Sean Braisted: Obama Gets Sweetheart Deal!!!

I suppose the question is, can we afford to take a gamble on a Presidential candidate who negotiates a good deal on his home mortgage? Shouldn't we instead go with the guy who racks up tens of thousands in credit card debt and fails to pay property taxes on his oceanfront property? Because really, that is more in line with our current Government policies towards debt.

All in All, I figure the next Governor of Tennessee will be crucial in shaping our state for decades to come. Whoever it will be, they will need superior leadership capabilities. The list of possibles just dropped a big name off the list...Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell is leaving Tennessee.

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William Morris
Canopic Jar: Eland, 1995
blown glass
Collection of the artist

The Hunter Museum in Chattanooga Opens Today, Monday, June 23, William Morris: Myth, Object and the Animal. Visit the Hunter Museum page on Art Museum Touring.com (Link...). Internationally known glass sculptor William Morris transforms molten glass into sculptural installations resembling unearthed artifacts, animals and ancestral peoples. The exhibition runs through Sept. 28.

If you go to the Hunter's to see Morris' work, you will, also, have the opportunity to see their other exhibition, “Women’s Work,” that examines the work of Lilly Martin Spencer. This show closes this coming Sunday June 29.

Support your local galleries and museums! They are economic engines for your community.

Sherrie

Foreclosure
Marcus Antonius Jansen

The Yeiser Art Center in Paducah's new exhibition opening today, June 21, features the paintings of Marcus Antonius Jansen. He works in a Modern Urban-Expressionistic style, which is inspired greatly by his time living in New York and among the abundant graffiti.

There is an opening reception Saturday afternoon. See Events page for details (Link...).

Support your local galleries and museums! They are economic engines for your community.

Sherrie

Major legislation from Obama and John Kerry has closed loopholes that allowed Dick Cheney's company to avoid paying Social Security to employees in Iraq.

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Congressman Zach Wamp: I have more money than the disclosure forms indicate...but not much.

Congressman Lincoln Davis: The forms are about right.

Senator Alexander: After a life of public service to the people of Tennessee...I'm loaded.

Senator Corker: I don't know. First I was really rich and then I was broke...I need more time to fill out the forms.

From the (thanks for the correction) Nashville City Paper:

...Meanwhile, Davis has gubernatorial ambitions for 2010, in which Tennessee political history strongly suggests the Democratic strongholds of Shelby and Davidson counties with their large groups of black voters are a must for his or any Democrat’s aspirations for statewide office.

Fred Hobbs, a state Democratic Party Executive Committee member representing part of Davis’ district, said he understands why Davis is not endorsing Obama and is “skeptical” of the Illinois senator himself.

“Maybe [it’s] the same reason I don’t want to — I don’t exactly approve of a lot of the things he stands for and I’m not sure we know enough about him,” Hobbs said when asked why he thought Davis wasn’t endorsing Obama. “He’s got some bad connections, and he may be terrorist connected for all I can tell. It sounds kind of like he may be.”

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Update: Beecher Frasier stands firm that he was misquoted:

"No one in their right mind, including me, believes Senator Obama has ties to terrorism. It is truly ridiculous for anyone to try to make hay out of these comments."

So there's the fact that President Bush's first business partner was Osama bin Laden's big brother. Is that a terrorist connection?

Wastelanders is a group of Paducah artists who have worked and lived in Paducah for 20 years or more. Their exhibition is closing Saturday, June 14 at the Yeiser Art Center in Paducah. Visit the Yeiser page on Art Museum Touring.com (Link...).

E. J. Abell
Mary Yeiser

The show is dedicated to the memory of Mary Yeiser who passed away this year at the age of 102. She is the reason for the Yeiser Art Center. It was through her efforts that we came about in 1957 as a means for her to offer the opportunity to view artwork to her students.

Support your local galleries and museums! The are economic engines for your community.

Sherrie

The Sumner County Democratic Party will hold its June Meeting at the Lunch Box on Long Hollow Pike in Gallatin at 8:30 a.m. on June 14. Join us as we hear from the campaigns of the Dems who will paint Sumner County Blue this November with an anticipated visit from Mike Padgett as well. Learn how you can be a part of this winning team, get the latest in Democratic fashion and breakfast, too!

