Salvation Army and Marine Reserve to kids at Christmas: "Achtung! Your papers, bitte!"

But what's most important ... is that the community knows "we're able to validate the information that we receive."

-- Maj. Rob Vincent, Salvation Army Nashville area commander

What she said and more:

The family's papers seemed to be in order, so the Salvation Army gives the tot a toy.

And a child shall lead them, if by "child" you mean WKRN's Jamey Tucker

More than either of the other two local news television stations, News 2 has tended to have a culture war edge to it, especially in the reporting of Jamey Tucker. And we can perennially bet that Tucker will ramp up the theo-con angles (or is than "angels"?) on his reportage the deeper we move into the year-end holiday season.

Tucker is starting early this year with a story on an LED billboard, which is controversial enough with many neighborhoods. However, he is seemingly not interested in the quality-of-life impact of bright, streaming, distracting Vegas-style billboards. Instead he hones in on one particularly innocent message like a duck on a June bug and he wrings his own meaning from it.

As I said, Tucker's biased reporting is typical of his history of covering faith-based issues. His comment that the sign advertises the belief that there is no God seems to be designed to incite drama where there may not be any. His bias is probably going to end up as an unintentional fundraising catalyst for a project that otherwise would have had less.

HT: Jack Silverman

UPDATE: I just found out that Jamey Tucker has a ministry outside of his work at WKRN. There is nothing wrong with having a moonlighting ministry. There is something wrong if Tucker allows that ministry to bias his journalism. And I see strong consistencies between the slant of spin against WKRN report subjects who are not evangelical, and his overtly evangelical ministry reportage like this:

The Confederacy rises again

Red state Tennessee begins talks to "reassert state sovereignty" by "seeking to repeal" federal authority.

Which of these brave Tennessee Republicans will be the first to argue that all of that federal money rolling into Tennessee to help maintain highways, to round up illegal immigrants, and to help rebuild crumbling infrastructure should be sent back? And it should be fun watching "realistic" Tennessee Democrats of the Bredesen- and Blue-Dog-ilk rationalize how they need to adjust and adapt to the new secessionist conservative climate.

California tumbles into the sea; that'll be the day I go back to Arlington

I am ashamed this day to admit that I am a product of this Texas public school district, given the latest from the Associated Baptist Press:

ARLINGTON, Texas (ABP) -- A prominent black Southern Baptist pastor says a Texas school district should explain why it did not allow President Obama's Sept. 8 speech on education to be shown live in classrooms, but is planning later in the month to send selected fifth graders to a similar message by former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura.

The Arlington Independent School District was one of several across the United States that opted out of the live broadcast of the president's speech challenging students to take personal responsibility for their own education ....

School officials in Arlington -- a large suburb located between Dallas and Fort Worth -- said students with appropriate parental notification could take a half-day excused absence to watch the president's address at an off-campus location like a home, church or community center.

One of those sites was Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington. The 4,500-member, predominantly African-American congregation invited students from both Arlington and the neighboring Mansfield Independent School District to watch the message at the church and offered free lunches to the first 100 students requesting them ....

Later McKissic learned the Arlington Independent School District had accepted an invitation to take 28 fifth grade classes to a Sept. 21 media event sponsored by a committee preparing for the 2011 Super Bowl to be played at Arlington's new $1.15 billion Dallas Cowboys football stadium.

Along with the former president and first lady, the program will feature "legendary Dallas Cowboys," along with business and community leaders from across North Texas. The event, being held to announce "the largest youth-education program in Super Bowl history," will give invited students free lunches and a T-shirt. Planners were also working to "secure a performance by a well-known recording artist to cap the festivities in high style."

McKissic responded with a second press release calling it a "blatant double standard" to not permit students to hear one message while busing them to hear the other.

Another conservative Metro Council member tries to supplant Eric Crafton as Nashville's own culture warrior poet to Fox News

Did CM Robert Duvall say "anal inspection"?

The Council Member Got Bitter, Clinging To Guns after Clinging to Religion

At last night's council meeting, a month after co-sponsoring a bill to promote prayer events orchestrated by fundamentalist Christians, CM Robert Duvall forcefully disputed a memorializing resolution that expresses opposition to the state's pending preemption of Metro laws against carrying guns in parks. Duvall imprecatorily poured out his indignation on bill sponsors by shouting that the criminals don't obey the laws and they carry guns in Metro Parks as if they were permitted.

It's one thing for Duvall to incite Nashvillians to stay away from Metro Parks by spreading the meme that they are all disproportionately saturated with gun-toting criminals relative to any street in Davidson County. And it's noteworthy when an elected promoter of biblical literalists ignores biblical teachings like "love your enemies," "do good to those who persecute you," and "turn the other cheek" in favor of advancing the NRA's interest in strapping more guns on people even if innocent bystanders hit the collateral damage side of the homocide ledger after various OK Corral shoot-'em-ups (further discouraging park visits).

