Posted by Mary Mancini on July 13, 2007 under Uncategorized | 
Mayoral candidate David Briley just received a bump from national organization, Democracy for America, the grassroots political organization founded by Howard Dean and now run by his brother, Jim. Not really surprising because of his Democracy for Tennessee endorsement, but interesting nonetheless.
Also not surprising because David is the most progressive candidate. And by progressive I mean he advocates for ideas that will help us move forward while understanding the complexity of the issues we face. I’ve been to a lot of forums and I’ve never heard him utter one platitude. Refreshing.
Posted by Liberadio(!) on under Uncategorized |
Summary: We continue our candidate interview series with Metro At-large candidate, Ronnie Steine. Steine was a Metro councilman-at-large from 1991-1999 and was then elected Vice Mayor and served from 1999 until his resignation in 2002. He’s back now with an explanation of his abrupt resignation and his ideas for a better Nashville. Plus, he shows his good sportsmanship as we metaphorically poke and prod his most sensitive bits.
Listen to: Interview with Ronnie Steine (22:31 20.6MB)
Posted by Mary Mancini on under Uncategorized |
I missed so much while I was in Vegas. In a story in last week’s Tennessean about immigration raids in Maury County, an elected official made what he, and the people who voted for him, probably thought was a clever quip about immigrants in the U.S.. Commissioner Bob Farmer said that if it weren’t for the raids being conducted by Maury County Sheriff Enoch George, “we won’t have a White House, we’ll have a Brown House.”
Commissioner Farmer, meet me over here at this blog post. Now, sir, I understand that Maury County is not very ethnically diverse. In fact, it’s almost 85% white. But, dude, you have got to get out more. Or maybe just read a newspaper. You see, the Democratic field of presidential contenders is very diverse and there’s this brown guy named Bill Richardson actually running for president. But you’re probably too busy bustin’ a gut about Fred Thompson to pay much attention. But you should. No, no, no…don’t grab your gun. He has credentials! And experience! I’m sorry, am I confusing you? Let me explain, he’s Governor of a very, very big state called New Mexico. Now, stop, I know it has “Mexico” in the name but it is part of the United States. No, really, it is. And guess what? Governor Richardson also used to be a Congressman, an Ambassador to the United Nations, and the U.S. Secretary of Energy.
So the next time you go shooting off your big, fat, racist mouth, you might want to stick your head out of the bubble you live in and look around. We live in an ethnically diverse country - a melting pot, if you will - and it’s not only white people who are entitled to be our elected representatives. So chew on that, Commissioner Farmer, because your “nightmare” of a “Brown House” instead of a “White House” is closer than you think.
PS: If anyone wants to complain about the good Commissioner Farmer, contact Maury County Mayor Jim Baily at (931) 375-1000 or send an email.
Posted by Mary Mancini on under Uncategorized |
Get out your lighters (and your calculators), The Fiscal Wake-Up Tour is coming to Nashville.
When the Bush administration announced this week that the federal budget deficit for this fiscal year would be lower than it had anticipated - only $205 billion - our favorite wonky Tennessee Congressman, Jim Cooper (D-the fightin’ 5th!), released these fightin’ words:
“The number the president announced today is more happy talk from a guy who seems to have learned accounting from his friends at Enron. The real, audited federal budget deficit is 15 times larger—about 3 trillion dollars. And what’s more, we have a long-term spending crisis on our hands that will literally bankrupt the country unless we take action soon. President Bush does the nation a disservice by pretending things are just fine. It seems we have a leadership deficit, too.”
Awww, snap, Coop! (He let’s us call him “Coop.” Ok, no he doesn’t.)
So, you want the real numbers? Then join the Congressman as he welcomes U.S. Comptroller General David Walker and The Fiscal Wake-Up Tour to Nashville this Monday, July 16, 10:00 a.m., at the Downtown Library.
Joining Comptroller Walker on the tour is a bipartisan group of economists, or “patriotic experts,” who have vowed to take “this urgent warning directly to the American people” - Robert Bixby of the Concord Coalition, Stuart Butler from the Heritage Foundation, and Isabel V. Sawhill of the Brookings Institution.
As Congressman Cooper says, “Your children will thank you for refusing to bankrupt future generations.”
Info: The Fiscal Wake Up Tour, Downtown Library, 615 Church Street, Nashville, Monday, July 16 at 10 a.m.
Washington Post, “Stumping for Attention to Deficit Disorder”
CBS’ 60 Minutes story on David Walker and the Fiscal Wake Up Tour
Concord Coalition
GAO Fiscal Wake Up Tour
Posted by Liberadio(!) on July 12, 2007 under Uncategorized |
10 Jul 2007
“Who’s Your Daddy?,” by Paul Waldman (TomPaine.com)
Waldman, author of Being Right is Not Enough: What Progressives Can Learn From Conservative Success uses Fred Thompson’s rapid ascent in the polls to once again warn Democrats to pay attention to image and identity.
