A must-read *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* to all the candidates in Tennessee: “…a good candidate running a good local campaign can trump even a very bad national attitude.” (a.k.a., “…riding the wave of voter discontent might not be enough for Republicans this fall” and “what last Tuesday’s elections can really teach us.”)
All that and message matters, too.
Summary: Featuring Federal Public Defender Kelley Henry, Center for American Progress Policy Analyst Ian Millhiser, and Karl Frisch and the Media Matters for America Smackdown.
A Conversation with Justin Bieber, Part 1 We apologize, but by the time our show aired, Justin Bieber had to cancel. We’re sad but we forge ahead with the Liberadio(!) “To Do” list, Freddie as a bicycle valet, the Davidson County Democratic Party straw poll debrief, and a rundown of the news. Plus, Federal Public Defender Kelley Henry joins us live to tell us the story of her client Gaile Owens, one of two women on Tennessee’s death row, and Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper issues an opinion[pdf] on the constitutionality of yet another vanity license plates. Beep, beep, who got the keys to the…ZOMG! Jesus is Lord! [25.4MB Click on the arrow below to listen or download mp3]
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A Conversation with Justin Bieber, Part 2 In the second hour we tell you all the fun facts that weren’t reported about self-described “Tea Partiers,” and we speak to Ian Millhiser, Policy Analyst for Center for American Progress about the upcoming Supreme Court nomination – what it means to a court primarily made up of conservatives “nuts” and what the confirmation process will look like. Then, it’s once again time for Karl Frisch(!) and the Media Matters for America Smackdown – this week Karl takes Maureen Dowd and the Sunday morning talk shows to the mat – and a quick but important word about a bill that would outlaw some forms of birth control in Tennessee (which has passed in both the House and Senate and is on its way to the Governor to be signed). [23.4MB Click on the arrow below to listen or download mp3]
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Here are the links for some of the things Mary & Freddie talked about on the show this morning:
Tennessee Bill Could Deny Contraceptives
Watch the discussion in the TN General Assembly on HB 2681, the bill presented by Rep. Matthew Hill (R-Jonesborough), in which Rep. Karen Camper (D-Memphis) tries to add an amendment regulating vasectomies, Rep. Jeanne Richardson (D-Memphis) tries to educate her colleagues on the unintended consequences, and Rep. Hill admits he is unfamiliar with what an “IUD” is.
More background and discussion from The Network at Speak to Power and Your Liberal Friends, as well as Think Progress.
Electric Bikes
For those of you who don’t ride bikes ’round these parts because of all the hills, electric bikes are here for you.
Beep, beep, who got the keys to the…ZOMG! Jesus is Lord!
TN ATTY GEN Bob Cooper has ruled (pdf) on the establishment of yet another new specialty earmarked license plate asserting that “Jesus is Lord!”
Gaile Owens
First hour guest Kelley Henry, the supervising attorney of the Capital Habeas Unit at the Nashville Federal Public Defender’s Office, tells us the story of Tennessee death row inmate Gaile Owens. More info at FriendsofGaile.com.
Supreme Court
Second hour guest Ian Millhiser, Policy Analyst for American Progress, gave us some good resources for learning about the upcoming Supreme Court nominees, the confirmation hearings, and Republican obstructionism: The Wonk Room, law professor Jack Balkin’s blog, Balkinization, plus Matt Yglesias, Ezra Klein, and Scott Lemieux at The American Prospect.
Karl Frisch(!) and the Media Matters for America Smackdown
Read his latest columns at Media Matters on Maureen Dowd and fact-checking the Sunday morning talk shows.
Yes, Yes, a Thousand Times Yes!
Lesbians who look like Justin Bieber, Jon Stewart tells Fox’s conservative pundits to go f**k themselves, and Stephen Colbert on fact-checking the Sunday morning talk shows.
Summary: Featuring guest Neal Darby, Jr., Senior Partnership Specialist Team Leader with the U.S. Census Bureau.
Don’t Confuse Your Census with Your 1040, Part 1 The Liberadio(!) “To Do” list is long this week and includes marijuana jokes, coveting the Seattle Center Monorail (and flume ride), and a historic march. Plus, love him or hate him, you know Barney Frank would never try to bite the head off a baby bunny – or would he? And we are disgusted with Sarah Palin’s unchallenged and unrelenting display of disrespect for the highest office in the land and chagrined – again – at what Tennessee Republicans and, therefore, Tennessee Democrats have decided is going to be the issue to talk about in this campaign. Then, we begin the breakdown of what’s going on with voter roll purges in Benton County. [28.14MB Click on the arrow below to listen or download mp3]
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Don’t Confuse Your Census with Your 1040, Part 2 We talk to Neal Darby, Jr., Senior Partnership Specialist Team Leader with the U.S. Census Bureau and he answers all our questions about the 10 questions. Then, we continue our discussion about the controversial Benton County voter roll purges – who was affected, why, and why can’t we locate the laws that the election administrator said were followed during the purge process? [19.82MB Click on the arrow below to listen or download mp3]
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TN Governor Phil Bredesen was interviewed on NPR’s On Point this morning.