Congressman Cohen has shown himself to be a very capable Representative who supports every goal of the EMILY's List folks except one. When the ultimate goal should be to elected the very best leaders regardless of race or gender, this action would seem to justify discrimination based on sex.

Very disapponting...And harmful to long term goals of nondiscrimination and fairness.

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The Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art closes Sunday at the Frist Center for Visual Arts in Nashville. Visit the Frist page on Art Museum Touring.com for details. (Link...)

Van Gogh
The Poplars at Saint-Rémy
(Les peupliers sur la Colline), 1889.

This exhibition brings together 84 acclaimed European paintings and sculptures from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including works by Paul Cézanne, Salvador Dalí, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Georges Seurat and Vincent Van Gogh. Together, these works illuminate the spirit of innovation and creativity that marks one of the most extraordinary epochs in the history of art.

In addition a second exhibition, Angelo Filomeno is,also closing June 1.

Support your local galleries and museums! They are economic engines for their communities.

Sherrie

The Sumner County Democratic Women will proudly host the Yellow Dog Days of Summer picnic in Sanders Ferry Park, with guest appearances from our clean slate of Dem Candidates - Jim Hawkins, Andy Allman, Ken Wilkinson. Hot Dogs and Hamburgers will be provided. Bring the whole family and a side dish to share for a cool Blue day. Remember, Democratic Women are the life of the party!

There's too much in here to boil it down so go read it and form your own opinion.

Another factoid I find interesting is that Hillary outraised McCain last reporting period, and Obama outraised Clinton by at least $9 Million, pickin up 200,000 new donors in the process. McCain raised just over half what Obama took in, which doesn't bode well for McCain in the General election.

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The Donkey’s Mouth

The video that sparked furor and 482,000 views on YouTube now is seen as not only poorly edited but poorly vetted. It appears that a major gun rights advocate in the video is former strip club owner Bob Pope who, in the last decade, had to drop his financial interest in the nude bar so that he could play Republican politics.

You can't make this stuff up.

We had an opportunity to speak with James Carville for a few minutes before his keynote address at the Knox County Truman Day Dinner tonight. Here's what he had to say...

What's up with this?

Freshman Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee watched his average net worth slide from $78.1 million to a negative $1.8 million.

There's this comment on that:

Bill Allison, the Sunlight Foundation senior fellow who led the research, noted that members of Congress who sink into debt are worth watching because they could be ``more open to temptation'' and ``more likely to deal with special interests.''

Members of Congress are due to file their 2007 financial statements this week.

I guess we'll see if Corker bounced back. If so, how did he do that? On the Speaking tour with Clinton?

Other things that were interesting:

Voters are more uncomfortable with an old person than they are with a Woman in the Presidency. (34% to 17%)

Voters are slightly more uncomfortable with a woman than they are with a black person in the Presidency. (17% - 16%)

Other projections show Tennessee going solidly for McCain, even in the best case scenario for the Democrats. We ARE the firewall state for the neo-cons.

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At the end of April, the Commercial Appeal ran an important report about guns in the Memphis public schools - 162 incidents over five years. Even with no fatalities and only a few actual woundings, this is a jaw-dropping number - close to one a week during the school year.

Six of the incidents happened at a school I once attended. One happened where my mother taught remedial reading many years ago, another where my father taught math even more years ago. Three guns were found at the high school that I could see from the dining room of the first house I really remember.

I have to wonder how many guns are not being found. Metal detectors only managed to find eight of the guns. Tips led to most of the confiscations. Many of the violating kids started as victims. How many gang members are too intimidating for anyone to rat on? How many of them carry a gun every day without the school system finding out?

After dropping out of high school in the 9th grade, Gretchen Wilson (at 34 years old) passed her GED exam in April.

I'm not sure what she means by this statement:

Wilson told The Tennessean that her 7-year-old daughter was the big reason to finally finish, saying, "I certainly don't want her to think you can be this successful without an education."

I'm pretty sure she already proved you can be very successful without an education.

