etricities.com

The Bristol Herald Courier Editorial Board is a little ticked off at TN 1st Congressional District Representative David Davis after he refused to answer any of their questions regarding his views. Not only has he denied the Bristol Herald any type of meeting, but he also refuses to make any sort of public appearance that does not follow a certain script. He has not once shared the stage with any other opponent in this year's race. Is this really someone that we want to send back to Washington? Someone that freely accepts PAC money and refuses to talk to the public? For any voter of the district, I recommend regarding this editorial from the BHC Editorial Board.

Were you ever addicted to anything? I have been since my marriage 7 years ago.
It is called Braves Baseball.  Paul and I watch it every night except when they have an off day, and then we don’t know what to do with ourselves.  Sometimes we watch recordings of games we have already seen.
This week they are playing in L.A. and I am conflicted because Andru Jones plays for that team now and he used to be my favorite Brave.  The Dodgers fans even booed him when he struck out, I could have cried for poor Andru!
Brian McCann seems to be our favorite now (he’s the catcher).
At any rate that is the latest from the Herrmann’s and there are worse things to be addicted to and it is legal.  This week the games are not starting until 10:00 p.m. so we have to wait until the next day to find out the outcome.  So you just thought there was nothing on TV.

God Bless all of Union County,

David Davis went and git himself a song! I like dit song; I guess I ought to vot fur him.

With this guy willing to venture into a Republican primary in order to defeat David Davis, something must be wrong.

Also, Roe accuses Davis of flip-flopping on earmarks. Irregardless, I don't have much confidence in Davis and his use of Christianity as a campaign button.

Today, Governor Phil Bredesen signed a new law requiring that counties adopt new voting machines that create a paper trail in case a need arises for a recount or audit. As of now, only two counties out of 95 produce so-called "paper trails."

In the wake of the 2000 election fiasco, the country rushed to buy new electronic voting machines that would making voting "easier." No one bothered to consider the security implications with such equipment; America (or should I really say Congress) wanted the old machines replaced as soon as possible. Electronic voting machines, indeed, are easy to use. The only problem, however is that these machines can be easily manipulated without anyone ever knowing. There are no papers to tell election officials how each ballot was cast. This opened the door wide for potential fraud.

This law, hopefully, will create assurance in terms of voting results in Tennessee. It will be much more difficult for a candidate or party to manipulate the results of an election. A mandated paper trail will help ensure a secure and fair election. Hopefully, other states will follow.

Here is what the Electronic Frontier Foundation has to say about electronic voting machines.

VolCon has a post on the election race within the TN 1st Congressional District. David Davis will be seeking reelection, but he will be facing Phil Roe once again in the GOP primary. I believe Roe came in third last time around while Davis narrowly won in a highly contested primary battle. Although Davis certainly has the incumbent advantage, VolCon certainly points out some interesting facts. Apparently, Roe has been doing very well in terms of fundraising and has some political all-stars helping him out. Another little fact: even though Davis won, 78% of Republicans votes did not cast a ballot for him in the last primary.

I don't know what McCain is doing after his little attack on Bob Corker yesterday. While abroad his bus before his speech in Nashville, McCain attacked Corker for not supporting his plan to have a gas-tax summer holiday. Corker said that the plan amounted to "pandering" and was nothing more than a "political stimulus.” This is what McCain had to say yesterday:

“So thanks for the advice, to Sen. Corker,” McCain said. “But I feel it was kind of something (where) Americans might have a little bit of relief. Frankly, it’s sort of along the same lines of when we decided to give a little money back to the taxpayers, who just got their checks I think in the last couple of weeks. Maybe that was pandering to.”

I have to agree with Sen. Corker that the plan wouldn't have done much and is likely the result of candidates desperately seeking votes. Aside from that fact though, McCain is crazy to start attacking a fellow Republican Senator that is pretty much thought well of with fellow Tennesseans. He needs to court every Republican and stay away from attacking those that will likely help him this fall.

Story here and here.

Also: Knoxville Talks has a snippet on what Corker has been up to lately with some progressive environmental legislation.

In case you didn't know, Tennessee just celebrated its 212th birthday. On June 1 in 1796, a new state was admitted into the union, and from that day forth that state was called Tennessee. Oh how sweet that name is.

Here is a video of Norah Jones singing "The Tennessee Waltz," which is one of five official state songs.

While Bredesen wants to cut 2000 state jobs, he is spending $8 million for his house.

Obama is ticked off at the Tennessee GOP for posting a video that highlights Michelle Obama's famous "proud American" comments. He says that the GOP shouldn't be attacking his wife.


David Oatney puts it nicely:

There is one problem with Mr. Barack's analysis, and it is that his wife volunteered to go out and campaign for her husband, and it is in the context of a campaign appearance that she made the remarks in question. If Michelle Obama is going to campaign for her husband, she has to be prepared to take the heat for any remarks that she might make on the campaign trail-that is part of politics. If Michelle Obama didn't campaign for her husband, then Barack Obama would be correct-she would not be fair game. She is a part of this race, however-she's chosen to join the national discussion, and so she and her words are very much available for political fodder.

When fellow Democrats attacked Hillary's spouse (Bill Clinton) for comments he made on the campaign trail, it was ok to do it then. Now that the tables have been turned, Obama wants to whine about it.

The Tennessee House and Senate are working on creating a new education bill that would lower GPA requirements in order for more college to retain their HOPE scholarship. Right now, TN residents in college must achieve at least a 2.75 their freshman year and a 3.0 after that in order to keep the money. The House wants to lower the requirement to 2.75 for all four years while the Senate wants the 2.75 stipulation to be in place only for the freshman and sophomore years. The Tennessean recently conducted interviews with recent grads regarding the changes, and the students they interviewed were not happy about the changes. Being a part of the first graduating class that received the HOPE scholarship, I have to agree. It doesn't make sense for the Tennessee government to reward students for underperformance (or maybe it does considering how our state government likes to operate). Why not provide an incentive for students to work hard? A person can achieve a 2.75 simply by showing up.

Maybe the legislature should consider creating a tiered system. Instead of everyone receiving the same amount, let's give more money to students with a GPA ranging from 3.5 to 4.0 then a lesser amount to those between 3.0 and 3.5. That might really encourage students to work hard for better grades. If a 2.75 student and 4.0 student receives the same amount of money, there really isn't an incentive to reach that higher level of education. It is just plain unfair for those 4.0s that are rewarded equally as the 3.0s or the 2.75s.

Is the state trying to reward and encourage college students or are they trying to create state-sponsored diploma mills?