Friday, July 31, 2009
Legislature / Politics / Woods McKensie Morrison Speaks Out: 'I Am Not a Wild Woman on a Hunt for Men'
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 6:00 PM
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McKensie Morrison has made her first public statements since news broke of her affair with Sen. Paul Stanley. She tells Channel 4's Cara Kumari that she's speaking out to rebut Stanley's claims that she was working in cahoots with her boyfriend to blackmail him. She said Stanley's a lying piece of scum who made her pick up his dry cleaning and clean his apartment, but she's praying for him. We're paraphrasing there. Here are some actual quotes:
"I am not a bad person. I am not an extortionist. I am not a wild woman on a hunt for men. I'm a normal girl. I'm 22 years old. ... I haven't been charged with anything because I had nothing to do with it. The truth will come out in the end, and I think we will all pay for our mistakes and response. ... I feel like I can move on. I feel that I've learned. I'm hurt, and I'm beat up, and I'm emotionally scarred but all we have is the future and hope."Consider this interview a parting gift to the legislature from Stanley, the lech. If he only could have resigned with a little class, this never would have happened. Instead, he decided to blame the woman, even if she is only a 22-year-old college student, and now here's McKensie Morrison coming across as all sweet and innocent on TV and making the entire legislature look like a gang of creeps and perverts ... again. Pith is praying for them all. Watch the full interview here.
Hicks From the Sticks Oh, Cary Tennis; A Tale of Anti-Southern Bias
Posted by Ashley Spurgeon on Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 4:11 PM
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In spite of my slovenly, thoughtless ways, I'm quite the fan of advice columns and columnists. All but one. Salon's Cary Tennis. The man will give a meandering essay answer to a true-or-false question, and I've never found his non sequitur approach to advice-giving to be an effective one. Usually he just annoys me. Today he angered me.
Long story short - woman in the Northeast was laid off, has a job offer in the Bible Belt, is terrified her precious, nature-loving, Darwin reading (yeah, right) 12-year-old will be kicked in the face on a daily basis by Southern ignorami. What oh what should she do?
To be fair to Mr. Tennis, he does ask her to understand why she keeps repeating a pattern of job loss. I agree with that bit. But he never provides the bit of advice I'm sure you're all anticipating: get over yourself, lady.
I'm so sorry we don't have museums, theaters, parks, scientists, art, a rich literary history, and some of the most prestigious universities in the country down here in this godforsaken retard hellhole. And Tennis - the nerve of this guy - actually tells her, "In a new area, one often has to pay for things one found for free before," in regards to the outdoors. What is he talking about?
We know Atlanta isn't New York. We know Nashville isn't Boston. But to not tell this lady (who is clearly a special kind of liberal crazy I find offensive) to get over her bigotry is just bad advice.
Congress / Kotz / Law and Order / Legislature / Politics Ron Ramsey Urges Vote Against Sotomayor; She Ain't Gun Enough
Posted by Pete Kotz on Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 2:30 PM
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Tennessee gubernatorial aspirant Ron Ramsey doesn't seem to have learned from the backlash against the legislature's guns-in-parks-and-bars bills. So he's decided to insert himself into the confirmation vote on Judge Sonia Sotomayor, hoping to push his unique brand of gooberism on the federal level. 
In an announcement this afternoon, Ramsey called on Tennesseans to urge their senators to vote against the nominee. He doesn't actually mean this, since he knows that Lamar Alexander already plans to vote yea, while Bob Corker will vote nay. But it does offer him the chance to snuggle up to gun nuts in the Republican primary:
As sponsor of Tennessee's right-to-carry law, I am deeply concerned that she will continue to ignore the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment. Just last year, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment guarantees both an individual's right to own firearms and a right to self-defense. However, Judge Sotomayor ignored this ruling and held in 2009 that the Second Amendment applies only to federal gun control measures, NOT state gun control. She is clearly willing to allow state governments to enact gun control measures which fly in the face of the constitutional right to defend our loved ones as well as ourselves. This could undo Tennessee's right-to-carry permit law in addition to other Second Amendment protections passed by the state legislature, one of which was passed over a gubernatorial veto just this year. Judge Sotomayor should not be elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court. She is a liberal judicial activist who has shown a willingness to disregard the fundamental rights found within the Second Amendment. All Tennesseans who value their right to own firearms and defend themselves should be deeply troubled by the possibility of Judge Sotomayor's confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Congress / Politics / Woods MoveOn Tries to Pressure Cooper
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 1:58 PM
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MoveOn is trying to put the heat on Jim Cooper over health care reform. Lord knows, he needs it. But since he's one of the Blue Dogs working to weaken the president's public health insurance option, why would he sign a letter of outrage over the deal? Pith is confused. Anyway, here's MoveOn's email blast to the Coop's constituents:
The heart of President Obama's health-care reform plan--the public health insurance option--is under attack. And your representative, Jim Cooper, has a chance to join the fight to save it.Earlier this week, a small group of conservative Blue Dog Democrats forced a compromise that would badly weaken the public option.
Then yesterday, 57 representatives released a letter saying the deal is unacceptable--that "they simply cannot vote" for a bill that doesn't include a strong public health insurance option.1
But as of last night, Rep. Cooper hadn't signed the letter.
Can you call him right away and urge him to sign the Progressive Caucus letter demanding a strong public health insurance option?
Hargrove / Hicks From the Sticks Birthers are Republican, Southern, Study says...Oh, and Marginalized
Posted by Brantley Hargrove on Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 1:21 PM
According to a Daily Kos poll, Birtherism finds its greatest audience among Republicans in the South.
