My Tortured Valentine

Phil Valentine, the Rush Limbaugh-wannabe who now writes a weekly column for the Tennessean, believes that although waterboarding should be considered torture, it should still be allowed in U.S. interrogations:

To answer that question, one must know exactly what waterboarding is. This is a technique of last resort used by interrogators. The prisoner's face is covered with cellophane. Water is then poured over the cellophane. It's said to trigger an unbearable gag reflex. There's no lasting physical damage but there is the possibility of recurring nightmares over the procedure. Is that torture? The presidential candidates have been dancing around that very question. I think there's no question that it is. Should it be off limits to U.S. military and intelligence officials? That's another question altogether.

First of all, it shouldn't be another question altogether. If waterboarding is in fact torture, then under U.S. law, it is ILLEGAL. I suppose if you still had a rubber-stamp Republican Congress in place, they could amend the law so that waterboarding could be allowed, but as it stands now, acts of torture are still illegal.

And by the way Mr. Valentine, aren't you the one who's always saying that you're against illegal immigrants not because they're Hispanic, but because they're breaking the law? Does this mean that you only want certain laws enforced and don't mind bending other ones?

The rest of the op-ed is equally disingenuous. Take, for example, Valentine's attempt to counter John McCain's argument as to why the U.S. should not torture:

His opinion is that torture should never be used by the United States. One reason he gives is that it didn't work on him. The reason it didn't work on him is because he didn't know anything.

Uh, no, that's not why it didn't work. It didn't work because he lied to the Viet Cong and told them anything to get them to stop. When asked for the names in his squadron, he gave them the names of the Green Bay Packers' offensive line. McCain's point is that torture produces bad intelligence. For all we know, the detainees at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib are doing the same to us, making stuff up in order to save themselves. Valentine brought up the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, whom he claims gave up valuable information and saved lives after we waterboarded him. However, we also know that KSM gave us a good deal of misinformation as well, proving McCain's argument.

So what we have is yet another conservative who never served a day in the military trying to pretend like they understand this subject better than a Vietnam War hero.

Other examples of disingenuousness:

Any kind of torture should be used sparingly...

How sparingly? Specifics?

...and have knowledge crucial to saving lives.

But how would we know that in advance? Our troops aren't psychic, how would they know what the prisoners know before they started the interrogation? Seems to me that by that logic, you'd either have to torture everyone just to err on the side of caution, or torture none of them because you wouldn't know in advance what, if any, information they have!

Finally, all of this assumes that those performing the interrogations know exactly what they're doing, that they never make mistakes. But what happens when something goes wrong? Humans are not perfect, mistakes are inevitable. Mr. Valentine, have you even considered the implications of what might happen if someone were to die in U.S. custody while in the process of being waterboarded?

And if nothing else, this should give you pause:

I learned how some of the young American military interrogators in Iraq, in places like Mosul, Fallujah and, of course, Abu Ghraib, used “24”’s screenplays as a guidebook when trying to figure out the right way to extract information from detainees. Lacking leadership from the likes of Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush, they turned instead to Jack Bauer for insight and inspiration.

“All the people who were actually conducting interrogations were privates or specialists who had no idea what they were doing,” Tony Lagouranis, a former U.S. Army interrogator at Abu Ghraib, said in an interview. “[The Bush Administration] said the Geneva Conventions don’t apply, so we had no idea what the rules were. They took away our rules and our training, so we really had nothing to fall back on, and the only role models we had were from TV and movies.”

Even if you think waterboarding should be allowed, the fact that the troops performing the interrogations have so few guidelines that they're relying on a fictional TV show to figure out what to do should scare the hell out of you.

So Mr. Valentine, let's review. Torture doesn't work, it produces bad intelligence, and it negates the U.S.'s moral high ground. Even if that wasn't the case, torture would only work if everyone involved in the interrogations knew exactly what they were doing, and as we've seen, they often don't.

Maybe you ought to stick to bashing immigrants. It seems to be more your forte, and unlike military actions, it's a subject you actually know something about.

The Sunday Liberal Blog Roundup, 12-30-07

(Sorry I'm late in reposting this)

An abbreviated "on-the-road live from Memphis" edition of our weekly sampling from some of Tennessee's best and brightest bloggers:

• 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera: Authentic Russian dinner for the holidays (yum!)

• Andy Axel (at TennViews): Red pickup on fumes

• BlountViews: Blount one of seven Tennessee counties to pass new property tax freeze for seniors

• The Crone Speaks: Who benefits?

• Cup of Joe Powell: Liberal fascism

• Enclave: Davidson Co. Election Commission data theft

• Fletch: Favorite 2007 photo

• KnoxViews: Fair tax discussion

• Lean Left: A holiday we should celebrate in America

• Left Wing Cracker: It's a cultural celebration, not a religious one

• Loose TN Canon: Bill Maher at Berklee

• NewsComa: Happy blog anniversary to NewsComa!

• Progress Nashville: Top 10 Progressive New Year's Wishes, Day 8

• Resonance: 2008 Energy outlook

• RoaneViews: Clinch River protection pact

• Russ McBee: Musharraf walks a tightrope

• Sean Braisted:Fun with framing

• Sharon Cobb: Analysis: candidates react to Bhutto assassination

• Silence Isn't Golden: Right of refusal does not extend to infants

• Southern Beale: Davidson Co. voter data theft casts shadow over next election

• Tennessee Guerilla Women: Ron Paul considers third party bid

• TennViews: Democratic candidates on health care

• Whites Creek Journal: Off the grid

• Women's Health News: Women's Health year in review

The Right of Refusal

This article on the front page of the Tennessean today caught my eye, since I took a class last semester on bioethics and this was one of the issues that we covered.

It seems that a baby girl born last week at Vanderbilt needed a blood transfusion, but her Jehovah's Witness parents refused to consent to the surgery, saying it would violate their religious beliefs. The hospital went to court and got the judge to order the surgery to go forward.

The law is pretty clear on this--competent adults have the right to refuse treatment on religious grounds, which is the way it should be. There have been some exceptions made for teenagers to refuse as well, and in fact the courts allowed a Jehovah's Witness teenager to refuse treatment for leukemia just a month ago. But under the law, parents may not refuse treatment of infant children if a lack of treatment will lead to their death.

Which, again, is the way it should be.

It all comes down to consent. An infant child cannot consent to their own death, meaning that it would be in violation of a doctor's Hippocratic Oath to do anything but try and save the child's life. Adults and teenagers can assess their own situations and make whatever decision they think is best, but infants cannot.

The law in this case has painful consequences, to be sure, but it's pretty much the only way to ensure that religious beliefs don't outweigh a person's life, and vice-versa.

The Christian Right vs. NIMBY, Round 2

Several months ago, I wrote about the proposed "Bible Park, USA" that was to be built in Rutherford County. The plan was moving along quite smoothly, until it smacked into the forces of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard). The developers were shocked--how could any GOOD CHRISTIAN oppose what they were doing? It seemed that while the residents of Blackman were not necessarily opposed to a theme park exploiting religion to make a profit, they just wanted it in someone else's neighborhood. It wasn't simply NIMBY, however, since Blackman is a highly residential area, and therefore an inappropriate place for a theme park. The opposition was so strong that the developers were forced to back down for awhile.

But with the new year will come a new push for the Bible Park:

"The project is moving forward in the new year, and as the project moves forward, there will be multiple, large-scale public meetings," said Terri Sterling, spokeswoman for the developers.

