus $7 gas and public transportation.

• RoaneViews: Handguns flying off the shelves, severe drought, working on exceptional, and off road vehicles v. the environment.

• Russ McBee: I suppose it's possible that the crippling of a census program which improves the accuracy of counting minorities is just a coincidence., plus: Feingold on FISA

• Sean Braisted: While everyone is focused on Heller, another important ruling was issued, this in regards to campaign finance reform.

• Sharon Cobb: Who's your daddy, Hillary?, and Cohen:Conscience of the Freshman Class, plus Why is Luke Russert on my TV?

• Silence Isn't Golden: In summation: Mike Stewart, good. David Sirota, wrong. Matt Pulle, full of shit. (Click the link and read why.) Also read this.

• Southern Beale: Hell Freezes, I Thank The NRA - Why? Because they just took away the trusty old standby argument they’ve used against every Democratic candidate since forever... Plus: Supreme Court hands ExxonMobil a Big Payday, and Bobby Jindal? Really?, bonus: Nashville welcomes Cher

• Tennessee Guerilla Women: You might have thought that after eight long years of the Bush trainwreck, we could have gotten an actual liberal candidate. As the Hillary corner of the lefty blogosphere has repeatedly warned, Obama is no liberal. Is it time to say, we told you so, yet? Plus: Lusty Senators Larry Craig & David Vitter Sponsor Anti Gay Marriage Amendment: Suffice it to say, the Marriage Protection Amendment does not read: Thou shalt not publicly humiliate your wife by coveting another man in a bathroom stall. Nor does it read: Thou shalt not publicly humiliate your wife by fooling around with prostitutes.

• TennViews (Chris Lugo): Big brother is watching you and his name is AT&T. Sometimes he goes by the name of BellSouth and at other times he is known as AOL-Time-Warner. Big brother goes by a lot of names. He is listening to you while you talk and watching you while you type and everything you say could be recorded so he can look at it somewhere down the line.

• Vibinc: People seeking an office should be comfortable enough with themselves and their positions to take criticism of these topics constructively. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

• WhitesCreek Journal: Barack Obama is attempting to do something radical and dangerous for a Presidential candidate...Speak intelligently about religion...

• Women’s Health News: Seriously, what better way to proclaim that a lack of proper sex ed or lack of contraceptive availability has no bearing on these pregnancies than to suggest that the girls were sneakily and deliberately trying to become pregnant?

Camera Obscura: Best Movie Blog of All Time

Gird your grids, kids.

Today's edition of movie news and reviews is a Super Giant Exxxtreeeeeme Summer Edition Madhouse Marathon, making this post quite possibly the best movie blog of all time and space, as the Twins of Hype and Hoopla ascend the Heavens on fantastical wings of Godlike ....ahem,sorry. Oh sure, the country is tanking on addictions to oil and power and we're in hock way past our great-great-great-grandchildren's eyeballs to China, and we're like that sleazy slightly drunken uncle who's always around to remind The Family they have lost their grip on relevance and authority.

But it's summer! So ...

After months of rumors the first preview trailer arrives for (what will be) the biggest online hit of the summer: "Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog". The premise - a musical sci-fi comedy web-series about the always thwarted would-be arch-evil nemesis Dr. Horrible. Made late last fall during the writers strike by writer/director Joss Whedon ("Buffy The Vampire Slayer") and here we go:


Nathan Fillion ("Firefly") plays the always victorious Captain Hammer and other cast members include Adam Baldwin and Felicia Day. Go ahead and bookmark the Official Site for Dr. Horrible now - it starts soon!
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Quentin Tarantino, the late Sydney Pollack, and Bill Murray are just some of the special guests for the new Turner Classic Movies channel series "Under The Influence", hosted by Elvis Mitchell and debuting in July. Mitchell asks guests to explain the movie experiences that changed their lives.

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Futurama's new DVD movie "Beast With A Billion Backs" came out Tuesday and is sitting right there by my television at this very moment, about to be viewed. This time, our intrepid and idiotic heroes encounter hideous anime tentacle porn.

