Obama in the Gulf. Photo by Nola

Half our people believe he should let BP shoulder the costs and the repair burden. That is capitalism. The other half believe the government should shoulder the burden despite our huge deficit that many blame solely on Obama, as if President Bush had nothing to do with it. It’s not as if Obama can fix the oil leak that is a mile deep in the Gulf.All sides of the political spectrum believe they are right. Despite each party’s moral feelings, they are basically all in bed together. I like President Obama, but we do not need a law professor to fix the BP problems. We need a general.

He/She goes on to say that the president needs to force BP’s hand to fix the mess, even if it means the company go into bankruptcy. That got me thinking this morning. How many small, unknown businesses have gone through something like this? Just because BP is a huge global company doesn’t mean that they get a pass.

Or, and sadly the case may be, that we are so oil dependent that they will and that lies on all of us.

Southern Beale analyzes the good and the bad in last night’s speech from Obama.

He also made clear he understands the urgency of our need to leave behind our carbon-fueled ways and transition to a clean energy economy. He made clear he understands the magnitude of that challenge, he recognizes that we have failed in this task too many times in the past, and that we are running out of chances. He “gets” that, too.

But what I didn’t hear, what I truly wanted to hear, was some kind of stated vision for how we will manifest this desperately needed change. I didn’t hear the words “Apollo Project for energy,” I didn’t hear the words “national priority,” I didn’t even hear a call for us all as Americans to actually do anything. While he said we all have a role to play, he didn’t articulate what that is.

I didn’t see the president’s speech but I did read the transcript.  (I really should take up a better hobby like macrame or knitting) but I tend to agree with the anonymous author of the editorial from the Sun on the fact that what we are facing is long-term, that there is no way to know if what direction we are going here because in many ways, it’s unknown.

The way I see it we can point fingers later on during the countless congressional hearings regarding the spill that I can only imagine will go on about five seconds shorter than eternity. Right now, I believe that what we need to do is wake up, look at what we must do today and just get it done. Let’s put the politics on the back burner until we have a, as Southern Beale said, vision of action.

I do know that if the disaster in Kingston on the toxic coal ash spill is any indication, I am not holding my breath on much of anything. Cynical, yet may be we can learn from this and find opportunity for stronger regulations and not fancy pieces of paper from lobbyists that hinder instead of help.

Bloggers have been saying this for a couple of years. (Well, I said it in 2007. Self-link, bad form. I know, I know … but I have a point.)  How can we reestablish industrial recruitment and maintain some semblance of economic development when we keep making bone-headed moves.

Hospitality? Just when we thought the black cloud was dissipating from a series of highly publicized gutter attacks on the first family — the “spook” email from a state legislative staffer, the group of Tennessee lawmakers who channeled the federal birthers by filing a lawsuit in U.S. District Court asking to have President Obama declared an illegal alien and stripped of his presidential powers, Chip Saltsman’s “Barack the Magic Negro” CD, the state GOP’s “Anti-Semites for Obama” press release, etc. — the imbecility among us presented itself again in March, when the state’s top hospitality industry executive sent an email to a dozen other powerful people comparing the first lady to Tarzan’s Cheetah. Because, you know, nothing says “visit Tennessee” quite like comparing Harvard-educated Michelle Obama to a chimp.

Quality of life? The Tennessee General Assembly, ostensibly representative of our citizenry, is most distinguished by its knack for self-sabotage.

Garrigan is so on point here. The thing is when are our legislators and business leaders of the state going to get it.

The leader of the state senate says if Tennessee’s Attorney General won’t pursue a lawsuit against the federal healthcare overhaul, he’ll ask an independent attorney to take the case.

Senate speaker Ron Ramsey, who’s also a candidate for governor, says he’ll see if a private attorney would volunteer for the job or find the funds to pay a special counsel.

To quote my 13-year-old niece, things are just weird up there in Nashville.

Tom Humphrey also has the details at Humphrey on the Hill.

It’s one thing to talk about adults. But to demand “research on the adverse impact of the enrollment of students who cannot prove lawful residence in the United States” in order to measure the impact of their presence on taxpayers is just hilariously evil.

The cutlines on the pictures make me love this website immensely. Thank you Pith editors.

