Sean Hannity fanned the flames of insurrection last night on his show. His guest was Texas Nationalist Movement president Daniel Miller, who Hannity treated seriously like a sane person in an otherworldly discussion of whether red states should secede. Says Miller:

“The fact of the matter is, that there cannot be a union between those who esteem the principles of Karl Marx over the principles of Thomas Jefferson. Here in Texas, we esteem those principles of Thomas Jefferson — that all political power’s inherent in the people. What we have seen given on Tuesday was that a majority of the people in the United States, and the states in which they reside, esteem the principles of Karl Marx over those principles.”

Also today, this gem from Roane County Tea Party treasurer Ron Harwell: "If we can't do better than getting a communist sitting in the White House, let's secede. Let's get the hell out of Dodge."

And this breaking news: Tennessee's secession petition has qualified for a White House response! The petition has reached and surpassed 25,000 signatures, the threshold set in the Obama administration's "We the People" program.

But watch out, secessionists: Another petition to deport everyone who signs secession petitions quickly has attracted 15,000 signatures so far. We think it's trending.

Days after the Scene published a story exposing the conditions of a north Nashville apartment complex (and Metro Codes' relative unresponsiveness to the plight of its tenants), a website called Lexington Gardens Revealed has posted what it says are photos that reveal more about the day-to-day life there.

In addition to photos of bed bugs and their resultant bites, rotting fixtures and broken windows, the site also tells the story of the tenants who live there:

One mother, “Kendra,” invited us into her one-bedroom apartment and showed us the dozens of bedbug bites on her arms and legs. She didn’t realize the apartment was infested until after she signed the lease. Her three young sons were living with her and they showed us the countless bites on their bodies, red and swollen from itching. When she turned on the light in her kitchen, bugs scattered across the wall and floor. She tried spraying, but the bedbugs and roaches kept coming back. She showed us the exposed outlets, the defunct smoke detector, the stove that sparks, the air conditioner that blows out damp air that smells like mildew, and the small, bedbug infested mattresses on which her boys sleep. She wanted so desperately to leave, but the cost of moving was too much.

"Every tenant of Lexington Gardens should have a home in good general repair and maintained in a clean, safe and sanitary condition," reads the site's objective page. "Every tenant of Lexington Gardens should have a copy of their lease, and for that lease to be in compliance with the law. Every tenant should know their rights, and be confident to assert those rights without fear of retaliation."

I watched this video a couple of times, trying to think of something snarky and coherent to say. But I kept having the same three thoughts. One, thank goodness for Phil Williams digging this stuff up and making someone go on camera to defend it. Two, you couldn't pay me enough money to do Patricia Smith's job, having to defend this nonsense. Three, I wonder how demoralizing this must be for state employees? For years, they've been demonized, found their pay doesn't keep up with the cost of living, had their health insurance costs go way up and dealt with year-to-year uncertainty about their jobs and budgets.

And, apparently, if their departments had been structured to receive money a tiny bit differently, they could have been going to Dave & Buster's and having big office parties and going to Christmas parties at the Country Music Hall of Fame.

That's got to sting.

I'm eager to hear if Gov. Haslam thinks this is an OK use of a state agency's money.

A post so nice absurd we gave it three headlines.

Stacey Campfield's blog is an interesting place. You can go there for his unique insight on state politics, the origin of AIDS — you know, stuff like that.

But this afternoon, he's raised the bar so high, it's hard to imagine him reaching it again soon.

In a blog post titled "Lets put those legal boys to work", he writes, astonishingly, that he has "put in some legal things to protect" his "writings." Apparently, "some people not of the exclusive on line media community are now trying to profit from what I say on here without my permission."

Who are these "people not of the exclusive on line media community"? Who knows? He doesn't explain. We assume he means newspapers. Anyway, we should all be careful — using this public official's public statements in the press is apparently "a fast way to end up in court."

Aha.

Ha.

Hahaha.

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Read Campfield's entire blog in its entirety, which we simply copied and pasted entirely because we think this blog is part of the "on line media community," after the jump:

If the charges against him are true, Olympic gold medalist Shaun White can add a #DrunkDigest gold medal to his list of accomplishments. The famous extreme-sports star, otherwise known as The Flying Tomato, was allegedly wasted, when he laid waste to a hotel room at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel early this morning, before pulling the fire alarm and causing a full evacuation.