"Arrested Development" star David Cross voices the nasty beast, and Stephen Hawking returns too, to shoot lasers out of his eyes, and even Robot Satan is back! 'Nuff said!!

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I have decided I am living in one of those rare times when Really Good Things populate the pop culture of America. Sure, the country is tanking on addictions to oil and power and were in hock way past our great-great-great-grandchildren's eyeballs to China, and we're like that sleazy slightly drunken uncle who's always around to remind The Family they have lost their grip on relevance and authority.

But, still - Really Good Things. We've reached this pinnacle moment in cinema where we - the unruly audiences of Cult Films and Revisionist Genres - have successfully taken over the mainstream movie world. Comic book heroes from Batman to Silver Surfer to the X-Men rule the box office; fantasy books by Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling have achieved unprecedented success, Christopher Lee alone now holds the Mantle of Evil which reaches from his cape as Dracula and his scars as Frankenstein and the withered remains of The Mummy to Lord Saruman to Fu Manchu and even Willy Wonka's dad (we won't mention Count Dooko, because George Lucas should just be ashamed).

It's truly a Golden Age when technology and time have collided to bring us gifted creators of cinema magic - Guillermo Del Toro, Peter Jackson, John Lasseter and his entire Pixar team - to name just a few.

For the first time since the nefarious sirens of the 1960s and 1970s appeared and brought fierce, proud, highly capable and unstoppable beauty to the Women of Cinema, we can watch the likes of female action heroes today such as Angelina Jolie, Rosario Dawson and Asia Argento. I'd watch those ladies read the phone book if someone filmed it. Hell, I'd go see live shows of it.

I watched Asia this week in "Boarding Gate", a French-made noir which turns from tragic Paris love story to brutal Hong Kong street thriller. Sure, the movie, being French, moves far too slow at first, but ramps it up quite well by the time she takes that gun into her hands.

Jolie gets busy again this weekend in "Wanted" as a professional killer in an action film based on a comic book. You don't like her or her politics or her kids? Who cares?? I love to watch her on screen.

All I'm sayin' ... Really Good Things ... now if we could just fix television and kill the Un-Reality stuff.

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Oh, noooo, this post ain't over yet!

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I finally saw one of the very Best Horror Films of 2007 this week - the made-in-Georgia horror/sc-fi film "The Signal" and was most impressed with it. It debuted at the Rome, GA International Film Festival and has been gathering an impressive collection of reviews.

The story is set in the fictional city of Terminus (Atlanta) and focuses on a young adulterous couple. They wake, she has to go home to her husband, and reality unravels into an apocalyptic nightmare. A signal of unknown origin takes over all television, radio, phone, etc and it makes people go just crazy enough to justify murder, endlessly. However the movie takes a unique view of these events through the lives of the husband, his wife and her lover - making a three-part story which is by turns terrifying, hilarious and terrifying again. Three writer-directors from Atlanta, David Bruckner, David Bush, and Jacob Gentry, take each chapter and each does a masterful job with their tale.

I was partial to the middle section, which turned the terror into high comedy as a survivors try and gather for a party in suburbia. There's buckets of gore aplenty in the movie, and actor Scott Poythress as Clark nearly steals the film as the landlord who winds up in the middle of the battle between the three main characters. He even dons his own tinfoil hat by the third section of the movie to preserve his brain from the evil signals and keeps the hero on his journey.


Slide this one somewhere between 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead and Cloverfield, and add in a loving homage to movies like Texas Chainsaw and Hills Have Eyes. It's a brutal trip, shot in just 13 days by some very talented performers and creators.

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Even the most mindless summer of movie fun can have it's serious cinema too. So on a final note today, take a look at the very literate and compelling Jasminembla's Weekly. Her recent post on the folktales about The Man in the Moon is greatly researched and fascinating. She also did a recent take on vampires and zombies.

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Since "The Signal" put me into apocalyptic thoughts, I discovered this entry online about Hacking The Entire Planet to bring about doomsday scenarios. It's a time-honored genre event. And once again, technology has provided us with ways today to smash it all apart. Hey, if we can create global climate change by accident, why not alter the world by design? Or, as mentioned above, what about the Moon?

