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April 29, 2005

Stupidity yet again

This is one of those letters to the editor that it's virtually impossible to comment on without looking like a smug arrogant liberal (thanks Randy). It's just so unbelievably stupid.

Are ice caps really shrinking? Don Williams' latest anti-Bush tirade is so full of rubbish, one wonders where to start a rebuttal, but let's just take one of his statements: "The ice caps are shrinking ."

What happens when the ice caps shrink? The oceans rise and coastal cities are flooded. Right?

OK, so the last time I checked, New York City, as well as all the cities on our east and west coasts, are high and dry, as are the islands of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and the coastal cities of the rest of the world.

Since none of those places are flooded, the water from Williams' "shrinking ice caps" must have gone to the moon.

KEN PLUHAR
Knoxville

So the evidence that ice caps aren't shrinking is that NYC isn't underwater? Well there's some evidence for you! Here's an easy read on the situation.

Posted by Paul Witt at 04:52 PM | Comments (30)

Homeschooling and extracurriculars

From today's letters to the editor in the News Sentinel:

Homeschool students deserve extra activities The Tennessee Senate Education Committee is considering SB1356, the extracurricular activities bill.

This bill would mandate equal access for home school students to public school extracurricular activities.

As a home-educated student, I strongly support this bill.

I believe that extracurricular activities have educational value - whether it be teamwork or musical theory - but are distinct from core academic subjects such as math, English and science.

Homeshoolers such as I have chosen to take the core academics at home, and we have proven that these subjects can be effectively taught in the home by the fact that nationally, our average test scores are higher than public school students' average scores.

Extracurricular activities, however, require four main things: a group, facilities, adult expertise and funding. These four necessities are often very difficult for homeschoolers to provide.

Homeschool families pay taxes to fund these activities at public schools, yet we are not allowed to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by them.

Eighteen other states allow homeschool students to participate in extracurricular activities at public schools. These states have set a successful precedent of cooperation among coaches, teachers, homeschool students and parents. Tennessee should continue that successful tradition by passing SB1356.

WILL BOYD
Knoxville

Sorry but no. What is this, education a la carte? What's next, mommy doesn't know French so let's demand that our kid get into French classes? Maybe mom is really good with math, should we excuse the kid from taking high school math classes so his mom can teach him? Plus, how can you enforce academic standards when these students wouldn't be in class at school? This simply wouldn't be fair to the students that actually attend school to have a bunch of kids show up after school and take up slots in band and athletic teams.

Posted by Paul Witt at 04:40 PM | Comments (33)

Indiana and DST

Indiana passed a daylight saving time bill. Story here.

Posted by Paul Witt at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)

April 27, 2005

Extending daylight saving time

I don't like daylight saving time. Heck, I don't like timezones in general. They served their purpose at the time they were established but why can't we all just use GMT and let individual offices and communities standardize around whatever time they want?

Anyway, the reason I bring it up is because of this letter to the editor in today's Knoxville News Sentinal:

So now we are going to have Daylight Stupid Time from March 1 through November. Why? Money!

When President Johnson gave us Daylight Saving Time, two states voted on it. Indiana and Arizona voted it down.

In a democracy, you're allowed to vote. It should be put on our next state ballot, but it will not be. Why? Tennessee politicians do not believe in a democracy.

This gives us more sleep problems and more sleepy drivers, which means more wrecks. Do our politicians care?

J.W. GLASS
Lenoir City

So while I agree with him that extending daylight saving time a couple more months would be a pretty stupid way for Congress to spend their time, I disagree on his idea about opting out.

I grew up in Ohio and lived and worked within 10 miles of the Indiana state line for the better part of my life. I also worked with many people that lived in Indiana. When the time change happened it was just plain annoying, and generally stupid, that Indiana was suddenly an hour behind us because they didn't recognize DST.