To The City Paper for more details:

White allegedly tried to flee from the hotel in a cab, but a citizen stopped the cab from leaving. Police alleged that White kicked the citizen and attempted to run away on foot. The citizen told police he chased White before White turned and ran into the man, who police did not identify. The collision apparently caused White to fall and hit his head against a fence.

White was arrested after being released from the hospital this afternoon. As of this writing, Pith can not confirm whether White's bender and T-Pain's search for the perfect Nashville strip club are connected in any way.

More from Tampa, the Memphis Flyer's Jackson Baker quotes Rep. Joe Carr of Murfreesboro as saying he agrees with Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, that women have a magic way to block pregnancy from rape.

Speaking at the breakfast were U.S. Senator Bob Corker, Chattanooga congressman Chuck Fleischmann, and, as a “surprise guest,” well-known pollster/consultant Frank Luntz. The latter worked the crowd like the political pro he is, mixing laugh lines and analytical nuggets. The highlight moment of Luntz’s remarks came when he asked the assembled delegates and alternates how many of them thought Todd Akin, the Republican Senate candidate in Missouri, should withdraw from his race.

Akin, it will be remembered, had made the breathtaking claim that women possessed the innate biological means to prevent pregnancy from what Akin, in an interview, had called “legitimate rapes.” Republicans from ticket leader Mitt Romney on down had called for Akin to step aside, and the delegation chorused its assent to that judgment.

All except for three naysayers— one of whom, State Rep. Joe Carr of Rutherford County, had previously made a $3,000 bid that won a brief auction held by Luntz for a large portrait of Thomas Jefferson. Looking straight at Carr, Luntz said, “I don’t know what you’re saying, but you can still have the painting.”

Carr would explain later on that he agreed with Akin that women did indeed possess certain biological means to close themselves off against pregnancy in cases of violent rape. He further thought that Republicans had no business telling a bona fide Republican primary winner what to do.

Update: Democratic state Rep. Sherry Jones responds: Carr "completely and totally unfit for office."

One of the stranger ledes you'll read today, courtesy of Pierce Greenberg in the City Paper:

Nashville police arrested a New Zealand legal rights advocate on Tuesday after allegedly finding him drunkenly running after a tow truck, screaming “I love that car!”

The car wasn't his.

Vincent Siemer, 56, is the man behind several controversial websites that seek to expose “corruption” of the judicial system in New Zealand. He was sentenced to six weeks in jail last year after publishing a “suppressed” court judgment on his website, according to The Dominion Post in Wellington, New Zealand.

Full story here.

Last night’s Hardball focused on Todd Akin and his "legitimate rape" remark, and the flabbergasted Joe Klein offered this insight like it was a news flash:

The Republican Party has a major grassroots problem, which is that a good part of its grassroots now celebrate ignorance.

In Tennessee, a state senator thinks AIDS started when "one guy screwed a monkey," the lieutenant governor isn’t sure Islam qualifies as a religion, just about everybody thinks our president is a Kenyan socialist, and no one believes in climate change or evolution. The party has come so unhinged the governor has been forced to deny he’s trying to impose Shariah law. Candidates for governor make love to their guns, and some legislators want to create our state’s own monetary system because, you know, the end is nigh.

So Joe, maybe in Manhattan the Republicans remain reasonable. But here in the hinterlands, the insane train makes regular stops and, when our nutjobs don their clown shoes and speak their minds, no one even bothers to denounce them anymore. Like some kind of alien slime that’s escaped containment, the crazy talk is making national news now, shocking the delicate sensibilities of the elite media. That’s too bad. Deal with it. We’ve been trying to warn you.

So, I'm not sure there's a delicate way to put this, but THERE APPEARS TO BE A DEMON LIVING INSIDE THE CHANNEL 4 STUDIO. Or it could just be a technical glitch.

Last night, during a cut from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to one of WSMV's 4 Warn Weather Alerts, the creature appeared on the screen.

What caused this? Is it a henchman from WKRN? Creeping Shariah?

WSMV reporter Josh DeVine suspects the station "caught the first few frames of an ad" during the dissolve.

"Still..." he says. "Creepy."

I'd guess DeVine is right. Grimm would seem to be a likely source of such a creature. Then again, maybe Mark Clayton did this.

I've placed a call to WSMV, to alert them that they've been infiltrated, and will update here if I hear back.

Update: I'm just off the phone with Channel 4's news director Matthew Hilk, who kindly put up with my questioning on this matter. A quick transcript of our chat, after the jump: