Prayer Gone Wild at the State Capitol

On January 14, 2010, in Religion, State Politics, by Mary Mancini

Religious IconsJeff Woods from Pith in the Wind takes notice today that the even though the session is only two days old the legislature’s “Ministers of the Day” are bringing it with the bombast big time:

Today, retired Tennessee National Guard Lt. Col. Courtney Rodger–an invitee of House holy warrior Tony Shipley–insisted in her prayer that America is a Christian nation, no matter what certain unnamed “godless and apathetic” commie rats may say. We’re not a Judeo-Christian nation, mind you, or a nation of Christians and Jews and Muslims and many different faiths who share a certain set of values. No, we are a Christian nation. Got it?

Speaking of American soldiers in the Middle East, Rodger said: “We pray that their sacrifices are not in vain, lost to a godless and apathetic nation. For it has been declared to the world that we are no longer a Christian nation. But as Americans, we cannot turn our backs on our history for it cannot be erased.”

Seems to me that the easiest way to make this process more in tune with our nation’s founding principles is to invite ministers of all faiths to say the opening prayer. To make it even more representative of the people of the state, the number of days in the session given to each religion could be divided based on the percentage of the different faiths represented (with at least one day promised to each).

Tennessee’s religious majority is Christian so obviously a Christian prayer would be said most days. But based on the other percentage of religions, there can be x number of Hebrew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, etc. prayers.

And maybe one day there can even be no prayer at all but a simple moment of silence instead.

I mean, the legislature represents all people of the state no matter what their religious affiliation, right? So, this seems like a perfectly reasonable way to move forward. Why would anyone have a problem with it?

  • Share/Bookmark
Tagged with: • • •
 
24 Comments
Leave A Response

New TNGOP Slogan: “Do as I say, Not as I Do”

On November 2, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

The AP’s Erik Schelzig highlights the hypocrisy that is the Tennessee Republican Party and – surprise, surprise! – his story involves the TNGOP’s number one legislative priority (jobs and good education for all Tennesseans, be damned!):

Supporters of blocking public access to the names and addresses of Tennesseans with handgun carry permits appear to have a hard time keeping their hands off the records.

An Associated Press records search has found copies of the state’s database of more than 257,000 handgun permit holders were recently requested by the National Rifle Association, the state Republican Party and a direct mail contractor that has done extensive work for the GOP’s legislative caucus.

Asked about those requests, House Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada says he opposes using the database for political purposes like campaign fundraising or get out the vote efforts.

(Fist bump: The Scene’s loveable curmudgeon.)

  • Share/Bookmark
Tagged with: • • • • • • • •
 
3 Comments
Leave A Response

TN GOP: Tree-Hugging Poseurs

On October 12, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini
The people who did this are not our friends.

The people who did this are not our friends.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, just because you say something often and loudly doesn’t make it true.

Take the curious case of “environmentalist” Rep. Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains) who, along with Rep. Joe McCord (R-Maryville) and several other GOP state reps, were graded by the Tennessee Conservation Voters and found to have not-so-good records on the legislation that would keep Tennessee beautiful and its drinking water safe.

Tom Humphrey at Knoxville News Sentinel has the quote:

“The people who give these ratings are paid environmentalists,” Niceley says. “I was an environmentalist before most of these boys were born.”

Oh yeah? Well put your actions where your words are, fella, and maybe we’ll believe you.

Woods at the Nashville Scene breaks it down:

These are the cave men who made it easier in this year’s session for road-builders and real-estate developers to pave over Tennessee’s streams. Under the fabulous new law they rammed through the legislature, here’s how we’ll deal with pesky burbling brooks interfering with development plans: The developer only has to hire a “consultant” to write a report concluding that the stream isn’t a stream at all. No, it’s merely a “wet-weather conveyance” and therefore unworthy of any protections under environmental law….