Posted by Paul Witt at 03:26 PM | Comments (4)

April 25, 2005

Take Back Tennessee House Party

To celebrate its new status as a political action committee, Democracy for Tennessee is holding a series of statewide "Take Back Tennessee" house party fundraisers on Saturday, May 7th, beginning at 7:00pm.

Democracy for Tennessee (DFT), which was inspired by the Howard Dean presidential campaign and is part of the national Democracy for America organization, plans on working at the grassroots level to recruit, fund, and train progressive candidates and campaign staff at all levels across Tennessee.

These house parties will start at 7:00pm as attendees socialize and watch a video exclusive to DFT. At 8:00pm, Tom Hughes, the Executive Director of the national Democracy for America organization in Vermont will connect in on a statewide conference call. Tom will talk about new initiatives for DFA and how we in Tennessee can contribute to their efforts. After the call we'll watch another video by George Lakoff that talks about language and how to frame our issues. Then we'll discuss politics here in East Tennessee and attempt to put what we've learned to work and come up with a framing for one or two local issues.

By the way, I hear the first video includes a message from Howard Dean.

Any money raised will be used to pay for the Democracy for Tennessee Summit. The Summit will be held Saturday July 9th in Nashville. Tom Hughes has committed to speak as have Jim Dean, brother of Howard Dean and current Chairman of DFA, and Chris Warshaw, Political Director for DFA. They're also working on a top-notch keynote speaker for the evening. More on that later.

Please join the local DFA/DFT chapter, Democracy for Knoxville, for an evening of good company, good dialogue and good ideas.

Location:
Miranda and Manny Godena's Home
2417 Steele Road Google map

Please sign up here
or call Margaret Fontenot at 693-0765.
or call Miranda at 531-0383

Please bring friends, a snack to share and any extra money you might have to donate to DFT. We must start now. It will take all of us to begin restoring our democracy.

If you once attended Dean for America Meetups it will be a good opportunity to get involved again and reconnect with old friends. If you are new to DFA you will find kindred spirits and hope for the future.

Plus the view from Miranda and Manny's is great.

If you cannot attend but would like to contribute to Democracy for Tennessee you can contribute online here.

Posted by Paul Witt at 04:20 PM | Comments (2)

April 21, 2005

Red light cameras

Michael Silence posts about traffic cameras in Knoxville again. It seems that this stupidity is moving forward.

KPD Deputy Chief Don Green, who presented the initial plans to City Council members at a January workshop, repeated his insistence Wednesday that the system is solely intended to reduce crashes, not raise revenues.

...

The selected vendor would be paid with a portion of all fines collected, he added, and the contract will run for no more than three years, with annual opportunities to review the terms.

Amazing, this isn't about generating revenue but the private company running the thing gets a percentage of the take. They sure must think we're pretty stupid.

Such systems have produced varying results nationally and raised as many questions about privacy infringements as they have about the private operators' profit-driven involvement.

Knoxville's cameras, however, would be aimed only at a vehicle's license plate, Green explained, not a driver's face. And the system would be triggered only if the driver commits a red-light offense.

One KPD officer will be assigned to review all tapes before a $50 ticket is issued to the address of the vehicle's registered owner. The officer - not the vendor - would have "total discretion" to consider any mitigating circumstances in deciding whether a violation occurred, Green said.

So I'm supposed to feel better about this because my face won't be photographed? Tennessee doesn't have front license plates so they'll be taking a picture of my rear license plate and mailing me, the owner of both of my family's cars the tickets. Gee thanks for protecting my privacy. Where's my right to confront my accuser? If this KPD officer wasn't there, didn't talk to me and never even saw a picture of me then I'd have to be a real sheep to accept your citation and pay the fine.

Posted by Paul Witt at 03:03 PM | Comments (9)

Bill Cope gets a letter

Read this.

I love his subtitle, Advice for the smug. Her letter is pretty damn smug. I'm not going to comment on Bill's view of religion but her smugness reminds me of something my wife and I talk about.

