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See our email for current analysis and observations.
We'll be posting here by Jan 1, 2005
12 Dec 2004
Wisdom of Dalton Roberts - You won't get
any closer to Emerson in the South than Dalton.
His last two columns in TFP prove that -
the first calling for trusting ourselves,
not our leaders, and the second
calling for helping the least.
Click above and get on his email list.
Saritha Prabhu - Columnist for
the Tennessean, she uses a personal touch
to address American issues missed
by the larger media networks.
Click to see her column today.
Henry Piarrot - Merchant in Nashville
who also writes stories for the Tennessean,
stories about "ordinary people doing
extraordinary things," narrating personal successes.
Click to see his story today.
Bill Day - If you've never seen
Bill Day's cartoons, you'll need to click
immediately and marvel at his conceptualization,
color, and candor. He's with the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
Bruce Plante - Last but not least:
you'll find Plante's cartoons in the TFP and at
Slate.com. See his cartoon today in the PERSPECTIVES
section of the TFP; an amusingly disturbing take on Bush's
privatization of social security.
BONUS: Coffee Cans for Troops -
If you click on the blue "Coffee Cans for Troops," you'll find a website (www.cansmart.org) with a page about recycling coffee cans. The site does not mention using coffee cans for our troops. But I thought it should. In fact, during my morning classes Friday at Chattanooga State College, I carried in a discarded metal lid of a coffee can and showed it to my students. I asked them to contribute to a drive I had begun to collect coffee cans and lids for HILLBILLY ARMOR. I acted with deep seriousness. Although a few students had no idea what I was talking about, most of them knew about the news (I mean this is a story right in our own backyard!). Of those who had heard the story already, a few took me seriously enough and promised to bring a coffee can next week. When other students laughed, I acted indignant. I reminded them that every piece of junk metal counts, that you "go with the army you have," as our Defense Secretary put it so precisely. As I was finishing up with my last class, the next teacher came in and asked about the coffee lid. I explained my project to her, but she did not seem amused; indeed she looked angry. Suddenly, she exploded with hot metallic words of wrath. I felt like one of those poor soldiers without armor. This was the first time I had seen or heard her talk politically, by the way, so I was in foreign territory. She attempted to chop me up (in front of my students) by using guilt trips that appeal to patriotism and respect for authority, emphasizing all along that Rumsfeld had been set up. When she was finished, I simply replied with a guilt trip of my own: Well, I don't know whether Rumsfeld got set-up, but I do know that our troops need protective armor. And that's all I'm interested in. Okay, I was lying a little bit. I am interested in seeing Rumsfeld resign. But at that moment that is all I was interested in. She came back in typical non-thinking fashion, in a manner I've heard from her type all my life: I'm a conservative and I don't care what you say; you're not going to change my mind. Well, who said anything about conservative or liberal? Anyway, her students - who had been entering the room during the exchange - looked at her as if she had lost her mind. As I walked out with my coffee lid, one of her students caught up with me in the hall. I stopped for him, expecting the worst or some kind of defense for his teacher. Instead, he vowed to bring a coffee can next week.
Posting from 7 Dec '04 follows
COMING EXCLUSIVE - CHATTANOOGA'S PILGRIM CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH & ITS CONNECTION TO THE UCC AD BANNED BY CBS AND NBC
Five from the Chattanoogna Times Free Press today:
1. Not As Many Students As Expected on Lottery Scholarships - Of course, it's the hip way of funding education - gambling! I guess it's better than nothing. But then, you have to get the numbers right. Something fishy here. It bolsters my speculation that Tennessee Higher Ed has never wanted to educate more people.
2. Bredesen: More Flexibility with Lottery Scholarships - Philosophizing aloud, the Gov suggested that more students should be a part of this system, requiring "real life" flexibility. Novel idea!
3. Mining, When You Have Nothing Else - Despite calls for stopping the project in Sherwood, TN, to protect water and land, the 13 commissioners voted unanimously to allow the 300-acre mine. Sherwood residents were excited by the prospect of $10/hr jobs. Solutions like this are brokered on the back of desperate times and a bad economy.
4. Sixteen and Counting: Journalists Going to Jail? - Journalists are putting their profession on the line as the DOJ hammers them for potentially harmful information related to the Plame case which probably goes right to the Oval Office. Read this Times editorial.
5. Last But Not Least: Cutest Dumb Argument for Ending Reliance on Oil Rich Saudis - Charles M. "Rocky" Renneisen's letter claims that the patriotic thing to do is to slow our driving. Strange, he doesn't mention that most of us drive solo - but isn't that because "going it alone" is so sacred to patriotism? I guess a public transit system would be really patriotic.
Three from the New York Times today:
1. Coalition of the Bribed in Iraq - John Kerry warned us. Now Nicholas Kristof provides proof, as he travels through Estonia. Kristof points out that eight of our military nation-partners provide fewer than 100 troops. Now, how many Americans have died so far? All of these nation-partners are only sending "tokens" because their leaders are counting on rewards later from the U.S. It's an investment, they say. Kristof criticizes Bush's "bulldozer approach."
2. Frying Bigger Fish: Advice for DNC as It Picks a Leader - Short op-ed piece by Donna Brazile, campaign manager for Gore in 2000. Calls for abandoning cookie-cutting approaches and for using 2006 as dry run for 2008. Whatever happens, my vote's with Dean!
3. Unified Vision: More Advice for DNC - Washington state Gov. Gary Locke calls on the party to create a "unified vision," reminding us that Democrats have always been the real friends of hard-working Americans, families, healthcare, and the environment. But, Gary, the country's in such a bad mood, the most very ugly baddest mood I've ever seen! COMING SOON - AN EXCLUSIVE ON CHATTANOOGA'S PILGRIM CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH & ITS CONNECTION WITH THE UCC AD THAT HAS BEEN BANNED BY CBS AND NBC
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