Overall, 11 percent of Americans are Birther conspiracy wingnuts. So, to douchbags like Lou Dobbs, who assert that Birth Certificate-gate is really gaining traction, it's really not. It's Southern Republicans who are becoming a squawking minority increasingly apart from mainstream American life.
Here's how it breaks down:
77 percent of Americans believe Obama is a citizen. 11 percent do not. 12 percent don't know.
28 percent of Republicans believe Obama is not a citizen.
23 percent of people in the South believe Obama is not a citizen. This, of course is embarrassing because in the Northeast, the West and the Midwest, the number of folks who don't believe the President is a citizen is in the single digits. Sigh, South -- like the crazy uncle you can't introduce to your girlfriend because he'll say something awkward and humiliating.
Overall, 11 percent of Americans are Birther conspiracy wingnuts. So, to douchbags like Lou Dobbs, who assert that Birth Certificate-gate is really gaining traction, it's really not. It's Southern Republicans who are becoming a squawking minority increasingly apart from mainstream American life.
Here's how it breaks down:
77 percent of Americans believe Obama is a citizen. 11 percent do not. 12 percent don't know.
28 percent of Republicans believe Obama is not a citizen.
23 percent of people in the South believe Obama is not a citizen. This, of course is embarrassing because in the Northeast, the West and the Midwest, the number of folks who don't believe the President is a citizen is in the single digits. Sigh, South -- like the crazy uncle you can't introduce to your girlfriend because he'll say something awkward and humiliating.
Kotz / Media / Politics Obama Hates White People
Posted by Pete Kotz on Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 12:16 PM
If you can't get enough of the propaganda wars -- We're on the path to socialism! The president's a foreigner! The government's trying to kill old people! -- get a load of Glenn Beck above. He and Rush Limbaugh are now arguing that President Barack Obama hates white people and their culture.
We presume this stems from the Henry Louis Gates affair, where the president's words were ill-advised, but by no means "death to honky." And it's hard to argue Obama has ill-will toward whitey, since that would include his own mother and grandparents. Yet that hasn't stopped conservative propagandists from pushing the theory. After all, nothing scares their followers down on the farm more than Angry Negro Man.
Politics / Woods Weird Robin's Latest Video from the Campaign Trail
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Congress / Politics / Woods Blue Dogs Celebrate Health Care Deal, But Will It Blow Up in Their Faces?
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 8:33 AM
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Blue Dog Democrats are howling in triumph today. They finally stuck together and backed down Nancy Pelosi on health care reform. Until now, they've been all bark and no bite on one expensive liberal initiative after another, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out in a headline this week.
In that WSJ op-ed, Merrill Matthews of the Council for Affordable Health Insurance taunted the Blue Dogs, who include Tennessee's Jim Cooper, John Tanner, Bart Gordon and Lincoln Davis.
"[D]o the Blue Dogs really belong in the fiscal conservative pack? They talk like fiscal conservatives but vote like liberal Democrats." He noted that only 10 of the 52 Blue Dogs opposed Obama's stimulus, 14 bucked his budget and 29 rejected the climate change bill.
Their derailing of the House health care reform bill is the first time this Congress they've managed to maintain unity: "It was time," a Blue Dog Democrat tells The Hill newspaper. "This was a bridge too far."
But beyond kudos in the media, what have they gained? Their agreement with Rep. Henry Waxman changes the way a government-run insurance plan would operate to make it less competitive with private insurers. Liberal House Democrats are denouncing the deal and staging a revolt.
"We have compromised and we can compromise no more," an angry Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., said at a raucous news conference outside the Capitol.
If health care reform collapses because of their kowtowing to the insurance industry, Tennessee's Democrats will have a little explaining to do back home.
Politics / Woods Morning Roundup: GOP Candidates Mix It Up in Memphis
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 7:49 AM
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In Memphis, Gibbons slaps Ramsey for trying to cut funding for the Haywood County industrial site, and Haslam joins the fun:
"We took money out of the savings account ... out of the rainy day fund and then we took money that came from the stimulus plan. ... Neither of those is going to be around in two years when one of us takes office," Haslam said. "We're not going to have a state income tax in Tennessee. ... That's not going to happen. We're not going to raise the sales tax. ... So you're literally in a position where you're going to have to fundamentally restructure state government."Rep. Frank Niceley lobbied for rail-truck facility site that could raise his property values. ... Sen. Paul Stanley qualifies for $8,000 a year from the state pension. ... Willie Herenton finally leaves office: "I'm history as mayor." ... Union says VW not hiring locally. ... Metro Council holds public forum on guns in parks. ... Frist releases first report on Tennessee schools.
Hannan / Media / Sports ESPN Radio is Off Nashville's Hot Seat
Posted by Caleb Hannan on Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 6:00 AM
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Yesterday, WNFN 106.7 The Fan announced a format change. Formerly home to ESPN Radio, the new i106.7 will now play top 40. Obviously any move that improves the odds of hearing Daughtry or Vertical Horizon while flipping through the FM dial is no reason to celebrate. But it's hard to think the loss of the Worldwide Leader will cause any Nashville sports fans to break their bobbleheads in anger.
ESPN's primary contribution to the airways are their personalities (ranging from the pleasant, like Scott Van Pelt, to the intolerable, like Colin Cowherd) and the way they can somehow turn 15 minutes of national news into 24 hours of coverage. All things you can find on TV or the web. Other than broadcasting MTSU games, local sports were not their forte. (That's primarily the domain of 104.5 FM and 560 AM, who cover the Sounds.)
Still want your Mike & Mike fix? Then it's time to pony up for the Sirius.