And that’s just one of the environmental degradations brought to Tennessee by these lawmakers. Once again, they also managed to kill legislation to prohibit coal companies from blowing the tops of our mountains. Thanks to them, they’ll soon have to sing “Rocky Top-less” at Neyland Stadium on Saturdays.

McCord fell only one vote short of a majority for his bill to weaken standards for the amount of selenium that coal mines may release into Tennessee streams. Critics warned it could cause massive fish and wildlife kills and jeopardize human health, too. But McCord assured everyone that selenium is perfectly safe. It’s so good for you they put it in vitamin pills! You need “your daily dose of selenium,” McCord said. Oh well, there’s always next year.

Next year. Ah, yes. Can’t wait to see – not hear – what these tree friends come up with in January.

  • Share/Bookmark
Tagged with: • • • • • • • •
 
13 Comments
Leave A Response

Choose Life From the Cradle to the Grave

On April 28, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini
The Life & Age of Woman (New York: Currier & Ives, 1850)

The Life & Age of Woman (New York: Currier & Ives, 1850)

The NY Times says that the case of the “Choose Life” license plate may be headed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has turned back at least four requests to hear cases concerning “Choose Life” license plates in recent years. But the volume of litigation on this question and the doctrinal free-for-all it has given rise to in the lower courts have convinced many legal scholars that the court must soon step in.

I know the issue is complicated, but there’s an easy fix. Issue a “Choose Life” plate with a picture collage of all the stages of life instead of issuing one with just a picture of a baby. Then, spread the proceeds to all the different groups that advocate for the health and well-being of humans through all these stages of life.

(HT: Pith in the Scene)

  • Share/Bookmark
Tagged with: • •
 
1 Comments
Leave A Response

Tennessee’s own Rashomon

On January 13, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

There are always more than two sides to every story.

WSMV’s Cara Kumari is reporting that newly elected Speaker of the House Rep. Kent Williams (R, the Fightin’ 4th!) says he approached the Democrats about becoming speaker, “simply because he wanted to be speaker.”

The Scene’s Jeff Woods writes that House Democratic leader Gary Odom (D, the Fightin’ 55th!) traveled to Elizabethton to see Williams and “Out of the blue, Odom asked Williams how he’d like to be the speaker of the House.”

  • Share/Bookmark
Tagged with: • • • • • •
 
1 Comments
Leave A Response

It’s Crafton’s Face on the Cover. But Crisp is Pulling the Strings.

On December 4, 2008, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

So, Eric Crafton’s a good guy. A smart guy. He’s just a little too “alarmingly left-brained” to understand that learning a foreign language with the “full backing and resources of the American Navy…is so removed from the life of your average Nashville non-native speaker that it might as well take place on another planet.” He’s a no-nonsense, black or white, right or wrong, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps family man. According to those who know him best, his colleagues on the Metro Council, he’s not a bad guy.

Let’s say, for argument sake, that all of the above is true. If so, then Crafton is also a little too “alarmingly left-brained” and a little too driven by his ideals to see that he’s being manipulated by Jon Crisp, his “friend” and former head of the Davidson County GOP.

Because Crisp, in this week’s Nashville Scene cover story, let the singular purpose of the “English Only” Amendment slip:

Crafton certainly saw no gray in English Only when he and his friend and adviser Jon Crisp devised it a couple of years ago. Crisp says that English Only came to be during one of his and Crafton’s regular spitball sessions.

“Eric and I pick up on topics that we think are timely,” he says. “And you know as well as I do that any given day I can make an issue out of illegal immigration.”

Yes. We know. You’re, uh, doing it right now. You topic is “timely” because since 2004, when then-Senator Majority leader Bill Frist first introduced immigration as a problem, the unholy alliance of right-wing cable TV anouncers, talk radio hosts, and Fox News have increasingly inflamed nativist sentiment. Nashville’s version of the cookie cutter “English First” website may say that having English as the official language is “truly inclusive” and “essential to unifying our increasingly diverse population,” but Crisp’s transparent words say “purposefully exclusionary” and “essential to dividing in order to conquer.”