The next general meeting of the Sumner County Democratic Party will be Saturday, May 10, 9:30am in the cafeteria at the Billy S. Hobbs Municipal Center, 105 College Street in White House. This is a joint meeting with the Robertson County Democratic Party. Continental breakfast will be available. Former House Majority Leader Kim McMillan will be our guest. Kim has formed an exploratory committee in preparation for a possible run for governor in 2010. She is touring the state to get input from Tennesseans. Here is your chance to let her know what is on your mind as we look to continue Democrats' legacy of good government in Tennessee. Of course our candidates for state office will be available to listen to your concerns. Come meet Andy Allman, Mike McDonald and Jim Hawkins. Rep. Bob Bibb from Springfield is also scheduled to attend. For more info contact stillblue@sumnerdems.org

That's Two dead women connected with this very Republican scandal, and Senator David Vitter is still in office.

Let the Conspiracy Games begin!

Bob Tuke, candidate for U.S. Senate, notes that Thursday is the fifth anniversary of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" stunt carrier landing and costume photo event, wonders what mission Bush and his allies in Congress have accomplished? Tuke notes a few accomplishments...

"Ignore the Corporate Media spin, McCain is a weak candidate," Frank Rich in the NY Times

When the primary juggernaut finally ends — following picturesque day trips to Puerto Rico and Guam — the superdelegates will likely succumb to the math of Mr. Obama’s virtually insurmountable pledged-delegate total.

There’s also a way that two super-superdelegates, the duo on the Democrats’ last winning ticket, could trigger a faster finale. Bill Clinton could do so by undermining his wife once more with another ill-timed, red-faced eruption. Al Gore could possibly do so with a well-timed endorsement before his party gets mired in yet another Florida recount.

There’s only one way this can end badly, no matter how long it lasts. That would be if the loser, whoever it is, turns sore and fails to rally his or her troops around the winner.

Tennessee cities please take note,

Free bus rides on the MAX system will begin Thursday and end Sept. 1, Chris Hartsell, chief of operations for Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford, said Thursday.

What a great way to increase ridership and help people avoid high gas prices.

The Yeiser Art Center in Paducah, KY joins Art Museum Touring.com (Link...)

You can see pieces from their current show "Up in Stitches," a small art quilt
exhibition on their page on Art Museum Touring.com (Link...). The show close May 3. Any of you traveling to Paducah for the quilt auctions at the National Quilt Museum should plan on visiting the Yeiser Art Center as well.

Support Your Local Galleries and Museums! They are economic engines for your community.

Sherrie

Meet Sumner's Clean Slate of Dem Candidates at the Sumner County Dems booth at the Gallatin Squarefest on Saturday, April 26, 10AM to 4PM. Find out how you can help march the elephants out of Sumner County politics.

Despite recent efforts to curtail copper theft in Tennessee...

If you still have above-ground power supply in your area, check the utility poles feeding your house.

I was just out at my street corner yesterday doing some pruning, and I noticed that the surface mounted conduit was slashed and about a 10' segment of the #6 ground wire was cut from the base of the pole to about the proper height for a man of average height equipped with a standard pair of bolt cutters.

Someone lifted our ground, so to speak. I figure that's probably not good, as the shortest path to ground is now through my house.

A cursory review of the poles along the line revealed the same pattern.

I called my power company and they're supposed to be having a look.

Through Sat. April 26, 2008 8:00 PM

Earth Day is Tuesday, April 22, 2008. There will be events in the East Tennessee area throughout the week of April 19 through April 26.

Check it out.

Nashville's Earth Day Festival will be on Saturday, April 19, from 11AM to 7PM at Centennial Park.

An Earthfest in the Memphis area will be held at the Lichterman Nature Center on Saturday, April 19, from 10AM to 2PM.

Save the planet!

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I'm a card carrying member of the ACLU...Have been for a long long time. Sometimes I am more proud of that fact than others. This is one of those times.

A new article in Time Magazine Online explores what a number of us math-physics geeks have been harping on from time to time: Existing biofuel technology is not an ideal solution to our energy dilemma. There are three primary obstacles and one stubborn but irreducible consequence of our pay for play political system.