The meetings will be in the form of an open house, with the development team for the theme park setting up displays and giving presentations on plans for the park, Sterling said.

However, the opposition is gearing up once again as well:

"I don't really expect anything different," said John L. Batey, an area farmer who helped organize a petition drive against the park last summer. "They've been trying to get everything together to present to the county, but it's nothing we haven't heard before."

Batey said the fight will continue.

**********************************

Residents have garnered petitions against the park, posted "No Theme Park" signs in their yards, produced T-shirts proclaiming their stance, launched Web sites in opposition to the park and hounded county and state officials in efforts to prevent the park from progressing.

From the outset, skepticism has persisted about the nature of the park, the location of the park and the means by which developers hope to pay for its construction. Residents contend the park will lead to increased traffic and a drop in property values.

After eight months, little has happened to dissuade those concerns, Batey said.

"In four months, it'll be 12 months since this came up," said Batey. "I don't think people in the area have been sold on the idea since then and they are still opposed to it.

"This is a residential community."

The means by which developers hope to pay for its construction needs to be discussed at length. This whole business comes a little to close of government subsidizing religion for me (they claim it's not because it's a "non-evangelical" park. Only problem with that is, it becomes evangelical the moment someone uses it for outreach). Furthermore, one of the biggest arguments for this theme park is that it will bring in tax dollars to Rutherford County, but how long do you think it will take for these people to try and claim tax-exempt status (as a "religious organization", which is what they are)? So then taxpayers will be left subsidizing a park that provides some minimum wage jobs and not much more.

But of course, that's not the main opposition the Blackman residents have. The developers are trying to force a theme park into an area that's not even zoned for commercial use, let alone tourism.

I still blame Gaylord Entertainment for all of this. If they hadn't taken Opryland away from us, there would be no market for another theme park!

Bellevue Blues, In Flux

Via NewsChannel 5, the Bellevue Center mall has officially been bought by California-based real estate company FourSquare Properties.

No word yet on what sort of tax incentives Metro is planning to offer, but Metro Council is planning to vote on it at some point in January. I certainly hope all of this will take place before I head back to New York, because I have a LOT of questions I'd like to ask these people. As I've said before, I'm not at all adverse to the idea of giving FourSquare tax incentives; I understand that's how you attract businesses to a growing city like Nashville. I just can't stand the secrecy that's surrounded this whole deal from the beginning, and I would just like to know what, exactly, we're getting into! The pictures on the FourSquare website look really pretty, but do you have anything more concrete than that?

The NewsChannel 5 story brought up another potential wrinkle into the plan, what to do about the businesses (or what's left of them) currently occupying the mall. They interviewed the owners of "Say Cheese", a restaurant and catering business in the mall. The owners are concerned about losing money on their investment and finding a new location, because of increasing rents.

My mother's exact response to this:

"I really hope we're not all being held hostage to a grilled-cheese restaurant!"

Joking aside, this brings up another question. What do Metro and FourSquare plan to do about reimbursing these people? Rents in Bellevue are certainly not as high as elsewhere in the city, but if this "lifestyle center" works out, you have to think that rents will increase exponentially in the next few years. True, anyone who's opened a store in Bellevue Mall since 2000 had to realize that the mall was in serious decline, but then again, the store owners should not be punished for poor decisions on the part of the mall managament. FourSquare could really prove their commitment to Bellevue by giving all of these people a generous buyout offer.

I guess we'll find out soon enough.

UPDATE: Metro is still reviewing FourSquare's proposal, but FourSquare was legally obligated to close the deal on the land before the end of the year. The mall was purchased for $28 million, and the deal includes several vacant lots around the mall as well. The previous owners had purchased the land for nearly $36 million between 1997 and 2004, so this just shows how severely the mall has declined in the last few years. Interestingly, while the deal includes the Dillard's plot, Macy's has held onto its own land and does not intend to close its store just yet. In my humble opinion, Macy's would make a far better anchor for the outdoor mall than Cabela's.

There's My Answer

Last night, I wondered where the "pro-lifers" were during the outcry over 17-year old Nataline Sarkisyan's death at the hands of her insurer, Cigna.

Apparently, they were too busy setting fires at abortion clinics two states over in New Mexico to worry about a girl who was actually alive.

Really nice people. I'm sure that is EXACTLY what Jesus would do.

Anyone Up For a Road Trip?

I know this will sound really random and last-minute, but I've got more than two weeks of winter break left and I'm starting to get a little bored.

Anyone want to drive up to Iowa for the caucuses?

I'd like to go, but it's a 9 1/2 hour drive to Iowa City from here, and almost 12 hours to Des Moines (and that's all dependent on how much traffic we hit in St. Louis), so I'd need at least one other person to split the driving.

I'm still trying to get more info on this, but from what I've heard, the Obama campaign in Iowa is placing volunteers with host families, so we wouldn't have to worry about housing. I suppose you could still come with me if you're not backing Obama, but then you'd be on your own :)

Shoot me an e-mail ASAP if you're interested.

Where Were the "Pro-Lifers"?

That question has been nagging me for several days now, since hearing the story of Nataline Sarkisyan.

If you haven't heard, Nataline Sarkisyan was a 17-year old leukemia patient in California who had developed an infection following a bone marrow transplant, and needed an emergency liver transplant to survive. Her doctors at UCLA Medical Center had approved this course of action and given her a 65% chance of survival with the transplant. However, the Sarkisyan family's health insurer, Cigna, refused to pay for the treatment, citing it as "too experimental," even though they had given their initial approval a week beforehand. In their refusal, the insurance company overrode the expert opinion of the doctors and forced the family to deal with a bureaucratic mess as their daughter's health took a turn for the worse. Cigna finally reversed their decision following massive protests, but it was too late for Nataline, who died only minutes after the reversal.

Let's call it what it is--Cigna murdered this young woman. There is absolutely no reason why the opinion of a bureaucrat should be allowed to overrule the expert opinion of a doctor. Cigna decided that it would be cheaper to allow her to die rather than to take a chance on a life-saving treatment.

But I still want to know...where were the "pro-lifers" during all of this? Specifically, where were the people who spent weeks protesting outside Terri Schiavo's hospital? We've heard nothing but silence from these people.

The pro-lifers were outraged that Terri Schiavo would be pulled from life support. They wanted to prolong her physical life as long as possible, even if she was already physically gone. Because all life is sacred, right?

So why wasn't Nataline Sarkisyan's life just as sacred to these people? Why is it that when a living, breathing, conscious human being's life is on the line, the concern for fetuses and people in vegetative states turns into an urge to defend the insurance companies and a disdain for those in need of health care?

It brings up an interesting hypothetical. What if Terri Schiavo's entire family, including her husband, had agreed to keep her on life support, but couldn't afford to do so and needed assistance? Bear in mind, her insurance coverage ran out in 1990. Would everyone have rallied around her in the same way? Or would the Christian Right have kept silent in deferrence to their corporate allies in the GOP? I can just envision some Fox News anchor accusing the Schiavo family of being "socialist" for requesting help in caring for Terri.

The "culture of life" seems to actually be a culture of death. It's not really about life, it's all about the Benjamins.

On a related note, my father (who's a physician) commented that the lawsuit that the Sarkisyan family plans to file against Cigna (and the possible murder charges that the state of California is looking into) might finally change the health care system in this country and end the predatory practices of the insurance companies. I think that it should sicken us as a society that it took the death of a 17-year old girl to force that change. But I certainly hope he's right.