The well-being of the city and people of Nashville may be part of the Crafton/Crisp (aka Crispton) official talking points, but the truth is that they could really care less. My thanks to Crisp for finally admitting it.

  • Share/Bookmark
Tagged with: • • • •
 
4 Comments
Leave A Response

The Wheels on the Host Go Round and Round

On October 19, 2008, in Uncategorized, by Mary Mancini

Big up to my friend and colleague, Freddie(!) O’Connell, who was honored this week as “Best Transit Activist” by the Nashville Scene:

By day, Thomas “Freddie” O’Connell—Nashville native, computer programmer and Brown/MBA alum—stirs up the airwaves as Mary Mancini’s dry-witted co-host on WRVU’s popular liberal call-in show Liberadio(!). The rest of the time—make that all the time—he advocates tirelessly for improvements in Nashville’s public transportation system, and he practices what he preaches. For the last four years, O’Connell and his girlfriend Whitney refused to own a car, a major stand in a city as car-centered and transportation-backward as Nashville. He finally relented this year, but only when he found an environmentally friendly vehicle. And what a vehicle: On eBay he purchased a matte black, biodiesel El Camino (complete with rear-window Gothic lettering reading BIODIESEL) from none other than Kill Bill’s one-eyed death-dealer Daryl Hannah. He now sits on Metro Transportation Authority’s Board of Directors—where, with any luck, he’ll help kill our bills for fossil fueling. —JOEL RICE

When Mayor Karl Dean appointed Freddie to the board of the MTA he got a man who not only talks the talk, but who, quite literally and figuratively, walks the walk. Congrats, Freddie!

  • Share/Bookmark
Tagged with: • •
 
0 Comments
Leave A Response

Liberadio(!) Podcast: June 9, 2008 Episode

On June 14, 2008, in Uncategorized, by Liberadio(!)

Summary: Liz Garrigan Editor of the Nashville Scene; Elbert Ventura, research fellow with Media Matters for America.

  • Part 1 – We made a bet. Mary thinks she won. But Freddie won’t pay until August. (20:08 32.3MB)
  • Part 2 – Interview with Lz Garrigan – G-A-Double R-I. G-A-N spells GARRIGAN! It’s Liz’s last few weeks as editor of Scene and she takes the gloves completely off. Hear what she really thinks of Nashville, the daily paper, Hillary as victim, and the Governor. (26:37 42.6MB)
  • Part 3 – It’s the end of the Democratic primary and the year of the underdog continues! Plus, Crafton takes English-only to the people and if you’re going to boo, stay home. (28:19 45.4MB)
  • Part 4 – Media Matters for American Smackdown with Elbert Ventura – Elbert tells us what to expect during the general election from a corporate media intent on breaking the world record for using “Obama” and “terrorist” in the same sentence. “Terrorist fist jab, indeed.” (26:39 42.7MB)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  • Share/Bookmark
Tagged with: • • •
 
0 Comments
Leave A Response

Our Boyfriend’s ACK and There’s Gonna Be Trouble

On April 18, 2008, in Uncategorized, by Liberadio(!)

Yes, Brainstem, we were jonesin‘….

But NOT ANYMORE!

FOL* A.C. “Adam” Kleinfelter Kleinhalter Kleinheiffer Kleinheider is back and better than ever with Nashville Post Politics. Once left lost and wandering without a smart and sassy hot spot of local commentary and blog postings, we are once again, saved. BOOYAH, WKRN!

*Friend of Liberadio(!)

UPDATE: I almost forgot! Don’t you LOVE what they’ve done with Pith in the Wind over at the Nashville Scene?!? I certainly do….now we have TWO smart and sassy hot spots of local commentary and blog postings!

  • Share/Bookmark
Tagged with: • • •
 
0 Comments
Leave A Response

Go To Top »
best wordpress themes