I have another question. Who is supposed to pay for this research that these dudes want? It will have to be compiled because teachers are slammed right now or is that just another one of the bureaucratic responsibilities that you want them to do?

Oh, yeah, us.

Someone needs to clue in the editors of our local Gannett fishwrap about a little something called professional sock-puppetry. Because they keep falling for it.

For example, who is this Sarah Longwell person who penned an anti-MADD column for the “Tennessee Voices” section of The Tennessean back in February?

Just another PR professional on the staff of D.C. lobbyist Rick Berman:

And it’s not the first time.

We hope it helped Channel 5′s ratings. This kind of reporting is becoming the station’s M.O. Who could forget that fabulous series on all those perfectly peaceful terrorists at Islamville? You do a sensationalized opening-night report, then follow up with the punch line: Hah! There’s nothing to this at all! The joke’s on the viewers.

Arriola says he suspended Workman and another employee because they “created the appearance of inappropriate activity.” But Channel 5 was the one that actually created this appearance by sticking its hype needle into this silly story. At least this time, we all could laugh at Phil Williams acting like a baby as he mugged for the camera. We thought investigative reporters were supposed to be tough guys.

Yesterday, four-star Army General David Petraeus told a Senate panel that “the time has come” for the military to rethink its stance on gays in the military. Good to hear that the time has finally come and if I had the chance to ask, I’d like to know what the hell took so long. Or more specifically, why is it still even an issue when the president has the power by executive order to have it repealed. I mean, we are at war on two fronts, no? Doesn’t the Commander in Chief have the power of executive order to put an end to this?

Of course Petraeus’ line could be seen as just lip service until further action; which can be quite frustrating for opponents and activists against the current policy. Especially the men and women who have served their country only to be kicked to the curb as a result of being outed.

We move into the unusual story of Newsome, who wasn’t asked, and didn’t tell. She was still kicked out anyway. Why, because the local po po saw her marriage certificate. What did they do? They took the information and told the local army base.

Rippa is livid.

So lemme get this right: they took a peek in her window and saw her marriage license? Um, and they were able to call the base and relay this information which subsequently lead to her dismissal? I don’t know about you, but that just doesn’t seem right to me. What it is, is an invasion of privacy, plain and simple. Hopefully the complaint she has filed against the police department in conjunction with the ACLU goes somewhere because this just doesn’t seem right. Newsome is of the opinion that the cops did what they did in retaliation for her refusal to come to her home to assist them in the apprehension of her partner.

Both Memphis Mayor A C Wharton and Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell have opposed the bill.

Last night at the Mayoral forum Sheriff Luttrell mentioned the law, noting that it has been the policy of his office since 2006 to destroy seized weapons rather than put them back into circulation, despite the revenue that such sales might have provided the department.

The bill passed in the State House (86-3) and in the Senate (26-4) at the end of the session last year. Both Houses reconciled the bill and it was submitted and signed by the Governor on March 4th of this year. The bill will become law on April 12th.

On March 5th, the NRA noted the bill’s signature on it’s website.

Making the sale of confiscated weapons mandatory seems like a serious overstep on the part of the state. Each county and municipality should have the authority to determine what is right for its community, rather than be dictated to by the state legislature on this issue. The revelation that two guns used in recent high profile shootings only makes that more clear, even though the sale of those weapons came years before the enactment of this law.

I’m not sure why this bill was so important to it’s sponsors, Rep. David Shepard and Sen. Doug Jackson, who is also responsible for the Guns in Bars bill, among others, but here’s to hoping that at some point these folks will stop focusing so much on firearms access, and spend a little more time on something that effects all of us, like say employment access.

If we want Volkswagen and other international companies to come here and bring us the jobs we desperately need, we can’t be flipping them off in public to their faces. I’m a hippie liberal. I hate the military-industrial complex as much as the next person. But people in this state need to eat. They need to work. So, you, as a legislator had better put out the welcome mat.

To pretend like we’re in any position to piss off Volkswagen just shows you have no idea how desperately people in this state need jobs.

The sound that you hear which sounds like a hammer banging on an Air-Stream trailer is my head bashing into my desk this morning.

I have a request. Let’s call our elected officials and ask them questions they should know the answer to. Which is how much money is going into the Free and Reduced Lunch program right now in each school district because I think they might see that does tie into job creation. I also think that going here might show certain xenophobic legislators the unemployment numbers and loss of industry in their counties again.