One of my favorite world-destroying events was in the animated TV show, "The Tick". In one episode Chairface Chippendale devises a dastardly plot to literally carve his name onto the surface of the Moon. Thank goodness for The Tick, who stops his plan -- although only after the gigantic letters of C-H-A have already been cut into the lunar surface. For the rest of the series, whenever the Moon was in a shot, you could still see CHA on the Moon.

Interviewer: Well, can you... blow up the world?
Tick: Egad. I hope not. That's where I keep all my stuff.

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EXTRA: The 34th Annual Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror's Saturn Awards were handed out this week. Big winners were "Enchanted" and "Lost". The list included:

Best science fiction film, "Cloverfield"
Best horror film, "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
Best action/adventure/thriller film: "300"

The full list is here.

The Petabyte Age

Both the ways and the amounts of info-collecting about you, about each person on the planet, about all life, has likely gone far beyond the ability of most of us to comprehend. The shrugging off of the recently passed new law on immunity for previously illegal eavesdropping is surely proof of that. It isn't about protecting you - it's about preserving the controls of power, and insuring that all the information available is collected, tagged, organized and stored for uses both known and unknown.

It's changing the game, not just the rules.

The vast majority of people imagine that spying on someone, wiretaps we so quaintly call it, involves some movie-style human observation of another human. The tech today is light years away from such action. That's why the government moved so fiercely to include electronic surveillance and change the FISA law.

Machines collect data at levels most of us - me included - have trouble grasping. Wired magazine's July issue does a good job of explaining some of this, that we are already in the Petabyte Age. What's a petabyte? Well, consider that 1 terabyte is about a $200 hard drive capable of holding 280,000 songs. There are 1,204 terabytes in 1 petabyte - currently Google can process 1 petabyte every 78 minutes. It's a number that will soon change too.

"The Petabyte Age is different because more is different. Kilobytes were stored on floppy disks. Megabytes were stored on hard disks. Terabytes were stored in disk arrays. Petabytes are stored in the cloud. As we moved along that progression, we went from the folder analogy to the file cabinet analogy to the library analogy to — well, at petabytes we ran out of organizational analogies."

Wired examines how in just the last few years, data collection of enormous magnitudes are changing the way we live now and will live soon - dealing with, among other things, astronomy, biology, news-tracking, political databases. The full list of their recent report is here.

So most of us just can't conceive of how the new laws regarding FISA have removed most any kind of personal privacy, or that it apparently arrived by telecoms purchasing the influence needed to pass the law.

"Maplight.org analyzed the contributions to both sets of the Democrats and found that those who switched their votes received, on average, 40 percent more money in campaign contributions over the last three years from Sprint, Verizon and AT&T's political action committees.

On average, those who changed their votes collected $8,359 dollars from those PACs from January 2005 through March 2008, while those who did not change their opposition collected $4,987.

For all House members, including Republicans, those supporting immunity collected nearly twice as much money from those PACs than those who did not: $9,659 to $4,810.

Maplight.org was careful not to say that any member's vote was purchased, but says the correlation raises questions.

Correlations -- that's what the data collection is all about:

"There is now a better way. Petabytes allow us to say: "Correlation is enough." We can stop looking for models. We can analyze the data without hypotheses about what it might show. We can throw the numbers into the biggest computing clusters the world has ever seen and let statistical algorithms find patterns where science cannot."

Interview With Congressional Candidate Rob Russell

As promised, 1st District Congressional candidate Rob Russell, a Democrat, agreed to answer a few questions on issues and campaigning in East Tennessee. My first question was on the fact that the East Tennessee media really has done little other than to provide coverage to the incumbent Republican David Davis and his GOP challenger Phil Roe. And after reading his responses to all the questions I submitted, I think I see why he gets such little coverage -- his message could easily win many voters and end 130 years of Republican rule in East Tennessee.

My thanks to Mr. Russell for his time and for his work to respond and if you wish to visit his website, go here.

NOTE and UPDATE: If you are already prepared to ignore this post or are in any way bored with American politics, then you will instead want to go here first. If after reading what is written there does not actually hurl you back to this interview with honest-to-Pete Patriotic Fervor, A Renewed Sense of the Goodness of America, and a Savvy Political Mind -- then, my friends, you may not be Americans at all. Oh how I wish I had wrote what she did. So even if you feel fine with reading the interview below, you dang well better read the Wisdom of DeMarCaTionVille.

So, now that you attention is solid and firm --

1. Have any of the East TN media even contacted you for any stories or coverage of your campaign? Has this hampered your campaign efforts?

In comparison to the amount of coverage the Roe and Davis campaigns have received – almost daily coverage in the major local newspapers, such as the Kingsport Times-News (which is the local paper I subscribe to) -- the coverage has been slight. The absence of coverage from the Times-News has been particularly stinging, since when the paper covers political events, such as the NETAR Candidates' Breakfast on June 13, it fails to mention that I was even there (and I spoke directly after Dr. Roe).

My thanks go out to the Greeneville Sun, who has managed to cover me both times I've spoken in Greeneville. I've had singular mentions in Morristown's Citizen-Tribune, The Johnson City Press, and the Bristol Herald-Courier, so I'd like to thank them, as well. I was asked to appear on WBIR-TV's "Inside Tennessee" (based in Knoxville, WBIR reaches about 1/3, the western end, of the First District), and did so, but neither Roe nor Davis showed. No TV stations that are actually in the First District have contacted me at all.

It appears that most of the regional news media has treated the race as if the Democratic Party doesn't even exist. Maybe they have a point -- my race isn't strongly contested. However, is this balanced coverage? Certainly not.

Probably the biggest effect this non-coverage has had on my campaign has been in the fundraising department. I'm not an experienced fundraiser or campaigner: I love to speak with people about the issues, but I hate to ask anyone for money, especially in these hard economic times – the people who I hope will support me are the very same people who can't afford to give much, financially, to a candidate. In contrast, Davis and Roe have large war chests and campaign staffs, as well as some built-in advantages: Davis can send out promotional material at tax-payer expense and Roe has a built-in soapbox as Mayor of Johnson City. I'm a state university employee with two small children, a working wife and a moderate income who just happens to be the only viable Democratic candidate – so I can't really expect to compete on promotional front at the level of Davis and Roe. I don't have their resources, their staffs, or their fundraising machinery. I'm hoping this will change somewhat after the primary.

2. What issues do residents tell you are of the highest priority? What concerns do you hear from business owners?

When I was thinking about running, I considered what issues were most important to average East Tennesseans like me. As a regular guy who commutes to work each day, has a working wife, two kids and all the responsibilities that come with working hard to succeed in America -- a mortgage, car payments, student loans, etc. – the issues that most worry my mind every day are healthcare, education and the economy. These concerns are on our minds when we're filling up our cars, when we're budgeting what we can afford to spend on groceries, when we are deciding which prescriptions to refill this week or wait until next, and when we think of our children's' futures. Everywhere I go, what I say about these issues resonates with voters, and many of them share their stories with me.

One story relates to your question about what I hear from business owners. When I spoke in Morristown back in April, a small business owner explained how she and her husband were struggling with the cost of insurance premiums for themselves and their employees. The dramatic rise in their healthcare costs is creating a situation where she has to decide whether to give up the business entirely or risk bankruptcy by paying escalating costs.

The healthcare situation in America is bad for business, bad for Americans, and bad for America. Both Roe and Davis believe the free market can fix this (and hasn't it done a great job so far?), but many experts, such as Welmont CEO Dr. Richard Salluzzo, disagree, recommending that the government play a part in guaranteeing fairness and justice in healthcare, whether it is in the form of creating a "universal" single-payer program or acting as a fair broker helping to regulate a fairer system. Right now we are the world's biggest per-capita spender on healthcare but at the bottom of the heap when it comes to patient satisfaction, quality, and fairness; we are also the only wealthy nation that doesn't consider affordable, quality healthcare as a right of citizenship. We are also the only country among the wealthy nations that allows its citizens to go bankrupt due to medical costs. This, even more than our mid-level educational rankings in terms of math, science, and reading, is a disgrace. Rising healthcare costs also have substantial, hidden effects: it's estimated the $2,000 of the price of every American car goes to pay for autoworkers' health benefits. This is compared to $600 per car in Japan -- a country with universal healthcare. Americans deserve better.

The economy and education are also very important issues for me, but because of its overall impact on our family security and our pride as a nation, healthcare reform is my first priority.

3. If you earn the party's nomination, would you be willing to hold a debate or two with the candidate from the GOP side prior to the fall election?

In 2006, I was very frustrated seeing how Davis, the Republican nominee, simply ignored the existence of Rick Trent who'd won the Democratic nod. There was no debate, no acknowledgement of any opinion other than the radical, right-wing point-of-view that Davis represented – which didn't even represent the majority of Republicans voting in the primary that year. I soon learned, from speaking to others, that this disdainful treatment of Democratic candidates was par for the course in the 1st District -- Jenkins refused calls to debate, or even to appear on "unfriendly" radio or television programs. I understand why Republican nominees and incumbents in this area act this way: if your party has been in power for 130 years straight, why should allow yourself to be put on an equal footing with other "upstart" parties? I don't think that Davis is afraid of a debate, I simply think that he doesn't see it as a necessity, and may even see it as damaging to his credibility.

That being said, refusing to participate in open debate is un-democratic: debate is part of the American political tradition, and getting your message across to all of the voters -- not just your narrow constituency -- should be the duty of any candidate. I would love to participate in a debate with Congressman Davis, possibly sponsored by and airing on a local television station. Some local media outlet should jump at the chance to do that -- not only would it serve the public interest, but also actually getting to see their congressman "in action" would probably draw a lot of voters to their TV sets.

4. On your web site you write: "East Tennessee deserves a real voice, someone who will fight for the best interests of all hard-working East Tennesseans, not the big-business special interests who have controlled our region's destiny for far too long." Could you elaborate on that topic?

The fact that no voice other than a Republican one has represented our region for 130 years is, for some, reason enough to make a change, but recent events have proven that the economic agenda of the Republican party – pro-corporate welfare / anti- fair wages for working people; against saving Social Security and reforming healthcare / for tax cuts for the wealthy and reckless de-regulation of mortgage trading and commodities markets – is against the best interests of the vast majority of East Tennesseans.

In my opinion, recent representation has shown no desire to help the region recover from the de-industrialization that decimated our industrial base in the 80s and 90s, and if Davis is allowed to have an additional term, we are in for an even worse time as our economy heads further south and prices soar. Forget that he's a millionaire; forget that he's a healthcare insider; forget that he's not actually from East Tennessee. Voters should simply ask themselves, should East Tennessee be represented by someone whose major campaign contributors are fossil-fuel energy PACs, pharmaceutical company PACs, and military contractors, when three of the biggest issues the next Congress will vote on are energy policy, healthcare, and military involvement in Iraq? Should we elect a representative who has received nearly half a million in campaign contributions from these special interests? Would such a representative really consider the best interests of East Tennesseans first?

5. Historically, the 1st District has not been successful in getting Democrat voters to get more involved. Do you work with party leaders on this issue and what plans do you have to change this typically low turnout?

In the last election, Rick Trent, a virtual unknown outside of Morristown, was able to mobilize a considerable amount of voters in a mid-term election, receiving 37% of the vote, quite a showing for a first-time Democratic challenger in this area. In the past few months I've met most of the county party leaders and spoken to many Democratic groups in the district: all are eager to see Davis un-seated. There are some Democrats and independent-minded voters who, instead of supporting a Democrat, are throwing support behind Phil Roe, Davis' major Republican challenger: this is understandable, of course (it has been 130 years since the last Democrat was elected to Congress from this district), but I think that many of these folks will support me once the dust clears. Also, with the presidential election-taking place, I expect more active participation among 20, 30 and 40-somethings who are not currently active in politics, but who are very much concerned about the future. I've heard some folks refer to this as "the blue tide," and I hope there's some truth to that.

For my part, I plan to work with the county organizations, of course, but also hope to reach out to those, like myself, who aren't involved in party organizations but realize that a change, a real change (not just a different Republican) is necessary for this region to have an authentic voice in Washington.