Some Christians seem so certain of their beliefs that anyone that disagrees isn't just wrong but doomed. I'm a Methodist and chose to be a Methodist because I think they have things more right than others. Do I think they're perfect? No. Do I think that Baptists have it wrong? Yes. Do I think that their wrongness is substantial enough to doom them to an eternity in hell? Of course not.

Certainly the differences aren't substantial enough for me to be smug in my righteousness.

I guess this is the moral relativism the new Pope warned about. Such warnings just seem to me to be more smugness from someone that's too certain he's right.

Posted by Paul Witt at 01:52 PM | Comments (5)

April 20, 2005

Short-term memory

Lamar Alexander has an editorial in yesterday's Nashville Tennessean that complains of the upcoming train wreck in the U.S. Senate over judicial nominations.

Until recently, not to vote at all on a president's judicial nominee was unimaginable. Take the case of Clarence Thomas in 1991: The first President Bush nominated him to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Thomas nomination sparked as passionate a debate as I have seen in the Senate. But he was nominated in July, the Senate voted in October 52-48, and it was done.

Yet, in the last session of Congress, for some reason that still escapes me, the minority felt it had to use the filibuster to deny an up-or-down vote 10 times on 52 of the president's appellate judicial nominees. That has never happened before (with a single arguable exception). Neither party has used the tactic of denying an up-or-down vote on judicial nominees in 200 years.

Does he really think he's speaking to 5 year olds? It's amazing how so easily he can pretend that the Senate in Clinton's second term denied an up or down vote to over 20 of his judicial nominees. So they didn't have to filibuster to do it. Wow! How disingenuous of you Senator Alexander. Clinton's success rate for judicial nominees was around 75%, Bush Sr's and Reagan's was around 80%. Dubya's is around 95%.

Posted by Paul Witt at 01:06 PM | Comments (6)

Email to WVLT

During your 11pm newscast on April 15 you ran a story, apparently produced by CNN but read by Kelli Parker, that discussed where tax dollars are spent. There was some misleading terminology in the story that should be corrected. The story started off with a statement:

But do you know where all your federal income tax dollars are going?

It then started discussing how all tax dollars are spent, not just income tax dollars. The numbers were supplied by the Cato Institute which is a libertarian anti-tax organization. I'd expect that a story run on tax day and claiming to be about income taxes wouldn't also include payroll taxes (FICA) used for Social Security and Medicare.

I realize it's hard to find numbers that don't have a bias one way or another, but you should at least understand that this is a common tactic among those that want to change our tax system. For example, when discussing tax burden, progressive taxation and taxes on the very wealthy, anti-tax groups will leave out payroll taxes and sales taxes because the burden for those taxes is primarily on the poor and middle classes.

I'd urge your station to adopt a consistent framing on taxes, tax burdens and how taxes are spent. That's the only accurate way of helping the public understand who's paying in and how it's being spent. If you decide to include payroll taxes and sales taxes then please be more clear in your terminology.

Thanks,
Paul Witt

Posted by Paul Witt at 12:08 PM | Comments (6)

April 19, 2005

Pope Benedict XVI

I'm not Catholic and the Pope's position on the issues isn't a concern but this article about the guy was posted yesterday by a writer at The New Republic. Lucky guess.

Posted by Paul Witt at 03:27 PM | Comments (12)

A quiz for you conservative types

Some would say that they're independent thinkers. Give me honest answers to these questions and prove it.

Did Bill Clinton have anything to do with Vince Foster's death?

Did Janet Reno kill innocent people in Waco TX?

Did the Clintons commit any investment crimes?

Did Bill Clinton sexually harass Paula Jones?

Did the Clintons do anything wrong in the White House Travel office incident?

Is Fox News a fair and balanced source of news?

Does CNN have a political leaning?

Posted by Paul Witt at 03:16 PM | Comments (25)

More on black soldiers in the Civil War

Wow. This is a really amazing editorial.

Posted by Paul Witt at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)

Judge backs off English 'test'

Good for him.

Posted by Paul Witt at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)

Who's interest was being served?