We live in a global economy. Why can’t some of our elected officials remember that?

Note that Bunning is just the first guy on the mound, but it pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it?

Related story here.

UPDATED: More from Kleinheider who reports Bunning flipped off the media. SAY WHAT!

The Mt. Juliet Republican has pushed for a court challenge of Democratic-led health-care reform legislation, led a committee of lawmakers that accused the federal government of abusing its powers, pressed a U.S. senator not to support new fuel standards, and filed a bill that would ban the tagging and tracking of human beings.

And those are just a few of the causes Lynn has taken up over the past six months.

Critics have derided Lynn as, at best, an ineffective lawmaker distracted by ideological battles and, at worst, a grandstander who wants to reopen battles settled by the Civil War.

I can’t help but have to sit back and scratch my head on Rep. Lynn’s latest stunt. This is just as much to get the attention of national media as anything and I guess diverting from having an actual health-care debate and setting up a divisive bill that will die in subcommittee is more important because we’ve seen bills like this happen before. It’ll never pass.

Wait … this is Tennessee! It might.

Democratic Rep. Johnny Shaw of Bolivar, the measure’s main sponsor, said Jackson can be replaced in the chorus by any city or town in Tennessee. The measure was advanced by the House State Government Subcommittee without debate on Tuesday.

But Republican Sen. Tim Burchett of Knoxville, who in 2003 sponsored a resolution that made songwriting one Tennessee’s official art forms, said the new song might not best represent the best Tennessee has to offer.

The song is “So I’ll Just Shine in Tennessee (I’m a Jackson, Tennessee Nugget).”

Seriously?

Alarmingly, this has been picked up as some kind of inside joke among reporters within the mainstream press, even creating the oft-repeated lie that “he used a teleprompter at a school!” (he didn’t). The hypocrisy is not just that every other politician of the modern era uses a teleprompter. The hypocrisy–and I’m talking to our illustrious mainstream media here–is that for eight years the Bush Administration created all sorts of made-for-prime-time phony media moments, which the MSM gobbled up like a starving man at the all-you-can-eat buffet.

The obvious, most notorious example of this was President Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” moment, a staged piece of political theater the media gleefully celebrated, from the manly flight-suit landing to the banner to the speech declaring

“In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.”Only months later, when Iraq spiraled into chaos, did the media start to question this stunt, and they saved most of their criticism for the actual banner.

She has a point. The MSM tends to go with the “pseudo-sexy” wedge issues instead of, you know, reporting the news that impacts average citizens.

Former congressman Harold Ford Jr. is going to sit down with the Stonewall Democrats. Yeppers, those Stonewall Democrats.

Oh hell to the yes! Harold Ford Jr., who has yet to officially announce that he will challenge Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, is going to hit up the Stonewall Democratic Club a week from today in what’s undoubtedly an effort to, once again, set the record straight on his LGBT rights history. Namely, that there isn’t one. Cue the protesters!

And, as you know from Adam Kleinheider, HFJ has announced his extending his deadline.

NPR is also talking Ford today. Here’s the lede.

“Southern voters are interested in solutions,” said Harold Ford Jr. in 2003. “They can spot a fake.” Perhaps this explains Ford’s subsequent decision to decamp from the South in search of a more gullible electorate.

Hell, The Smoking Gun is also on it, which is a whole other story all together.

Like Jay-Z and Lady Gaga, Harold Ford, Jr. has a tour rider. The former Tennessee congressman, who is now trying to carpetbag his way to a Senate seat in New York, banks about $20,000 when he gives speeches booked by the Greater Talent Network agency.

They even have his contract up for speaking gigs for you to see. Pretty standard stuff actually, but it’s just odd to see it at The Smoking Gun. No shellfish for HFJ. He’s allergic.

Popcorn anybody?

Randy Rayburn, who owns the Midtown Cafe, The Sunset Grill and Cabana restaurants in Nashville has an editorial this morning in the Tennessean about the guns in bars legislation from last year as well as a new bill to eliminate liquor sales after midnight and how he believes it puts the Hospitality Industry at risk.

But he also gives a history lesson.