And It Doesn't Get Any Easier

So enjoy it for what it is, Kyle Broflovski. You get a day off to watch movies and eat Chinese food!



And to the rest of you, have a very Merry Christmas!

UPDATE: Another classic, for any Christian who's ever wondered what we Jews do on Christmas:

The Sunday Liberal Blog Roundup, 12-23-07

From TennViews:

A "Jingle Bells" edition of our weekly sampling from some of Tennessee's best and brightest bloggers:

• 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera: Democrats fail to show up on SCHIP, bonus: Wordless Wednesday

• Andy Axel: Brr!

• BlountViews: Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft, also BlountViews in the news, bonus: Best Christmas music video ever

• The Crone Speaks: Bad Santa

• Cup of Joe Powell: Without restraint, totally beyond the pale, bonus: Sophie spins some Christmas soul music

• Enclave: NOLA housing crisis roundup, plus The David Bowie/Bing Crosby Christmas duet classic

• Fletch: New coal plant on fast track, plus Wordless Wednesday, bonus: 'Tis the Season

• KnoxViews: Energy bill gets 50MPG on way to White House. plus UT launches tobacco research center - anything for a buck

• Lean Left: Obama and Alter's faulty memory, plus: Huckabee's video Christmas card

• Left Wing Cracker: Larry King impersonation ramble, plus: Nat King Cole for Christmas

• Loose TN Canon: Conservative climate science ignorance on parade, bonus: Fried Cheesecake

• NewsComa: The rural factor in presidential politics, bonus: Christopher Walken's Night Before Christmas (warning: children should leave the room)

• Pesky Fly: Separated at birth, plus: McCain beneficiary of Chucklebee fallout but Romney by a nose?

• Progress Nashville: Starving the poor, plus Corker wading into 2010 minefield, and Top 10 Progressive New Year's Wishes, Day 1

• Resonance: Pelosi surprised by Republican resolve

• RoaneViews: State Sen.Tommy Kilby on Tennessee's sunshine law, plus Alvin C. York and the origin of turkey shoots

• Russ McBee: State Sen. Randy McNally having second thoughts on changing Tennessee's sunshine law plus, A Christmas story

• Sean Braisted: (back at home) A law firm divided

• Sharon Cobb: Gov. Bredesen should follow Gov. Corzine's lead on death penalty, plus Expect to see Republican politicians, country artists and Ted Nugent on late-nite TV

• Silence Isn't Golden: Reporting in from the Obama Nashville HQ opening, bonus: possibly the stupidest letter to the editor ever, plus (sorry, missed from last week): Happy Hanukkah

• Southern Beale: Ron Paul's true Republican credentials, plus Gift idea for the person who has everything except health insurance, plus 12 Days of Christmas

• Tennessee Guerilla Women: Coverage denied, girl dies and a follow up, plus You're so lame - let the party begin!

• TennViews: Bush to California: Drop dead, plus State Rep. Beth Harwell's toxic toys, and Tennessee election study recommends paper audit trail and other reforms, and 1968

• Whites Creek Journal: Tilt and the gift of the mysterious, plus This technology must be stopped!

• Women's Health News: Spermicide in your hair dye?

John Edwards, Snake-Oil Salesman

It seems that the ideologically pure image that John Edwards has been trying to sell Democratic voters throughout this election cycle isn't quite so pure after all.

John Edwards likes to sell himself as someone who will rid Washington of special interests, lobbyists and PACs. He has also previously decried dirty campaign tactics and the unregulated "527s" that are allowed to run ads on behalf of a candidate:

''The way the law exists today is you have no control,'' Edwards said Thursday. ''You're not allowed by law to have contact or to coordinate with 527s. So can you discourage it? Yes, and I do.''

So why, then, are there at least two 527s with direct connections to John Edwards running negative ads against Barack Obama in Iowa?

One group, Democratic Courage, is run by Glen Hurowitz, someone who has not only endorsed John Edwards, but someone whom the Edwards campaign noted had endorsed them in a press release in October. So it's not as if the Edwards campaign has had NO connection with this guy whatsoever. Check out their website, by the way....the "Santa Obama" ad is really cute. Everything in that ad has been thoroughly debunked, but why let that get in the way of a cheap shot?

The ads that Barack Obama is specifically complaining about, however, are the ones recently paid for (to the tune of nearly $800,000) by another pro-Edwards 527, the Alliance for a New America. And this group has even closer ties to John Edwards:

The "Alliance for a New America" is said to be funded by the Service Employees International Union and is run by a longtime close aide to John Edwards, Nick Baldick.

Naturally, the Edwards campaign is not only feigning ignorance, but also pointing fingers at everyone else to deflect this criticism, refusing to acknowledge the contradictions with Edwards' own rhetoric:

Edwards, who was also campaigning in Iowa Saturday, said in response to Obama's criticisms that he would like to ban political committees of the type known as 527s, and that he had no knowledge of the ad buy, which was made independently of his campaign.

********************

Edwards suggested his rival's criticism stemmed more from concern that Edwards may be gaining ground in Iowa.

"I guess he's seeing the same thing on the ground that we're seeing here, which is why he's started talking about me, which is that we're moving," Edwards said.

Right, of course. Everyone "fears the change" that John Edwards will bring, so that's why they attack him. No criticism of John Edwards is valid, because he represents THE PEOPLE, while everyone else represents THE CORPORATI$T$. Granted, earlier this afternoon, a statement appeared on the John Edwards website, asking that 527s stop running ads. But of course it doesn't mention these 527s specifically, and is merely to "discourage" these groups. So now, he can continue to reap the benefits of these ads, and he doesn't have to say anything more about it (because he already complained, after all!).

But the claim that no one on the campaign had no prior knowledge of any of this rings hollow for me as well. Do you know what it reminds me of? I'm seeing shades of Bob Corker and the "Hey Harold, call me" ad in this whole business. It's a tried-and-true campaign trick...get a third party to do the dirty work for you so that you can feign outrage and ignorance, thus taking the moral high ground. The Corker campaign insisted that they had had no prior knowledge of the ad, a claim that to this day I still don't buy. It is extremely difficult for me to believe that someone at the top of the Corker campaign didn't give tacit approval to the ad, or at the very least didn't know about it in advance. True, Bob Corker pretended to be upset and asked for it to be pulled...several days after the fact, after everyone had already seen the ad!

Senator Edwards, you can't have it both ways. You can't say that you're against all 527s while continuing to reap the benefits from their contributions. You can't oppose special-interest group donations, with the exception of the ones that donate to you. Just because a 527 is funded by unions does not mean that they're somehow "different". It doesn't work that way.

Pregnant, Wearing Shoes, and In Congress!

Ladies and gentlemen, via a friend of mine in Upstate NY, we have found a winner for the dumbest letter to the editor ever written. And I am pleased to say that it did NOT come from the Tennessean!

Instead, it comes from the Glens Falls Post Star (Glens Falls is near Albany), and it regards their Congresswoman, Kirsten Gillibrand, and her recently announced pregnancy. It's the third letter down:

Editor:

Regarding a story that appeared in

The Post-Star

on Dec. 6: "Rep. Gillibrand announces she is pregnant."

First of all, I must admit that I am a male chauvinist and that there are, thankfully, differences between men and women. There are many occupations suitable for women and their physical attributes. Carrying a weapon while serving in the Armed Forces and firefighting are not suitable lines of work for women to prove that they are physically equal to men. How many male police officers feel comfortable with a 100 pound female backup?