“Counseling Democrats to Go for the Gut,” By Patricia Cohen (NY Times)
Just in case you missed Lakoff’s Don’t Think of an Elephant and Waldmans’ Being Right is Not Enough: What Progressives Can Learn From Conservative Success, Cohen reports on the latest book warning Democrats to focus on evoking images and feelings from the electorate, Emory University Psychology Professor Drew Westen’s, The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.
“Bush’s Pakistan Paradox,” By Robert Scheer (Truthdig.com)
Oh what we’ll do, or not do, to not offend our friends in Pakistan. Let the double standards soar!
“Fixing Health Care: Not Government vs. Market,” By Dean Baker (truthout.org)
“With “SiCKO” rallying popular support for universal health care coverage, defenders of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries are shifting into high gear with their scare tactics. The key to their efforts is to frighten people about the prospect of the government managing their health care.”
11 July 2007
“Surgeon General Sees 4-Year Term as Compromised,” By Gardiner Harris (NY Times)
“Ex-surgeon general faults White House,” by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar (LA Times)
“Richard Carmona says the administration ’simply buried’ his scientific data on such issues as stem cell research and teen pregnancy” and “was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches.”
August 2007
“The History Boys,” By David Halberstam (Vanity Fair)
“In the twilight of his presidency, George W. Bush and his inner circle have been feeding the press with historical parallels: he is Harry Truman—unpopular, besieged, yet ultimately to be vindicated—while Iraq under Saddam was Europe held by Hitler. To a serious student of the past, that’s preposterous. Writing just before his untimely death, David Halberstam asserts that Bush’s “history,” like his war, is based on wishful thinking, arrogance, and a total disdain for the facts.”
Posted by Liberadio(!) on under Uncategorized |
Summary: In this episode, the miracles continue as our more reasonable and rational listeners call in to discuss immigration and the shocking report that 1 in 133 Americans are now incarcerated. Plus, FOL* Bruce Barry calls to continue the discussion about the Supreme Court’s decision about school diversity.
Listen to: Wiley Coyotes (46:47 42.8MB)
*Friend of Liberadio(!)
Posted by Liberadio(!) on under Uncategorized |
Summary: A caller attempts to take Freddie to the “Nightmare on Elm Street” on the immigration issue and ends up telling us that we suck. Fortunately, it’s our show and we, along with our more reasonable callers, get the last word.
Listen: Nightmare on Tenth Avenue South (33:39 30.8MB)
Posted by Liberadio(!) on under Uncategorized |
Summary: In this episode we interview Anurima Bhargava, Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and she gives us the the constitutional law perspective on the Supreme Court’s decision on School Diversity. We lose her to bad cell phone reception at the end of the interview, but during the time we have with her she does a fantastic job of explaining the decision and its implications.
Listen to: Bye Bye Brown (09:45 9MB)
Posted by Mary Mancini on under Uncategorized |
The NY Times reports that former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona told a Congressional panel that “top Bush administration officials repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports because of political considerations.”
Add this story to their failure in Iraq, their failure in the gulf, the firing of the attorneys general, the ballooning of the deficit, and the NASA reports on global warming they suppressed, and a pattern develops. Not only do Republicans have contempt for governing but they have contempt for the American people. In each instance they have cynically put politics and self-interest above keeping us free from harm. They have failed us.
Republicans don’t want “small” government, they want a self-serving government. They have used their power only to further their political agenda while gutting the national treasury and eroding what little confidence we had left that in a time of crisis our government will be there to protect us.
Posted by Freddie on July 2, 2007 under Uncategorized |
The Tennessee Equality Project was trumpeting a bit of good news for Out & About Newspaper, one of the most prominent local outlets for GLBT news.
In a recent battle over distribution rights, the paper wound up winning a victory in a dispute that saw them enter and then quickly asked to leave local Kroger stores. Read the full article for details. The victory was won in part with a display of economic might, in which the GLBT community and its supporters saved receipts from shoppers visiting non-Kroger stores for groceries.
Harris Teeter, however, is still drawing ire from the local GLBT community for continuing a partial reversal of distribution status for O&AN. Rightfully so, in my opinion. I prefer not to have the corporate headquarters of my local grocery stores dictating morality to me, and such moral authoritarianism in the shopping aisle is the only reason I can imagine to limit equal access for free publications of this variety. I could see preventing publications promoting hate, but O&AN is a news publication serving a community with editorial merit fully on par with any of Nashville’s other niche publications.
In the end, a strong dose of capitalism bolstered the common sense outcome for area Kroger stores, and I can only hope that common sense wins out in the case of Harris Teeter. Comments to Harris Teeter can be directed here.