LIBERADIO(!)

Summary: It’s the first part of the show with Freddie O’Connell and Ashley “Ear Candy” Crownover, filling in for a traveling Mary. Bread? Really? We learn that Dumbledore is fabulous, perhaps inspiring Larry Craig in his chamber of secrets. We also learn that Stephen Colbert was just waiting for Mary to leave the country to announce that he was running for president.

Listen to: Monday, October 22, 2007 Part 1 (43.38MB)

Your humble hosts have been given the keys to the kingdom over at Volunteer Voters by Kleinheider, who is temporarily at an undisclosed location. We’re not the only ones, either, so go see who does the best ACK impression! And try to figure out whether Ashley does a better Mary impression or we do a better ACK impression!

Yesterday, I was happy to spend a few cycles on providing environmental resources, but today I can’t help but return to my default state of surprise that we don’t really seem to be living as a nation at war. My uncle (my dad’s brother) was just deployed to Iraq. A good friend of my brother (and friend of our family) is having his welcome home party here in Nashville this Sunday. His final dispatch from Iraq was not encouraging. His tour was even less encouraging considering that he’s actually in the Navy and was basically hoodwinked into a tour in Iraq. At least my uncle is in the Army.

My brother’s friend reported a harrowing experience of having been shot at by a sniper. His personal letters seem to find political vocalization in the words of some brave Army captains. Our friend is no phony soldier (and I don’t mean to portray him as staunchly anti-war; he just offered realistic assessments of some pretty awful scenarios), and I suspect that this dozen, though soon to be surely dirtied by the wingers, are not either.

The Army captains offer a stark choice: a draft or withdrawal. I cannot look to Iraq and see any good choices. And I cannot look to a healthy national dialogue for working through the options we have available. Although I can safely say that I don’t think military strikes against Iran are among them.

5 years on, I wonder how Sen. Clinton, the current Democratic frontrunner for the presidential nomination for 2008, answers to herself, “Was it worth it?” I know the position of the Republican candidates (save Ron Paul). I know my own answer, and the answer is “no”. Especially when I reflect on what else $1.2 trillion could buy.

Update: I’ve got it! We’ll see how many other people we can get to attack Iraq!

Summary: FOL John Flanbsurgh of They Might Be Giants is back and better than ever. We discuss Julie Andrews and the possible anti-semitic theme that runs through The Sound of Music, strident 3-year-olds, and TMBG’s latest album, The Else (Buy Now) (which some say is their Magic).

Listen to: October 15, 2007 Interview with John Flansburgh (23.64MB)

Summary: It’s a Liberadio(!) Round Table discussion with former Tennessean columnist Tim Chavez, Press Secretary for the Tennessee House Democratic Caucus, Addison Pate, and Clean Cities of Middle Tennessee Executive Director, Dave Pelton. Is health care a right? And do Republicans really believe Al Gore is a do-nothing and the Nobel Peace Prize isn’t worth the parchment paper it’s written on?

Listen to: October 15, 2007 LibeRound Table (52MB)

Summary: What do you get when you mix two sleep-deprived radio hosts, one research fellow, John Gibson, and Ann Coulter? The Media Matters for America Smackdown with Elbert Ventura!

Listen to: October 15, 2007 Media Matters for America Smackdown (77.4MB)

Summary: Al Gore wins the noble prize (but he only came in 3rd for Nashville’s Best Local Liberal –Ed.) and unlike the right-wing media echo chamber, we think it’s not only a huge deal but also something to celebrate mightily.

Listen to: October 15, 2007 Part 1 (56.62MB)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that green is the new black, thanks in part to new Nobel laureate Al Gore. And if you’re reading this, a blog, it means that you obviously haven’t been living under a rock. So even though I’m probably not drawing any new attention to “the environment”, I thought it would still be fun to participate in Blog Action Day.

So let’s talk a little bit about the environment. And since Al is doing it on a level that evokes thoughts of peace, we’ll keep our focus a little more local.

First of all, I figured I’d give a shout out to a site that’s trying to make greenness in Nashville just a touch easier: Greener Nashville. It’s kind of a local portal for environmental and sustainability issues.

For offline greenness, you might want to drop by Nashville Green Drinks, Nashville’s chapter of environmental professionals and enthusiasts who get together monthly to network and knock a few back.

A lot of our conservation and transition efforts should probably be focused on transportation. As the world’s leading emitter of carbon, we’re also the world’s heaviest consumer of petroleum.

One easy way to consume less petroleum is to skip a car altogether. Okay, let’s say you’re more easily able to justify car payments and the environmental footprint of a car than I am. You can still walk or bike more often, possibly even as a way of commuting. I serve on the board of directors of Walk/Bike Nashville. The organization is nearly a decade old and has helped Nashville move from 0 miles of bike lanes and greenways to 30+ miles of each. Our annual meeting is tomorrow (Tuesday) evening, and we’re excited to have new mayor Karl Dean as our keynote speaker. Come join us! Credit for the greenways should also go to the Metro Greenways Commission and Greenways for Nashville. We’re all working to make it easier and safer for pedestrians and cyclists to walk and ride the streets and urban wilderness of Nashville, while simultaneously educating pedestrians and cyclists about the best ways to be safe (and legal).