And now, I have to add serving in the U.S. House and Senate as an occupation that may not be suitable for women.

Ms. Gillibrand's current pregnancy makes a strong case for my opinion. Ms. Gillibrand was elected to serve her constituency, and while she is away from her elected office she cannot perform those duties. The taxpayers who were duped into voting for her will have to pay for her medical benefits. Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer, Ms. Gillibrand receives excellent health benefits, courtesy of her constituents. We will be without representation in Congress for a time leading up to and following the child's birth. There will be times when she and the new baby will visit doctors. You can add those days to the total that she will not be serving her constituents.

The current base salary (2006) for members of the House and Senate is $165,200 per year. I wonder if Ms. Gillibrand will do the right thing and reimburse the U.S. Treasury in the amount of $452.60, her daily salary, for each day that she is unable to perform her elected duties. For some reason, I doubt it.

RON BLACHUT

Queensbury

I shouldn't even need to do this, but let's break this down point by point:

• Yes, Mr. Blachut, you are a chauvinist. But merely saying that men and women are different does not make you a chauvinist, it's that you're saying that men are superior to women.

• Over 160,500 women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Regardless of what the Pentagon says, these women are serving in combat roles. And in addition to worrying about getting hit by a mortar or an IED, female soldiers have to face dangers that male soldiers don't, like, I don't know, getting raped if they go to the latrine after dark. Now, Mr. Chauvinist, go up to one of these women and say to her face that she should have stayed home and baked cookies rather than defending your country while you sat on your ass writing letters to the editor. I dare you.

• Personally, if I were a cop, regardless of my gender, I'd want someone like this backing me up.

• If a fully-grown woman weighs 100 pounds, unless she's shorter than 4'10" or so, odds are she's in the hospital being treated for anorexia.

• Being a U.S. Congressman or Congresswoman is hardly the most physically demanding job there is. You are aware, Mr. Chauvinist, that pregnancies last for approximately 9 months, right? No, probably not, you think women can just pop them out and get right back into the kitchen. Let's do a little math though...she announced her pregnancy in early December. Nine months from then will put us in early August. Mr. Chauvinist, do you know where Congresspeople usually are in August? They may be in several different places, but they're NOT IN FUCKING SESSION! The time she would be having the baby and need to take off would in no way interfere with Congressional votes!
  


• You should also be aware that a bun in the oven would not prohibit her from simply walking from her office to the House floor to vote, nor will it prohibit her staff from dealing with constituents' needs (because Congressional staffers basically get Christmas off, and that's about it). The time you will be "without representation" is far shorter than you think.

• If you think a woman should have to forgo her salary for missing work to have a baby, then there should also be no medical leave. Hope you never get sick, Mr. Chauvinist, because by your logic, your employer should not let you have any time off.

Let's be very clear here. This isn't about thinking a Congresswoman can't fully represent her constituents, nor is it about simple chauvinism. I don't even think misogyny is a strong enough term. This is a sheer hatred for women. This kind of man (if you can call it that) has no problem with pregnant women, as long as they're also barefoot and in the kitchen.

Ginger Rogers could do everything Fred Astaire could do. Only she did it backwards, and in high heels.

A Lump of Coal For Her Then

Via TNDP spokesman Wade Munday, we have word that state Democrats are calling on my representative, Beth Harwell, to disclose all chemicals and safety-testing procedures used by her family's toy company, which manufactures its products in China. This news comes on the heel of several high-profile toy recalls over the last few months due to dangerous chemicals.

Surely, because Republicans are so "pro-family" and "pro-life", as we all know, they'd want full disclosure of stuff like this as well, to find out who exactly is profitting off of putting everyone's children in danger, right? Riiiiiiight?

Well, not quite, the kids can be sacrificed in order to protect their own. TNGOP SpinMaster Bill Hobbs, on Volunteer Voters:

Not only that, but the TN Dems have fired this BB before. Attacking Beth Harwell because her family’s toy company makes stuff in China is a perennial from the Dems.

First of all, maybe I'm just out of the loop, but this is the first time I'm hearing about this. And again, she's my representative (unfortunately). But even if it has been brought up before, it's a bigger and more important story now, in light of all the recalls.

But naturally, Mr. Hobbs sees nothing wrong with a prominent state Representative having family ties to a company that manufactures unsafe toys in China. They deflect the question to cover up for one of their own. The rhetoric of "family values" certainly provides for a nice mask, now doesn't it?

See also: Brainstem

Dammit

My fall semester grades just went up. Naturally, I make straight A's for the first time in my college career AFTER I've already applied to law school. The Law of Comic Inevitability strikes again!

Bellevue Blues, Once Again

The plan to redesign the Bellevue Center mall into an "open-air" shopping center, and to revitalize Bellevue in general, may be getting a new breath of life. The only problem is, to fully resuscitate the plan is going to involve a good chunk of cash:

The mall plan would be the first suburban project in the city to use a repayment mechanism called tax-increment financing. The city would sell nearly $12.3 million in bonds to help the buyers make improvements, and an estimated $1.8 million in annual property tax revenues generated by the redeveloped mall would go to pay off the city's debt for up to 30 years.

The city couldn't use that money for schools, police or other services.

"Obligating arguably $50 million of tax dollars over a 30-year period is not something to be taken lightly," Riebeling said.

But supporters say the city would benefit, too. The buyers' plan says Metro would get about $7.875 million a year in new sales tax revenues, and the project would create 1,800 to 2,300 jobs directly and 1,000 more positions indirectly, through economic growth around the mall.

Now, I've long mourned the demise of my neighborhood mall, and would certainly hope that Metro would step in and help give a boost to this once-thriving area. I love the idea of having an open-air shopping center--I've seen the concept work very well in other cities (they have a REALLY nice one in Wilmington, NC, and that sort of structure would work nicely in Bellevue), and it saves Bellevue Mall from becoming a Wal-Mart or another big box store, which is what Bellevue definitely does not need right now. If the shopping center ends up looking anything like the pictures they have on the Foursquare website, then the whole thing would definitely be a boon to the area. However, after going through the plan, I must say that there are too many questions left unanswered for it to be a good idea for Metro to put down any money anytime soon.

My biggest problem is that months after these negotiations began, we STILL have no idea what kind of anchor stores these developers plan to bring here. According to the FourSquare website, they can't legally negotiate contracts with possible new retailers until the zoning issues get worked out, but why does that prevent them from simply saying which stores have expressed an interest? The only possibility we've heard is bringing in Bass Pro Shops rival Cabela's, and you'll pardon me for not being too enthusiastic about anchoring an entire shopping center on that (after all, isn't the point of all this to NOT simply copy Opry Mills?). The secrecy surrounding these negotiations has made it impossible to tell whether or not they have any other prospective stores lined up. And unless there are, unless you can get some sort of commitment from these stores to move into this mall, it's impossible to tell if the new mall would earn anywhere near as much sales tax revenue or create anywhere near as many jobs as they say it will.

Which leads to Problem #2. If they don't have prospective stores lined up, then they're going to need some way to entice them to come here. In order to make the kind of revenue they're predicting, they'd need to attract high-quality stores, and they'd need to give them a good reason to move to Bellevue rather than somewhere with a larger customer base. In all likelihood, that would have to take the form of tax incentives. I'm not completely adverse to the idea, it's just that this plan will likely cost far more than the developers say it will.