This is deserving of a separate post.

These are the amendments to the bankruptcy bill that were voted down.

S.AMDT.15 to S.256 To require enhanced disclosure to consumers regarding the consequences of making only minimum required payments in the repayment of credit card debt, and for other purposes.

S.AMDT.16 to S.256 To protect servicemembers and veterans from means testing in bankruptcy, to disallow certain claims by lenders charging usurious interest rates to servicemembers, and to allow servicemembers to exempt property based on the law of the State of their premilitary residence.

S.AMDT.17 to S.256 To provide a homestead floor for the elderly.

S.AMDT.28 to S.256 To exempt debtors whose financial problems were caused by serious medical problems from means testing.

S.AMDT.29 to S.256 To provide protection for medical debt homeowners.

S.AMDT.31 to S.256 To limit the amount of interest that can be charged on any extension of credit to 30 percent.

S.AMDT.32 to S.256 To preserve existing bankruptcy protections for individuals experiencing economic distress as caregivers to ill or disabled family members.

S.AMDT.37 to S.256 To exempt debtors from means testing if their financial problems were caused by identity theft.

S.AMDT.38 to S.256 To discourage predatory lending practices.

S.AMDT.42 to S.256 To limit the exemption for asset protection trusts. (This is the one that let’s rich people keep their houses)

S.AMDT.47 to S.256 To prohibit the discharge, in bankruptcy, of a debt resulting from the debtor's unlawful interference with the provision of lawful goods or services or damage to property used to provide lawful goods or services. (Yes they left in a loophole that allows people who committed a crime and were fined to have their debts wiped out by bankruptcy)

S.AMDT.49 to S.256 To protect employees and retirees from corporate practices that deprive them of their earnings and retirement savings when a business files for bankruptcy.

S.AMDT.70 to S.256 To exempt debtors whose financial problems were caused by failure to receive alimony or child support, or both, from means testing.

All information available on Thomas. Click on Amendments.

Posted by Paul Witt at 11:01 AM | Comments (18)

April 18, 2005

Income taxes (part 3)

I just had the thought that the story that WVLT ran didn't look like it was locally produced so a quick Google search turned up a link to the same story running on News 8 in Austin Texas.

Full story here.

How tax money is spent
Updated: 4/15/2005 11:04:18 AM
By: Kareen Wynter | CNN & News 8 Austin Web staff

Friday is Tax Day. It's time to mail in your return and either wait for a check or send one in.

But do you know where all your federal income tax dollars are going?

Most people don't, so you're not alone.

Fiscal analysts said most Americans think a majority of their taxes go to the military, for example to fund the Iraq war. But half of all federal income tax money is now going toward so called "entitlement programs" such as Medicare and Social Security.

"About 40 percent of the whole budget goes toward the elderly now. It's essentially money taxed from the young and it goes toward the old folks," Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute said.

The Cato Institute brokedown how tax money will be spent in 2005:
22 percent for Social Security
19 percent for defense
19 percent for nondefense discretionary
13 percent for Medicare
12 percent for other
8 percent for Medicaid
7 percent for interest on the national debt

"It's amazing to see how much comes out you just want to see where it goes," Edwards said.

Emphasis mine.

Posted by Paul Witt at 05:52 PM | Comments (13)

An update on Jeff Miller

Jesus' General has some advice for him.

Posted by Paul Witt at 05:41 PM | Comments (0)

More on income taxes

The previous thread needs some clarification and some hard numbers. The story on WVLT TV was during the 11pm news on April 15, 2005 (tax day) and they didn't just say "tax dollars" they said "income tax dollars" (unconfirmed as I don't have a transcript or recording) and then showed a chart from Cato that included payroll taxes. If you'd like to know where your income tax dollars are spent, go here and enter how much you paid in income taxes in 2004.