Tennessee works best when our elected officials bring insights from their labors to our government and then return to the working world. Not just at campaign time, but every week.I think of the late Tommy Burks, waking before dawn every morning to feed his pigs, driving to Nashville for sessions of the Senate and heading home every night to do it all again the next day. I think of Ben Atchley, never forgetting the lessons he learned in the Navy, or a young Ned Ray McWherter, never forgetting he worked the same soil alongside people of a different color. And then I think of the General Assembly today.

snip

Now, in response to fallout from the controversy over guns in bars, a legislator has proposed tying liquor permits to restaurants’ reporting their food and alcohol sales to the state and banning liquor sales after midnight

In his column, he quotes the manager of the Bluebird Cafe who said the same thing that people here on this side of the state mentioned yesterday. I spoke to several people in yesterday about the bill that Rayburn is talking about. One man, who runs a bar and grill in the college town of Martin, said this wasn’t good anyway you looked at it.

“Most of our business comes after midnight. This bill would us. We’d have to shut down.”

That particular business has been operating for 44 years.

As Rayburn points out, the lessons of past generations have been forgotten in many ways and replaced by stunt legislation.

Jeff Woods pointed out yesterday, the bill probably won’t pass and even it’s sponsor doesn’t think it will either.

Rep. Curry Todd hints he won’t try to pass his bill banning alcohol sales after midnight. He’s only trying to make a point about late-night crime. Right. It wouldn’t pass anyway …

Why waste everyone’s time then, Rep. Todd?

If you ever want to see $40 million of taxpayers’ money spent in a month, with no discussion, you need to go to a meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO).

Who’s the MPO, you might ask? It’s an organization created by the federal government to coordinate all federal transportation dollars in this region. These are generally matched with state and local funds. Its purpose is to make sure roads in this locale match up with roads in Arkansas and Mississippi. You wouldn’t want Third Street to be a couple of miles off-center on its entry into Tunica. That makes sense.

But who makes up this board, where and when does it meet, and what does it really do?

Then, Vergos gives some insight:

At the last meeting, I watched the group pass an array of expensive projects calling for traffic coordinating signals for Houston Levee Road, new roads through Shelby Farms, all kinds of I-269 stuff — and every bit of it with no discussion. It was that way all through the 36-item agenda.

When I spoke up to complain that no one knows about this group, that no City Council members ever attend (although I used to, when I could), nor county commissioners, nor any media, I was told by an MPO member: “John, these projects are all vetted through our legislative bodies with citizens’ input and work their way up the ladder.”

The reality with the MPO is that it’s a roadbuilder’s/developer’s grab bag. Any real citizen input is illusory.

And when Vergos describes trying to get any REAL discussion, he throws the knockout punch:

Item 36 on the agenda of that last meeting was called “Imagine Memphis 2035 Transportation Plan.” I guess this was MPO’s attempt to show how bold and futuristic they are. Well, here’s our future: If we keep spending $50 million a month on unplanned growth, we will have squandered a wonderful opportunity for smart growth and fiscal responsibility.

Members of the MPO will tell you that even though these projects are approved they still have to come before the legislative bodies for ultimate approval. This is true; however, I can tell you from experience, these come as a fait accompli. By the time city and county legislators get them, it’s like trying to stop a moving train. The entire development community has already got their seven votes both ways, and it’s a done deal.

Wow.

via The MPO File | Viewpoint | Memphis Flyer.

Rep. Matthew Hill, R-Pleistocene Epoch, is an Obama birther and far-right Christian zealot par excellence. But don’t make the mistake of thinking this lawmaker is completely out to lunch. No, this is one crazy ideologue who knows how to play political hardball.

Behold House Bill 2683 sponsored by Hill this session. Our shrewd hero would transfer all commercial vehicle inspection and enforcement duties from the Safety Department to the Tennessee Regulatory Authority. Not coincidentally, we think, Hill’s father Kenneth is a new director of the TRA.

(Kenneth Hill, you’ll recall, was recently in the news for defending Pat Robertson for saying Haiti deserved the earthquake.)

via A State House Zealot Shows His Shrewd Side – Nashville News – Nashville Scene – Pith in the Wind.

It ceased to be different in that respect. The Tea Party movement was about having a voice but when you put a price tag on it, it’s a whole new ballgame.