Problem #3 is the timing. In order to build an open-air shopping center, the developers would have to not only raze the mall but overhaul the entire surrounding area. This process would likely take several years, so you'd have to take into account the time that Metro wouldn't be making ANY sales tax on the area.

Ultimately, something needs to be done about Bellevue Mall, and whatever happens will likely require some form of assistance from Metro. The open-air mall concept could provide a huge boost to the area. But the secrecy surrounding all of these negotiations truly puts a cloud over the whole process. We need answers for what we're going to get in Bellevue, and Metro should not commit to spend this kind of money unless we get some.

On Second Thought, PLEASE Don't "Gimme More"

Not exactly a serious political story, but this was too good to pass up.

As I've admitted before, as much as it pains me, I can't help but be somewhat interested in celebrity gossip. I've been following the never-ending drama that is Britney Spears with an almost morbid fascination. But according to OK! magazine (which I can't link to right now, it looks like the site's overloading), there's a new surprise Spears pregnancy...only it's not Britney's:

Jamie Lynn Spears, the 16-year-old “Zoey 101” star and sister of Britney, told OK! magazine that she’s pregnant and that the father is her boyfriend, Casey Aldridge.

Wow, 16 and pregnant. So it looks like we're finally starting to see the repercussions of the negative messages that Britney and Lindsay and Paris have been sending to young girls--that it's more important to be "hot" and "sexy" than it is to have any sort of goals, talents, or for that matter, self-respect--and we're seeing it in the most direct way possible.

But Jamie Lynn is poised to send the worst message of all, about premarital sex:

“I definitely don’t think it’s something you should do; it’s better to wait,” she told the magazine. “But I can’t be judgmental because it’s a position I put myself in.”

So let's review. Jamie Lynn Spears is saying to other teenage girls that they should not have premarital sex, even though she did. She's saying that they should "wait", even though she didn't. But between the lines, she's also saying that if you do have premarital sex, that it's ok not to use protection. And that's the most dangerous message of all.

(And for the record--if you say something like "I think it's better to wait", it doesn't matter if you follow it up with "but I can't be judgmental", you're still a horrible hypocrite)

This is, of course, simply a microcosm of what would happen if the Christian Right had its way, if someone like Mike Huckabee became President, and "abstinence-only" sex education became even more widespread than it is now. You'll have that same mixed message being sent--don't have sex, and don't use protection if you do.

The result won't be the end of abortions or the end of premarital sex. The only result will be a whole lot more Jamie Lynns.

UPDATE: According to celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, the release of Lynne Spears' new book on parenting has been delayed indefinitely. No surprise there, if I were that publisher I'd scrap the whole thing at this point. And Perez brings up another interesting point--how eager do you suppose Nickelodeon is going to be to keep "Zoey 101" on the air after this?

The Obama Campaign Comes to Nashville

Tonight, Barack Obama became the first Democratic Presidential candidate to open an office in Tennessee (and really, the first candidate of either party who is still relevant. Sorry Freddie!). The office was on the complete opposite end of Nashville from where I live, so after sitting nearly half an hour in interstate traffic trying to go three miles, and spending another 10 minutes trying to figure out where the $%# the building was, we made it just before the event began. But it was well worth it, and I will certainly be back out there again to help out while I'm home on winter break.

To me, the fact that Obama is the only Democratic candidate with this kind of presence in Tennessee says a lot about how broad his appeal is. Sure, there are certain other candidates whom the conventional wisdom would tell you are "more electable" in the South, for whatever that means. But the Obama campaign is the only one that's willing to reach out and not take us for granted. Rather than throwing all of their resources into the early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire, the Obama campaign is coming into places like Tennessee, Kansas, and Utah, places where Democrats may be outnumbered, but we're vocal. We're looking for an inspiring leader who can lead us out of the nightmare of the last seven years, someone who can look past the divisions in this country and be a leader for all of America, not just for the left or the right.

And tonight, over a hundred people gathered in support of such a leader, Senator Barack Obama. Those assembled tonight were not simply Democrats, but representatives of the entire American spectrum. There were young, old, white, black, Latino, and everything in between present.

Among the highlights:

Trista Allen, the Southern Field Director for the Obama campaign, spoke first:

She explained how the Obama campaign would not forget about those of us in places like Tennessee. The Nashville office is just the beginning, as the campaign will open an office in Memphis very soon. In addition, the campaign will not be simply giving orders from the top down, but recruiting people who know the local communities and allow them to operate in the most efficient way possible.

Zach Marshall, who's doing student outreach for the campaign in Tennessee:

He pointed out something that I definitely agree with. My generation has never seen a candidate quite like Obama. We've never seen a candidate who connects with us on a personal level. We're used to candidates who are cynical and negative, who rely on exploiting divisions to win elections. We've never seen a candidate who is as hope-inspiring and forward-looking as Barack Obama.

Former TNDP Chairman Bob Tuke:

Bob Tuke had been widely expected to run for Lamar! Alexander's seat in the Senate once Mike McWherter dropped out of the race, but recently announced that he would not run. The reason became abundantly clear tonight, as he will be the Political Director for the Obama campaign in Tennessee (although it really is too bad, he is a great speaker and probably could have riled up the base for a Senate run).

Mr. Tuke made quite possibly one of the best cases for Obama yet. Simply put, America does not torture, and America does not start optional wars. Obama was against the war in Iraq from Day 1, and will not get us bogged down in anymore rash wars.

You know it's a good event if they get the Fisk Jubilee Singers to perform:



And of course, me with my nifty new hat (union-made in America, according to the tag!):

gObama!

UPDATE: Sharon Cobb's take, plus The Brainstem on Bob Tuke and on Obama in general.

UPDATE 2: Now on Daily Kos.

Bye Bye Freddie, I'm Gonna Miss You So

(First of all, let me just say that this is absolutely ridiculous. It's 10:30 on a Friday night, and I'm in Miami. I feel like I should be somewhere on South Beach with a margarita or a mojito in my hand, rather than in the hotel, on my computer. Stupid early morning flights. But I digress...)

While I'm no campaign expert, I know that there are some things that a serious campaign just does not do. There are certain mistakes that you just do not make.

Even the most well-run campaign will screw up from time to time, that much is inevitable. But when it comes to issues like, oh, getting on the ballot, serious campaigns, campaigns that actually want to win, do not screw up. An oversight like that just shows a lack of any form of organization or structure, not just among the regular campaign staff but from the very top.

So, if someone is serious about running for the President of the United States of America, campaign mistakes like this should not happen:

According to the Department of Elections, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee have been certified to be on the Delaware primary ballot on Feb.5th.

Unfortunately, Fred Thompson fell short of the 500 signature mark, and will not be on the ballot.

True, he had 800 signatures, but only 281 of those were from registered Republicans, as is required in Delaware. But someone obviously didn't bother to look into the state rules, or to check the signatures. That's not just a mistake, that's laziness and outright incompetence.

Real campaigns don't overlook stuff like this.

And they DEFINITELY don't do it twice:

Now, late breaking word that Fred failed to get the 300 Republican signatures he needed in DC.

I've seen people get fired over far less, so what do you say when a campaign screws up like this not once, but twice?

And yes, I realize that neither of these primaries are that big. The candidates for both parties will likely be decided by the DC caucus. But Delaware is still a Super Tuesday primary. And after it happened the first time, a real campaign would have taken steps to make sure it never happened again.

Fred Thompson needs to stop wasting everyone's time if he's not going to bother running a serious campaign. At this point, Tom Tancredo and r0n p@u1 are looking like more credible candidates than Grandpa Fred.

Bye bye Freddie. Go back to playing a President on TV, because that's as close as you'll ever come to being one in real life.

A Last Night of Hanukkah Treat

So, my entire apartment is obsessed with the song "Crank That Soulja Boy":



Then, I found out about "Crank That Pooh":



Now, courtesy of my younger brother, we have the greatest spoof of that song yet--"Crank That Kosha Boy":



Happy Last Night of Hanukkah!

Actually, Yes, Our Newspapers Is Learning

I almost forgot something really interesting that was featured in the local news section of the Tennessean on Sunday, something important enough that my parents woke me up early in the morning to call me about it.

It's the second blurb on the page. I'm just relieved that for once, someone spelled my name right! Thank you Tennessean!

Is Our Newspapers Learning?

There was a letter to today's Tennessean from a woman in Franklin, complaining of censorship because the book The Golden Compass was pulled from some school libraries in Williamson County.

First of all, The Golden Compass was one of my absolute favorite books growing up, and I'm dying to see the movie. I do find it hilarious that the book has been out for more than 10 years, but is only now drawing protests because of the movie. It was the same way with The Last Temptation of Christ, where the book was out for nearly 30 years before the much-protested movie was made (by the way, if you've never read that book, read it. The movie was not Martin Scorsese's best effort, but Nikos Kazantzakis used such rich and beautiful language in the book that no movie could ever really do it justice). I guess the fundies can't get worked up over something that involves them actually having to READ.

But I digress. Look at the headline that someone at the Tennessean put on the letter. And notice how the comments section goes on for three pages without anyone seeming to notice the typo.

Is our newspapers and our anonymous online commenters learning?

UPDATE: Thinking about it further, if this is how the fundies reacted to the first book, I can't wait to see how they're going to react when they make the third book in the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass, into a movie!

We'll Just End Up Like North Haverbrook!

This is sort of off-topic, but on Saturday, I saw this article in the Ithaca Journal about how some residents want to build a monorail system here.

Ok, first of all...whoever makes these decisions in Ithaca, please watch the Simpsons episode "Marge vs. The Monorail" before you do anything. It's on the Season 4 DVD set, which I'm pretty sure they have at Collegetown Videos. It should clue you in to the problems of a small town trying to do something like this.

But aside from that, there would be so many problems with this. How well would it work going up steep hills in single-digit temperatures? Because those are the conditions it would have to work under for at least a few months out of the year. Also, Ithaca already has an efficient bus system that larger cities would envy, do we really need another form of transportation for such a small town? And ultimately, if you want to cut down on traffic congestion, wouldn't it cost less in terms of taxpayer money and city resources just to PAVE THE DAMN ROADS every once in awhile? The reason why the traffic is so slow in Ithaca is because you can't drive more than 15 mph in a lot of places, any faster and your car will fall right into the potholes!

Possible New Challenger for "Lamar!"?

According to the City Paper's Rex Noseworthy, there is another potential challenger for Lamar! Alexander's seat, venture capitalist Andrew Byrd. Kleinheider wrote a lengthy profile of him, detailing his background and who he's given money to.

While little is known of the venture capitalist specific policy stands, through a cursory google search there is a little that can be gleaned. First, Byrd is a generous political contributor. He has spread money around in all the right places giving to the both the Tennessee Democratic party, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign committee and, possibly most revealingly, the Blue Dog political action committee. He has given money to two Presidential candidates this cycle, Bill Richardson and Barack Obama, giving the maximum donation to the latter.

In 2004, he gave money to the Presidential campaigns of Dean, Edwards, Lieberman and Wesley Clark — but not eventual nominee John Kerry. And despite giving money to Democratic Senate candidate Houston Gordon in 1996, he gave no money to President Clinton’s reelection.

Byrd has also been involved in local politics. He was listed as one of Karl Dean’s top donors as well as having been involved in the effort to draft District Attorney Torry Johnson to run for Mayor. Byrd is also an Elder at his Presbyterian church.

At first blush, this doesn't sound entirely promising. True, he's given to progressives nationally like Howard Dean, John Edwards, and Barack Obama, and ones locally like Karl Dean. But the Blue Dog thing obviously makes me a little skittish.

However, there was a very telling comment in response to Kleinheider's post, from none other than TNGOP Communications Director Bill-o Hobbs:

Andrew Byrd is a financial supporter of liberal Democrat Senator Russ Feingold’s Progressive Patriots Fund, a PAC which supports gay marriage and gun control, calls for abolishing the death penalty, and seeks American withdrawal from Iraq based not on securing victory but upon an artificial deadline.

If this is true, then it all paints a confusing picture. It's possible that he just supports the entire Democratic party, not just one wing of it. That would be a refreshing change from so many other Southern Democrats, but it's impossible to tell simply from where someone has donated money to.

I would like for him, however, to clarify his position on Iraq before I get my hopes up.

Programming Update, 12-09-07

In just 12 hours, I will officially be a Second-Semester Senior. I'll officially be one semester closer to the end of the best four years in my life, and one semester closer to the three years of pain known as law school.

(sobs)

But on the bright side, I get to leave this frozen wasteland for a month. Tomorrow I'm heading to NYC for a law school interview and for a little Chrismukkah shopping, then down to Miami to thaw out, so I'll only be around sporadically over the next week. But I'll be back in NashVegas next weekend. See y'all soon!

A Funny Thing Fell Into My Inbox Today

Dear [GoldnI]:

The challenges facing America today call for strong Christian leadership. At Regent Law School, we desire to attract and foster the gifts of future leaders who will be bold attorneys for Christ. With that goal in mind, we invite you to apply now to Regent Law School. In recognition of your strong academic credentials and Regent’s commitment to develop lawyers of excellence:

Your application fee will be waived.

The intent of this invitation is to identify and affirm those who are called to the study of law at a distinctively Christian institution. Regent Law School is unique among ABA-approved law schools in that we thoroughly integrate a Christian perspective into the classroom. We are committed to the proposition that there is truth – eternal principles of justice about the way we should practice law and about the law itself.

First of all, how the hell did these people get ABA-certification?

Second of all, this did make me laugh for one reason. A friend of mine who's already in law school had encouraged me to write a "diversity essay" to attach to my applications, but I didn't because I just don't feel like a white Jew would be that much of a minority in academia. But maybe I should have, I would certainly bring "diversity" here!

We Can Rebuild Them. Better Than They Were Before.

In the wake of the uncertainty over the sale of the Predators this past summer, the team lost several key free agents. But good things happen once you get the situation under control and guarantee that the team won't be going anywhere for awhile:

Predators forward David Legwand has signed a six-year, $27 million contract extension through the 2014-15 season.

Legwand holds franchise records with 304 points, 113 goals, 28 game-winning goals, 10 overtime points and 15 multiple-goal games. Legwand's first goal in a 5-4 win at Montreal on Saturday propelled him past Kimmo Timonen to the top spot on the team's career scoring list.

"This is the first step moving forward under new ownership and is a sign of commitment, a desire to win and a desire to keep the core of our young team together in Nashville," general manager David Poile said Friday. "He is entering the prime of his career, and we feel that he is becoming one of the league's most complete players."

I expect this to be only the first in a series of contract extensions to make sure that the core of the team stays in it for the long haul. And while we're at it, let's make something happen in the free agency!