But it is a horse of a different color when a council conservative will forsake the idea of home rule and brook the big-brother, nanny-state Tennessee General Assembly telling Metro Nashville what we can and cannot prohibit in our own local parks.

Biblical Agenda for the Political Parties & Making the U.S. a Christian Nation

I couldn't find any videos of Nashville's National Day of Prayer gathering or Mayor Dean's contributions to it, but I did find a video of rabid theological expressions during prayer in Cleveland, Tennessee. It's entertaining to me, but I have to admit that sitting through a 5-minute fundamentalist prayer is unpleasant unless you have the stomach for it:

How about that section around 3:00, where the evangelist calls for the "transformation" of the "American melting pot" of Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims into a "Christian nation"? And who says the National Day of Prayer movement doesn't have a political agenda?

The Logical Extension of Teabaggery

Threats to be taken seriously from the GOP's Tea Party Movement via Texas Observer:

Just how crazy is the tea party movement? Crazy enough that elected GOP officials are now openly calling for the overthrow of the U.S. government because they don’t like Obama’s policies. Here’s an excerpt of a commentary by Daryl Fowler, the chairman of the DeWitt County (Texas) Republican Party. The commentary is currently posted on the main page of the DeWitt GOP website:

His [Obama’s] reign ends in less than four years, but the party could be over before then. If enough Americans stand up and reassert their God-given rights to institute governments and overturn those that are unjust. The movement in Texas and several other state legislatures regarding the 10th Amendment rights of the States is welcome on this page.

Will Tea Party History Repeat Itself?

Heard about this event next week being organized as homage to the revolutionary acts of the Sons of Liberty (without the "no taxation without representation" cry)?



Bear in mind that not too long after the original Boston Tea Party lynchings started as the Sons of Liberty found the mobs they incited difficult to control:



Looks like Glenn Beck's cup of tea to me.

Not Exactly Mr. Popularity

According to the Monkey Cage:

No wonder the Democrats are going after Rush Limbaugh, he’s less popular than gays, atheists, or Muslims. Even George W. Bush beats him and illegal immigrants aren’t far behind.

She no doubt underscores the "My" in "This Land is Your Land"

When Kay Brooks is taking her cue from populist folk songs, something has gone desperately wrong on the right.  Woodie Guthrie wrote "This Land is Your Land" as a protest against Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." It's been covered by 60's counter-culture artists Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul, and Mary.

For the likes of Kay Brooks and Michelle Malkin to appeal to it is not only ironic, it deconstructs most of the right-wing, pro-Christian, "libertarian" clap trap they're so fond of.

Be careful what you wish for, Kay Brooks. A land that belongs to every peon is not in the GOP platform.

Tennessee bolsters its regressive reputation with more inbred incivility

Tennessee is not joining either the new south or the 21st Century any time soon. Instead, it has a reserved a seat in a hell-bound handbasket. The latest indignity is that it seems to be "awash in jokes about Obama's race."

The state already has a Republican Party that made Barack Obama's ethnicity an issue during the campaign, trained on his Islamic middle name, and personally attacked the First Lady's love of country.

We already have the dubious distinction of being the place where an assassination plot against Obama was hatched and planned (and ultimately foiled).

And our backwater legacy in U.S. Naval history seems secured with the establishment of a Klan troupe on the U.S.S. Tennessee in 1923 in honor of "beautiful small towns which make up Tennessee."

Did I mention that the state revoked the charter of the Highlander Folk School in 1961 because it trained people to civilly disobey segregation laws?

What a disgrace this place must seem to the rest of the country. Outside of a handful of blue counties, there is little chance that progressive ideas would ever take root here.

You live by culture war, you die by culture war, you resurrect by culture war

Michael Cass has various prognoses of Eric "English Only" Crafton's political future. As long as Crafton continues to reject moderate governance in favor of some wingnut ploys to stay in government (even while speaking against government) I'll keep tabs on him and take him as seriously as I have since I started blogging on local issues. We let our guard down and one day Shady's back. I am amazed that I run into people who voted for Crafton but were shocked to see what he is capable of with English Only.

How Does a Nearly 10,000 Vote Rejection Amount to "Narrow"?

The special interest nativists who funded Eric Crafton from their offices in Virginia try to contain the damage Nashville dealt to their cause:

"Yesterday's vote in Nashville narrowly rejecting an initiative that would have made English the official language of city government was a sad day for the city's unity," said ProEnglish Executive Director K.C. McAlpin.