Delaware and Tennessee win the first round of Obama’s 4.35 billion dollar “Race to the Top” in education. We’ll look at how they won — and where the race goes from here.
Audio will be available at 2 P.M. CT. Listen here.
Is Rachel Maddow planning on running against Scott Brown in her home state of Massachusetts?
The individual health insurance mandate was constitutional before, you know, it wasn’t.
Just where was Senator Mae Beavers in 1993?
Watch this if only to see Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, who conceived the idea of the individual health insurance mandate, tap dance for Andrea Mitchell (at 4:06).
And let us not forget that the health insurance reform is not universal health care nor does it include a public option, it is an expansion of the private health insurance system we have now. Combine this with the mandate thing and Republican opposition seems even more absurd.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
UPDATE: More video of the “breathtaking cynicism” coming from Republicans in Washington:
Sen. Hatch (R-UT) says he once supported an individual mandate without knowing he did — simply as a tactic to stop the Clinton plan.
Speak to Power reports on the “stunning admission” in from TN Republican Senator Bob Corker that “breaks the long-standing 11th Commandment, ‘Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.’”
In a Politico article, Corker talks about the GOP strategy with the upcoming debate on a bill that would reform the financial services industry, and how he feels the current GOP strategy of “OBSTRUCT, OBSTRUCT, OBSTRUCT!” isn’t going to work on a bill that the public largely stands behind, even if they’re not clear on the specifics.
From the article:
Corker said Republicans lost their leverage when they failed to rally around the emerging deal on which he and Dodd were working until several weeks ago. Corker suggested that the lack of enthusiasm from his colleagues about those talks played into Dodd’s decision to cut short his work with Corker and move a bill to committee.
“Had everybody come together around that bipartisan negotiation, and I think had Chris [Dodd] seen that other Republicans would actually join in at that time, he might have continued on. But I think the fact that didn’t occur … the die was cast,” Corker said.
…
“I don’t think the polarity [of health care] will exist around this bill, and I think that again a major strategic error has occurred.”
It seems as if Senator Corker is one of the guys in a “shiny political celebrity high-profile” job that wants to actually get something done. Too bad he picked the wrong party to join.
This clip begins with Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Where Do we go From Here?” (“Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”), winds its way through mush needed snark about the recent Newt Gingrich quote about passage of health care reform (“They will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years”) (Newt’s clarification is a doozie too), and lands on the question that has starred in some of our country’s most historic (and violent) moments and is once again at the forefront of every public policy and political discussion: Do we want a government that does something, or don‘t we?
Rachel Maddow: “Actually, doing health reform is a demonstration that government is not just for show. Government is for fixing problems. We have a government, not just to give people shiny political celebrity high-profile jobs so they can win popularity contests against other people who want shiny political high-profile jobs. We have a government to work on problems that we have as a people, as a country, problems that aren‘t working themselves out intrapersonally or in the marketplace. Government is for something. We have one for a reason.”
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Here are some pictures from the Tennessee Tea Party visit to the Capitol this morning. They were taken during the right wing extremist red-meat speeches given by Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey (R-Blountville) and Senator Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet), two of the Co-Prime Sponsors of the Tennessee Health Freedom Act.
Did Sen. Beavers really say to the “crowd” that this bill would allow them to choose to keep their private health insurance? Can’t they do that now?
I will try to remember more of what was said but mostly all I heard was “blah blah blah.”
We at Liberadio(!) hope the TNGOP continues to follow the leadership of Lt. Governor Ramsey and Sen. Mae Beavers. Please, oh please, oh please. Because while you’re doing that we’ve be over here explaining that affordable health care coverage for your kids without having to worry about pre-existing conditions is right around the corner.
This poor guy was confused. He thought they said “Pirate Party” .
UPDATE: More from Woods – Under Siege at the Legislature: Tea Partiers Howl Over Health Care Reform
UPDATE II: Another eye witness account – this picture and a quote:
I just took this picture this morning with my phone. It was about 10:45 AM and the guy at the podium was speaking to “everyone”- at one point he said, “And it won’t stop with healthcare…next we’ll get immigration, cap and trade, education!”
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