6. What prompted you to enter the race for Congress? Also, what influences inspired you to seek office?

It sounds cheesy, I know, but my primary motivation is the thought that my children may very well have less opportunity than I had in terms of jobs and education -- that they will be the first generation in American history that is guaranteed not to do as well as their parents as a result of the disastrous economic and foreign policy decisions made by the previous two generations. I don't want my son fighting in Iraq if he chooses to serve in the military; I don't want my daughter saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt just to have a chance at having as much earning power as a man with the same education. I want to help make things better for their generation, like the way things improved between my grandparents and parents' generations, not stay the same or go backwards.

As for influences, there's a moment during the credits of "An Inconvenient Truth" where the writing on the screen suggests that audience members write to their congressman, and if he or she doesn't listen, run for congress. Al Gore was primarily referring to the global environmental crisis, but this is a crucial time in America for so many other reasons – healthcare, the economy, education – and decision-makers who aren't afraid to make hard choices are required. When I am in Congress, I will be accountable to one group of people, and that's the people of East Tennessee – not big business or other special interests – and I can guarantee that when tough choices have to be made, it's the people I've grown up with, lived and worked with who will be in my thoughts.

7. What weaknesses do you see in the issues promoted by incumbent Congressman David Davis?

One problem Davis is having is the same one many other Republican incumbents seeking re-election now face: what do I run on, having accomplished nothing other than supporting an unpopular, lame-duck president's bad decisions and contributing to partisan bickering? An embarrassingly out-of-touch, "no we can't" voting record – votes against increasing the minimum wage, against anti-dog fighting laws, against health insurance for children living in poverty, against investing in alternative energy sources: all things the vast majority of Americans and East Tennesseans support – is paralleled by questionable ethics: a paid House staffer caught revising Davis' Wikipedia entry, votes and legislation that appear to be very closely tied to campaign contributions, etc.

But maybe his weakest area of all, from what I've seen and read, is that Davis is clearly out of touch with the concerns of working East Tennesseans. When he spoke at a breakfast I attended recently, giving a shortened version of the speech I've read excerpted in numerous articles about him in the Kingsport Times-News, he mentioned several "hot button" issues -- healthcare, energy prices, the mortgage crisis -- but offered little in the way of solutions, other than allowing more competition between insurance providers, building more refineries, and blaming the media, respectively. When your best alternative to high energy costs and dependence on foreign oil is some bill cooked up by a representative from Texas who is in the pocket of big oil, well, that's clearly no alternative at all, just more of the same thinking that got us in this fix to begin with. Instead of calling the bill "No Excuses," it should probably be renamed "No New Ideas" – and that title would typify Davis' entire platform.

8. What are your strongest assets as a candidate for Congress and what would you say to voters to encourage their support for your campaign?

As a husband and father, I bring to Congress a dedication to making life better for all of the people of East Tennessee, present and future. I bring the desire to see hard-working East Tennesseans have more money in their wallet and more pride in their government – a government that works for their best interests, not against them.

I have been a teacher for 16 years, and an administrator for 11. As an experienced teacher, I will bring to Congress an understanding of the concerns of hard-working people who are struggling to make lives better for their families through earning a college degree, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of those entering college straight from high schools – often rural, under-funded schools that could use a hand-up. As an administrator, I bring the experience of having to work within a budget to accomplish the tasks set out for me. I've learned how to deal with budget cuts and changes, how to meet a payroll, how to stretch the dollars when you have to meet client's needs but apparently don't have the resources to meet them, and how to fight for the people and projects that are the most important.

All that being said, I believe my strongest assets are what I am not: I'm not a career politician or a wealthy business owner (the people who are usually vying for this job); I'm not an "insider" of any sort. Instead, I'm a candidate who is one of them, a middle-class East Tennessean, and as unique and independent-minded as the people I will represent. I'm a husband and father, a teacher and a college administrator, a musician and a bit of a nerd. Most of all, I'm passionate about wanting what's best for East Tennessee -- not what's best for the wealthy or big business -- and when I get to Washington I'll work my tail off to make sure that our region has a voice in the extremely important decisions that are going to be made by the next Congress.