Forget the "Huckabee Surge," Look at Obama!

We interrupt GoldnI on page 10 of the Gov paper to bring you some late-breaking poll numbers from some of the early primary states.

First off, Iowa:

However, Barack Obama has gained some ground, moving to within a point of Hillary Clinton among all Democratic voters (29 percent vs. 30 percent), with John Edwards in third place at 21 percent. Among those most likely to attend the caucuses, Obama has moved substantially ahead of Clinton, 35 percent to 29 percent, while Edwards falls back a bit, to 18 percent. Obama also gets more support from those who say they will "probably" attend a Democratic caucus (40 percent vs. 27 percent for Clinton).

Anyone who's ever analyzed poll data before can tell you that measuring "likely voters" gets you a far more accurate result than measuring "registered voters." So if Obama is one point behind Clinton among all Democratic voters, but beating her by fairly comfortable margins among likely and certain caucus-goers, it's likely that he is in fact ahead in Iowa by a significant amount, and surging ahead at exactly the right moment.

But what about other early states, like South Carolina?

A new Insider Advantage poll of South Carolina (conducted Dec. 3-4 of 421 likely Dem voters) has Obama at 26%, Clinton at 24%, Edwards at 15%, and Biden at 10%.

Also, according to Rasmussen, Hillary and Obama are statistically tied at 36-34, with Edwards coming in at 13%.

First of all, I'm surprised to see Edwards so far back in South Carolina. Isn't that supposed to be his backyard? And isn't one of the strongest arguments for Edwards supposed to be that he can win in the South? Apparently not anymore!

I don't know how New Hampshire will turn out, and it may not matter anymore. If Obama could win in Iowa, he could easily use that to propel himself over Hillary in South Carolina. And then we would go into Super Tuesday with a whole new dynamic, one that I wouldn't have predicted even a few weeks ago.

Mitch McConnell: They're Not Really People

We interrupt GoldnI on page 7 of the 12-15 page Government paper that's due at midnight (if she's more than halfway done with 10 hours to go, then it really can't be considered procrastination) to bring you the wise words from our esteemed Senate Minority Leader from our neighbor Kentucky.

At a campaign stop in Grayson County, Kentucky, Senator McConnell commented on the war on Iraq and the loss of life therein:

“I won't tell you everything is great in Iraq; it is not. But we want to keep a steady flow of funds so that we don't disrupt the military,” said McConnell. “Unfortunately, most of our friends on the other isle are having a hard time admitting things are getting better; some days I almost think the critics of this war don't want us to win. Nobody is happy about losing lives but remember these are not draftees, these are full-time professional soldiers.

Follow the logic here. The troops in Iraq are full-time soldiers, not draftees. So because they willingly chose to join the military, that makes their deaths a little bit more palatable to the GOP.

These are real people, Senator, not just expendable pawns. The fact that we have an all-volunteer military does not diminish that fact in any way.

I'm In Law School!

That's right everyone, I got two letters this morning stating that I have been accepted into a law school, somewhere! I got into Washington University in St. Louis, and also into "The U". I'm not going to be stuck in Ithaca next year!

Paging Kevin Doherty!

(H/t LeftWingCracker)

The Commercial Appeal is reporting tonight that former TNDP chairman Bob Tuke will not challenge Lamar! Alexander for his Senate seat.

Tuke, 59, said personal, professional and community obligations, including teaching as an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt and chairing community boards, prompted the decision.

"I am gratified and honored by the confidence many friends and party officials have shown in me while urging me to run for this high office, and I look forward to assisting whoever our candidate may be in defeating a Senator who seems to have forgotten the interests of those who elected him," Tuke added.

Fighting words. Unfortunately, that doesn't do us a whole lot of good right now.

Hey, Kevin Doherty? Do you still want to run? You had the best credentials of all of the candidates all along. I refuse to concede this race a year in advance--no one thought Conrad Burns in Montana or George Allen in Virginia could be touched either, and looked what happened there! It's not too late, but it will be if you wait any longer.

The floor is all yours...

Your Munday Marsha

(Cross-Posted at TennViews)

There was an interesting little nugget in this week's issue of the Munday Message:

BLACKBURN'S JUNKET

U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (D-Brentwood) arrived stateside last week after a government-funded "ethanol fact-finding mission" which included military jet travel to Brazil, touring in the colonial-era city of Salvador, and an evening in the Airau Amazon Towers hotel.

The Congressman has proposed 5% across the board cuts to "non-defense, non-homeland security discretionary spending for fiscal year 2007."

The federally-funded travel excursion included a number of lavish details including a "spouse program coordinator" for all of the spouses of the House International Relations subcommittee on Latin America. Rep. Blackburn's trip at taxpayer's expense on a military jet for her and her husband to beautiful Brazil certainly taught her more about ethanol than a trip to Iowa could provide. On second thought, we don't want her going to Iowa; she might think she has a shot at the presidency.

First of all, I sure hope the labelling of Marsha as (D-Brentwood) was a typo. I certainly don't want her in my party! But that's a pretty big typo, someone should have caught that.

I Googled the hotel she stayed at (that's another typo, just FYI. It's spelled "Ariau", not "Airau")...nice place! You get to stay in luxurious tree houses and the rate is all-inclusive. Of course, they don't actually tell you what that rate is. It sounds like one of those places, where if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it. True, the Amazon and everything else in it wouldn't be there if Marsha and her Republican friends had their way, but at least she got a nice trip before they burn the whole place down to grow sugar cane for ethanol (which can also be done in a less destructive manner with corn from Iowa, but that's not quite as profitable, now is it?).

Don't you just love where your tax dollars go, especially from someone who is just so very fiscally responsible?

Cue the Bill Hobbs spin in 5, 4, 3....

Senator Clinton, You've Made Your Point

Hillary Clinton would like to clarify where she stands on college students voting in Iowa:

In a jab at Obama’s efforts to encourage out-of-state students who attend college in Iowa to caucus, Clinton said the caucuses are only for people who live in this state.

“This is a process for Iowans. This needs to be all about Iowa, and people who live here, people who pay taxes here,” she told the Clear Lake crowd.

Yes, because college students don't pay taxes or otherwise contribute to their college towns whatsoever. We're all a bunch of free-loaders. I personally was unaware that the hundreds of dollars I've spent in New York sales tax over the last three and a half years didn't actually exist.

But don't worry students, she still cares deeply about the youth vote:

Senator Clinton has been working hard to engage the youth vote across the country and in Iowa. She hopes that all Iowa students who have made Iowa their permanent home participate in the caucus.

Note the use of the term "permanent home." Does that sound confusing to anyone else, like she's implying that Iowa students from out of state can't legally vote in the caucuses because they're not there "permanently"?

It's not as if this is a new tactic:

As a college student, you have the right to vote from the residence that you consider “home,” including your campus residence. While by law you are only allowed to register to vote from your “permanent” address, the term “permanent” is confusing for students. Students can register to vote where they live during school.

By and large, students vote in local elections without a problem. But sometimes, local elected officials or candidates will see students as a threat. They may try to suppress the student vote by giving students false or misleading information about their residency status, threatening students with loss of student aid, or even threatening prosecution for voter fraud.

Make no mistake...what Senator Clinton is attempting to do here is disenfranchisement, plain and simple.

Now, I don't like to use the other "d-word" lightly. But when you're backed into a corner, and so devoid of any new ideas or any reason why people should vote for you that you're reduced to creating strawmen and fake wedges in an attempt to get someone to vote for you, what other word should we call it? It's desperation, and the cracks in her "perfect campaign" are showing.