This is how Republicans talk about taxes:

a) When discussing how tax dollars are "wasted" they include payroll taxes so they have those big ugly slices in their pie charts that show just how much Social Security and Medicare cost.

b) When they're discussing tax cuts and/or progressive tax rates and fairness, they leave payroll taxes out. The classic example of this is the myth making around Reagan's tax cutting. Conveniently forgetting the payroll tax increases he got passed.

Which, by the way, is what makes Social Security just fine right now and the reason the Republicans need to leave it alone.

Posted by Paul Witt at 02:03 PM | Comments (8)

April 16, 2005

Misleading numbers about taxes on WVLT

Last night on the 11pm edition of WVLT's news they did a story on where your tax dollars go. They led the story by saying, "most people think that the majority of their tax dollars go to the military" (no link is available to the story) and then went on to quote statistics from the Cato Institute.

Cato, a libertarian think-tank, lists Social Security and Medicare as the two biggest federal expenditures, which they are. But, of course, Social Security and Medicare are payroll taxes and are separate from income taxes. If you consider just income taxes, then military spending is about 48% of the federal budget.

Well 48% if you take into account veterans benefits and interest on our debt mostly caused by defense spending. Even if you leave that part out, direct defense spending for 2006 will be 30% of our general budget and by far the single biggest chunk of our income tax dollars.

Posted by Paul Witt at 10:32 PM | Comments (20)

April 15, 2005

Who do these people represent anyway?

This is Tennessee's congressional delegation and how they voted on the Bankruptcy Reform Bill:

Lamar Alexander - Yea
Bill Frist - Yea

TN1 - William Jenkins (R) - Yea
TN2 - John Duncan (R) - Yea
TN3 - Zach Wamp (R) - Yea
TN4 - Lincoln Davis (D) - Yea
TN5 - Jim Cooper (D) - Yea
TN6 - Bart Gordon (D) - Yea
TN7 - Marsha Blackburn (R) - Yea
TN8 - John Tanner (D) - Yea
TN9 - Harold Ford Jr. (D) - Yea

That's right, with our state leading the nation in bankruptcies and with our supposedly Democratic Governor set to kick more than 300,000 people off of Tenncare (which will only increase the number of bankruptcies filed), your elected representatives side with banks and credit card companies over the needs of their constituents. This bill makes bankruptcy more expensive and difficult for everyone. This hurts average Americans that did nothing wrong instead of making it easier to prosecute those that really abuse the system.

One of the biggest gems of this bill is leaving in place something called an "asset protection trust". Basically it's a way for the very wealthy to setup a trust designed to protect their assets during bankruptcy.

A good overview of the bill can be found here.

I'd like to urge everyone to call, write or visit your congressman and thank them for protecting CitiCorp's bottom line.

Oh and Congressman Ford, we'll remember this next year.

Posted by Paul Witt at 02:53 PM | Comments (9)

April 14, 2005

The sanctity of marriage

As it turns out the sponsor of Tennessee's Marriage Protection Amendment is getting a divorce. Apparently he got busted with his girlfriend at a concert in Nashville. No additional comments are really necessary on this one are they?

Posted by Paul Witt at 05:19 PM | Comments (15)

What a jackass

Where's the judicial accountability for this jerk?

Posted by Paul Witt at 05:11 PM | Comments (19)

More jobs for Knox County

Story here.

Excellent news. This should offset some of the call-center job losses from the Oak Ridge area over the last few years. I just wish they'd do something about the dangerous entrances and exits from Pellissippi Parkway. Getting back on Pellissippi from Hardin Valley Road or Lovell Road is just plain scary sometimes.

Posted by Paul Witt at 05:06 PM | Comments (2)

Online Freedom of Speech Act

Story here.

Hopefully this one gets bipartisan support and passes quickly.

Posted by Paul Witt at 04:49 PM | Comments (0)

Social Security Day of Action

Today, at about 12:30pm, at the offices of congressmen across the country, groups organized by Democracy for America and True Majority Action met with their congressman, or their designee, to discuss protecting Social Security. Here in Knoxville we took a small group of 10 constituents to Rep. John Duncan's (R - TN02) office and met with his Chief of Staff, Bob Griffitts. I'd like to thank everyone that attended for taking the time and in particular need to thank Margaret Fontenot for organizing the attendees and Dr. Justin Green for giving the majority of our presentation.

