Tennessee

Coninuing my push for progressive victories for election day 2007 this Tuesday, Nov. 6th, I want to highlight candidates endorsed by Democracy for Tennessee. All of these candidates are running in Nashville:

DFT Endorses Candidates in Nashville Elections!

DFA Nashville and Democracy for Tennessee are proud to announce the endorsement of the "Nashville New Wave" slate of candidates running for Metro Council!

These six candidates, running for office for the first time, promise to bring a diverse, new, progressive vision to Nashville that will allow our city to prosper and give hope to the next generation. Representing areas all across the county and campaigning using grassroots tactics, the New Wave slate are ready to take our county back. They are...

SAM McCULLOUGH

Sam didn't set out to run for Metro Council, but residents of his district, long impressed at how he worked to help solve their problems, talked him into it.

Sam believes in improving the quality of his neighborhood and making people's lives better. As a life-long Nashville resident, people have looked to him as a leader.

His persistence has won him the trust of his neighbors and he will become a valuable and trusted voice on the Metro Council.

To help get out the vote for Sam, email here: jim@democracryfortennessee.com

SHANE BURKETT

Al Gore has done more to publicize the real global warming situation than practically anyone else. Through personal presentations (one of which, through MoveOn.org, I was lucky enough to see in the presence of two approving climatologists), an Oscar-winning movie and a book, Al Gore has helped make people aware that we really do have a problem AND that there are very real things we can do about it.

Enter the right wing liars. A story "broke" purporting to show that Al Gore was a hypocrite, consuming huge amounts of energy while preaching to everyone else that they must conserve. Not surprisingly, this smear attack misrepresents facts and is, like most right wing statements these days, a bald faced lie. You can read some of the exposure of those lies here. The main thing left out by these smear pieces is the fact that Al Gore's family offsets their carbon usage with "carbon offsets," and that they get a substantial amount of their energy from green sources (see end of article for more on reducing your carbon footprint). Also excluded was the fact that energy use counted both domestic and business usage. In short, the attacks were one more example of right wing sleaze, reflecting more on the lack of integrity of the right wing extremists than on the integrity of Al Gore.

Well, turns out the origin of the attack on Al Gore comes from Nashville. And on Daily Kos a boycott of the offending paper is being called.

[Liza's Note : This is an awesome post that I meant to promote to the front page before the holiday (soy) nog and mojitos got in the way. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.]

Rarely were Tennesseans so blunt the first time they met me. It was more likely something like, “Do you have a home church?” Which of course I didn’t in Maryville. There is no United Church of Christ in Blount County. In Knoxville, one is listed on Weisgarber Road.

During the late 60s, I served as Sunday School superintendent and my husband was treasurer in such a church located in a near-west Chicago suburb. Half of the children went to Catholic schools.

In the public schools, a large percentage of the children attended Catholic churches. When we had pancake breakfasts, mothers of the Catholic children thanked us for accepting their children.

Often the family had a “mixed marriage.”

U C of C history comes straight from the story of the Old North Church in Paul Revere’s time. They often work with other Christian groups to promote acceptance of all Christians.

During college days, I participated in an interracial fellowship group, hosted by Northern Baptists in Iowa City. Southern Baptists split from the national organization before the civil war, clearly over the question of race. In East Tennessee, one finds the denomination further divided with names like Missionary, Independent and Reformed.

The republicans are so scared of having Harold Ford Jr, a black man as not just the next senator of Tennessee but a black man as the replacement to Bill Frist, that this is what passes to them as fair in the game of political advertising:

Harold Ford is a very smart guy and a shrewd politician. When asked on FoxNews Sunday if he thought the ad was racist, this is what he answered:

WALLACE: Congressman, Bob Corker also ran a radio at in which when they talk about you they have drums beating, and, when they talk about him, they have a symphonic choir singing and playing. Are Republicans playing the race card in Tennessee, or is that too politically explosive for you to talk about?

FORD: You'd probably have to ask Bob Corker and the Republican National Committee. I do know this. The first ad you showed was a piece of smut, and they should not have run that here. I don't know what would make Ken Mehlman or any national Republican believe that we in Tennessee would want to see something like that.

The Republicans recently conceded that they will lose many Senate seats and decided to entrench, or as they called it, build a fire wall at three states: Missouri, Tennessee, and Virginia. Barbara Boxer, the excellent Senator from California, is challenging all Democrats to help break through that Republican firewall. Here is her challenge, including some good info on the three Senate races.

The Republicans have drawn their line in the sand and are making their last stand in 3 "firewall" states to desperately try to hold on to their narrow Senate majority. This Republican firewall is the only thing left standing between us and a Democratic Senate -- and we've got 18 days to break through.

Contribute to the 3 Senate races that will ensure a Democratic victory -- break down the Republican firewall now!

Yes, there is an almost unanimous view (with that pillar of integrity Karl Rove dissenting) that the House and the Senate are poised to swing to the Democrats this November.

So now the Republicans have started to circle the wagons around their most threatened Senate seats. They have admitted pulling money out of other states where they are trailing badly to try to build a firewall around these three seats: Tennessee, where Bill Frist is retiring; Virginia, where George Allen has been imploding; and Missouri, where Jim Talent has consistently rubber stamped President Bush's extreme right-wing agenda.