Senator, you've made your point and drawn your line in the sand. You've made it clear just how much you value the vote of someone like me. And you've just about helped me decide, once and for all, who I will be voting for in the primary.

The CondiDore?

We interrupt GoldnI's exam study session in the Olin Library stacks to bring you this important news item, courtesy of our old friend R o o k.

As late as a few weeks ago, we were wondering whether or not Lamar! Alexander would consider leaving the Senate to become the Chancellor of Vanderbilt University. But with a lack of a Democratic opponent for the seat and the likelihood of gaining a leadership position in the Senate in 2008, the scenario seemed highly unlikely. But now a new name has apparently emerged in the search for a Chancellor, and it's even worse:

Rumors are flying at Vanderbilt University that Condoleezza Rice may leave the White House to become the school’s new chancellor.

Rice last visited Nashville less than a month ago (November 13) although there’s nothing on her official schedule about meeting with Vanderbilt officials. Nor would you expect there to be.

The board members appointed to Vanderbilt’s "chancellor search committee" are known to be among the board’s most politically conservative members – and the university has demonstrated its love for the Secretary of State in the past. In 2004, Rice received Vanderbilt’s first-ever Chancellor’s Medal for "contributions to academia and society."

**********************

I don’t have any information on the original source of on-campus rumors about Condoleezza Rice, but it is being discussed by people worth listening to.

If I know R o o k at all, he definitely would not have posted this story unless those "people worth listening to" had credibility on this issue.

Now, it may seem that the search committee has found the one person even worse than Lamar! for the job. But actually, there would be a bright side to Chancellor Rice's tenure. She did say at one point that she wanted to be the NFL Commissioner, right? The woman obviously knows a lot about football. Maybe she has an idea of how to get Vanderbilt into a bowl game. It really couldn't hurt at this point.

The War On Christmas Begins Tonight!

Sundown tonight marks the first night of Hanukkah (or Chanukah or Chanukkah if you prefer). I know that Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity would have you believe that the War on Christmas started earlier in the year, I would just like to let everyone know that it OFFICIALLY begins tonight. As I've said before, when I have my own house one day, I'm going to deck the whole place out in blue and white lights, and have a giant cardboard scene of the Maccabees fighting the Greeks on my front lawn. And if I live somewhere cold enough, I'll have an ice menorah, like the Chabad people have in up here in Ithaca. That will be my contribution to the War on Christmas.

But until then, I'll leave you with some of my favorite Hanukkah songs (and apologies for the video quality):





Happy Hanukkah, y'all!

"Those Meddling Kids" And Iowa

(Cross-Posted at TennViews)

Even though I spend most of the year in New York, I am registered to vote in Tennessee. I didn't want to change my registration because of my political involvement back home, and because I knew a Democratic vote would go further in Tennessee. But had I wanted to register in New York, there would not have been anything wrong with it. As a full-time student, I could claim residency in New York and vote there, it simply would have voided my registration in Tennessee.

This is also the case in most states. My little brother goes to school in Florida, and I encouraged him to register to vote there rather than in Tennessee, since his vote would be even more crucial in the largest swing state. When I worked on the Ford campaign, we made sure to inform college students here that they could register to vote in Tennessee, and that they didn't need a Tennessee driver's license to do so. We hoped that they would not only vote for Ford, but that they would maintain their registration here and vote for future TN Democratic candidates.

There's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing unethical about it. If someone can claim residency in two different places, they should be allowed to decide where they want to vote, so long as they're not attempting to vote in both locations.

In Iowa, thousands of college students are planning on cutting short their winter breaks to come back and vote in the caucuses. Some of the candidates, like Barack Obama, are actively encouraging such youth participation. But the campaigns that don't stand to gain as much are bitter about it. So naturally, they're starting to complain about "those meddling kids!"

Chris Dodd:

“I was deeply disappointed to read today about the Obama campaign’s attempt to recruit thousands of out-of-state residents to come to Iowa for the caucuses. Given that the Obama campaign once said they ‘absolutely condemn any attempt to fraudulently influence the caucuses,’ we had hoped they’d follow the Dodd campaign’s lead in working to protect the integrity and spirit of the caucus process.

“‘New Politics’ shouldn’t be about scheming to evade either the spirit or the letter of the rules that guide the process. That may be the way politics is played in Chicago, but not in Iowa.”

Hillary is guilty of it too:

A Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign official said: “We are not courting out-of-staters. The Iowa caucus ought to be for Iowans.”

First of all, they're not out-of-state residents. Under Iowa law, full-time college students are residents and can register to vote there. And as the Politico article points out, it's not as if Senator Clinton isn't doing the exact same thing:

In fact, Clinton is counting on the support of some out-of-state students attending Iowa universities. Sarah Sunderman of Iowa State University, who was announced in a news release as a leader of the “Hill Yea” Students Leaders for Hillary, told the Des Moines Register in October that “she will drive back early from her home in Minnesota to take part in the Jan. 3 caucuses.”

What's wrong with Obama wanting to take full advantage of the youth vote, within the law? If the other candidates haven't made as much of an effort to capture the youth vote, then that's their problem, not Obama's.

Also, you know that if Hillary were to win the nomination, she'd certainly want those same students to vote in Iowa THEN! Most of the out-of-state students in Iowa are from the solidly blue next-door state of Illinois, so any smart campaign would want those same students to vote where they could make more of a difference!

So it seems that once again, some of the higher-ups in the Democratic Party only want to involve the youth and the students IF we don't stray from the script.

I see echoes of an incident from the Nashville mayoral race in this whole dust-up:

As a strong Bob Clement supporter I am concerned that getting out young voters means getting out people who read The Scene and The City Paper, both of which have been strongly biased against Bob Clement. Although you have indicated you are not taking a side in this mayor's non-partisan race, the phonebanking gives an appearance that the Young Democrats are doing just that.

They only want youth participation as long as it works to their advantage. Otherwise, we're just a bunch of meddling kids.

(H/t Hat Thief)

It's Time For A Playoff System

Right now, I'm watching as the "#1" team in college football, Missouri, gets their collective butts kicked by Oklahoma. It caps off one of the craziest seasons in football history, which started with Michigan losing to I-AA Appalachian State and saw one #1 team after another lose. And now, we head into the BCS facing a stark reality.

There is no #1 team in college football right now.

It's not Mizzou. It's obviously not West Virginia after they lost to Pitt. I suppose you could make the case for Ohio State, but I would argue that they've had an easier than usual schedule. Kansas should never have been ranked as highly as they were. Georgia, LSU, Virginia Tech, USC, and Oklahoma all have two losses. The only undefeated team left is Hawaii, and they'll be lucky just to get into ANY BCS bowl.

We don't have a clear #1 team right now. And the BCS does not work unless there's an undisputed #1 team. There will be two teams picked for the BCS Championship game, and neither of them will deserve to be there more than any other team in the Top 10. I hope LSU gets in by sake of being the SEC champions, but I don't know if they will.

I know it will never happen, because it's too difficult logisitically and because of the corporate ties to the bowl games. But college football is the only major sport that does not have a playoff system, and I think the situation from this season highlights the need for it. They should take the best teams in the NCAA and make them play each other until the #1 and #2 teams emerge.

This idea is unpopular at best and will likely never happen. But the BCS is broken, and I don't know of any other way to fix it.