"Nashville's citizens will now be forced to live with the costs as well as the divisiveness of multilingual government promoted by far-left organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union," McAlpin said. "And when it's time to pick up the tab, they'll discover that the well-heeled business interests that contributed so generously to defeating official English, are nowhere to be found," he added.

McAlpin praised the local citizen's group called Nashville English First led by Nashville Metro Councilman Eric Crafton who sponsored the initiative and succeeded in forcing a special election on the issue despite the obstructionism of Nashville Mayor Karl Dean who did everything he could to stop it from coming to a vote.

McAlpin attributed the defeat to the lower voter turnout characteristic of special elections and one-sided coverage of the issue by Nashville's major daily newspaper, the Tennessean.

Less than 24 hours after polls close and that old Eric Crafton is back to his routine pot shots at opponents

Via Enclave commenter jewel, it looks like Eric Crafton's hang-dog mug is now twisted into bitter bile at the voters whom he called "We the People" before yesterday's special election:

It’s a clear majority of the people that want to move in a multi-lingual direction and may be that’s what we need to do. We can be the San Francisco of the South or the New York of the South.

That is the same old angry Eric Crafton I've seen over and over again in Metro Council proceedings. The loss looks stuck in his craw and he doesn't seem interested in contrition or turning this situation into a constructive one and helping us find away to pay off this election while Nashville meets its other financial obligations.

Deep Thought

56.5% of Nashvillians voted against English Only. 43.5% of Nashvillians voted for English Only. English unifies Nashvillians?

Not Even a Slap on the Wrist for Crafton's Lack of Transparency

Does Eric Crafton really believe that if there is any anger and backlash at out-of-state groups giving him $70,000 to leverage tomorrow's election it will really dissipate if English Only wins? Or does he really just take us for idiots who would accept every excuse he hands us without question?

In my opinion, Eric Crafton could not care less about backlash after the election as long as it doesn't happen before polls close tomorrow and deny him a personal victory.

English Only Will Be Nashville's New Whites Only

If Nashville voters approve English Only on Thursday it may prompt a return to a shameful past where society reserved greater privileges for one cultural group to the exclusion and neglect of others.

(Photo credit: Library of Congress).

El Protector

Eric Crafton's latest excuse for not abiding the law and being transparent about which extremist groups are funding his English Only referendum: contributors will be the targets of death threats.

If every political campaign chose not to disclose its campaign financing sources due to death threats, would there ever be any disclosure at all?

Crafton is once again granting himself special exceptions and acting like he is a cut above any other leader.

Every exception he gives himself eliminates any future claim he has on a moral high ground. He has already sacrificed any claim to be a fiscal conservative by seeking a high dollar special election; now he is jettisoning his opportunity to champion government transparency.

Being told what to believe is as old south as grits

I have already asserted that Nashville's English Only referendum is a test of wild-eyed post-presidential-election claims that there is a new south rising that defies the conventional ideas of old south as sheltered pro-Republican backwater. Likewise, Tennessee's response to the TVA ash sludge spill may shed light on whether it exhibits a political atmosphere more like that of a decrepit gulag and less like the dynamic hothouse that some who focus on Virginia, North Carolina, or Texas would suggest.

Things do not look hopeful so far. While TVA downplayed the spill and told neighbors to boil their water, Tennessee's elected officials mostly stayed silent and clear the week following in spite of the obvious hardship on both the plant's neighbors and the environment. Tennessee's U.S. Senators didn't bother to rise above mum until their offices were forced to by inquiring media. Phil Bredesen was practically an afterthought, excusing his absence as the desire not to be a hindrance, and then rubber stamping TVA emergency response (which some Swan Pond residents reported as lacking).

And then there is today's paternalistic attitude of Roane County EMA and Homeland Security Director, William H. Rose, Jr., who encouraged Tennesseans to trust their big government brother without questioning or listening to any outside watchdogs (emphasis added by Christian Grantham):

People want to know "are you making sure everybody is doing what they are supposed to over there?" And I tell them, I say, "I don't have to make sure." I say, "They're doing it on their own. OK?" And there's a lot of special interest groups that are out there that want to put out a lot of misinformation, and what people need to understand is that the state of Tennessee is here to help Roane County manage the technical aspects of this and they are doing a fantastic job. And what they put out is the right thing as well as the EPA, and that we're all working together to speak in one voice.

So, that is a resounding question from the people in the county is "all this information that's been put out I don't know what to believe." Well, I'm telling you what to believe. You believe what these people down here are telling you to believe because I'm seeing the data just like everybody else is. I don't understand it all, but they explain it to me, and I got faith in these people down here and what they do.

If this part of the new south, it is just like the old south, where people in power tell everybody else what to believe and put their faith in. That would indicate that big brother, deep red Tennessee is in no danger of drifting progressive any time soon. Perhaps it is still just as backwater as ever, even with a Democratic Governor.