If you’d like to supplement your car-free lifestyle, you’ll find no better friend than MTA. With a bike rack on every bus in the fleet, MTA makes multi-modal transportation ever easier. They’re also working on a brand new downtown transit hub. Don’t knock MTA without having tried it, and if you’ve tried it and didn’t like it, let them know. They’re very receptive to feedback and as responsive as possible given their budget, which I hope the new mayor and council will fully fund.

If you must be on the road in a personal vehicle, you might want to get in touch with Dave Pelton at Clean Cities of Middle Tennessee. Dave is working on diversifying our fuel supply, in part to find less polluting alternatives to petroleum and in part to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Both yield a net positive. He can help you find pumps that have biodiesel or ethanol-based fuels, as well as recommend additional resources for alt-fuel vehicles and sources.

And much of the rest of our conservation and transition efforts should probably be focused on energy generation. For help with that, look no further than local advocates Jeff Barrie and Alex Tapia (et al.) of Kilowatt Ours fame. If you haven’t seen this documentary, then come check out the new national edition next week at the Belcourt.

Afterward don’t forget to sign up for the Green Power Switch, available locally through NES.

Want to live somewhere green? Check out Morgan Park Place or Terrazzo, both of which have qualified for LEED certification.

Finally, learn about all of this and more at the upcoming Summit for a Sustainable Tennessee, brought to you by the Tennessee Environmental Council and Tennessee Conservation Voters Nov. 15th – 17th at Lipscomb University.

What would you do if you only had $3 a day to spend on food? Sure you could eat from the dollar menu at your local McDonalds but if you did, as we saw in the documentary film Super Size Me, you could kiss your energy level, brain function, and the delicate internal balance needed to maintain a healthy body goodbye.

So how does a food stamp recipient who on average only receives $21 per week eat well? It’s not easy. You can find out just how difficult by joining me and other Nashvillians in taking the Nashville Food Stamp Challenge.

The Food Stamp Challenge, a project co-sponsored by the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation of Nashville and The Second Harvest Food Bank of Nashville, is a committment to subsist for one week on $21 per week, or the equivalent of approximately $1 per meal per day. It has been designed to increase public awareness about the depth and breadth of poverty in Nashville and the rest of the country and create awareness of the difficulty of sustaining a healthy and nutritious diet on a food stamp budget. It’s also a Call to Action to call your Senators in support of reauthorizing and strengthening the Farm Bill currently before Congress.

The Challenge begins on Tuesday, October 23, when participants will gather at a local grocery store to be guided, by veteran food stamp recipients, through the purchase of food for the week. Participants will also collect their food stamp receipts for the week and then write about their experience, which makes it a perfect thing for bloggers (hint, hint) to participate in.

Then on Friday, November 2 the organizers will hold a “public debriefing” by the participants at the Room in the Inn, which will be open to the public and feature a breakfast commensurate with the food stamp allotment.

Other participants in the Nashville version of the challenge, which has been taken by at least 25 other communities in the U.S., include Congressman Jim Cooper, WKRN-TV News Anchor and Second Harvest Food Bank Board Member Bob Mueller, Room in the Inn founder and Community Activist Rev. Charles Strobel, Community Activist and Founder of Magdalene House Rev. Becca Stevens, Chair of the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation of Nashville Avi Poster, CEO/Loews Vanderbilt Hotel and Community Activist Tom Negri, former Vice Mayor and Nashville Chamber of Commerce Howard Gentry, Metro Council members Ronnie Steine, Jason Holleman, and Vivian Wihloite, Nashville Scene Editor Liz Garrigan, the lovely and talented Kay West, local businessman and voting rights and prison reform activist Denver Schimming, and his lovely wife and Human Resources Director, Sheila Hobson.

If you’d like more information about the challenge email me or coordinator Avi Poster.

In lieu of participating in the Challenge, Nashvillians interested in supporting those taking the Food Stamp Challenge are encouraged to donate $21 (the average weekly food stamp allotment) or more to the Second Harvest Food Bank. Checks should be made payable to Second Harvest and mailed to: Food Stamp Challenge, c/o Judy Saks, Jewish Federation of Nashville, 801 Percy Warner Boulevard, Nashville, TN 37205.

It’s a combination that eclipses chocolate & peanut butter, warm apple pie & coffee, and Gore/Obama ‘08. Ladies and gentleman, Maureen Dowd and Stephen Colbert do the Sunday New York Times. Together.

Dowd: I called Colbert with a dare: if he thought it was so easy to be a Times Op-Ed pundit, he should try it. He came right over….I just hope he leaves at some point. He’s typing and drinking and threatening to “shave Paul Krugman with a broken bottle.”

Colbert: And Fred Thompson. In my opinion “Law & Order” never sufficiently explained why the Manhattan D.A. had an accent like an Appalachian catfish wrestler.