Dr. Green has spent several years researching Social Security and had an article ready for Rep. Duncan. I posted about Dr. Green's research a few weeks ago.

Mr. Griffitts was very welcoming, listened politely and asked a few questions of the group. One question was about the number of people it takes to support one Social Security recipient today compared to the 1950s. Dr. Green pointed out that worker productivity has improved, real wages have gone up, the workforce has grown and our GDP has increased since then. We also directly support fewer children and extended family than we did then. All of this allows fewer workers to support each recipient.

He, of course, wouldn't tell us if the Congressman supports privatization. He did mention that under the current plan being pitched by the White House, no one under 55 would have their benefits cut. Hopefully he'll take the time to read Dr. Green's materials.

On our way out one of the attendees couldn't resist bringing up the bankruptcy bill that's due to be voted on soon. Mr. Griffitts didn't say which way Rep. Duncan was going to vote on the house version but did say that he felt the bankruptcy filing rate was a problem that needed a solution. Given the predatory lending practices these days, that argument just doesn't hold water. Profits in 2004 set a record for credit card companies and if you or I were to loan someone under the terms of some of these lenders we'd be arrested for loan sharking. If the Congressman is concerned about the number of bankruptcies being filed he should do something about how unsecured loans are handled.

Tennessee leads the nation in bankruptcies and given that this isn't a large banking town our congressman has two options, vote with his party based on ideology or support his constituents. The same is largely true on Social Security. Let's hope our congressman does the right thing.

Posted by Paul Witt at 03:41 PM | Comments (16)

April 13, 2005

Taking our party back

This weekend saw big wins for groups affiliated with Democracy for America all over Tennessee. Two of the biggest wins were in Rutherford and Hamilton Counties. Democracy for Rutherford County won in five of six races and mostly took over their county's Democratic Party. Democracy for Hamilton County completely took over the Hamilton County Democratic Party.

Here in Knox County we're lucky enough to have a Democratic Party that threw out the good ole boys a few years ago. Our chair, Jim Gray, is great about including everyone and he's working hard to build the party at the grassroots level. Democracy for Knoxville picked up two precinct chair positions and retained one (mine). I personally identified several old party people that need to go and I plan to work to make that happen. We first need to grow our own membership and do a better job of reaching out to uninvolved liberals.

Posted by Paul Witt at 10:45 AM | Comments (8)

April 12, 2005

Creative taxation

According to this article the Tennessee state legislature is considering a bill, written by Republicans no less, to add a $.05 tax to bottles and cans. A lot of other states have programs like this and in general they seem to work well. But once again, this probably isn't a good idea for Tennessee.

Just like the sales tax we have a big loophole for a lot of people in Tennessee... the next state over.

With three of the 5 biggest cities on or very near the state line this is a tax easily avoided. Think we can stick it to the tourists? Nope. They'll simply bring their own beverages next time.

Instead of finding more creative ways to raise taxes and generate revenue our state legislature should just do the right thing and implement a fair and progressive income tax.

Posted by Paul Witt at 10:14 PM | Comments (4)

It took snoring?

Read this.

How the heck does this guy not know that her wife's boyfriend is living in a closet for a month?

Posted by Paul Witt at 06:57 PM | Comments (3)

April 10, 2005

The good, the bad and the stupid

Today's letters to the editor for the Knoxville News Sentinel are pretty entertaining. Link here.

They posted four letters from confederate apologists, one letter from someone praising Don Williams (here here), one letter from someone that thinks Charles Krauthammer has "an excellent mind", five letters defending evolution as a biological process worthy of debate (here here again), one letter from someone that wants the paper to quit reporting death tolls from Iraq and one letter (this is the best one) from someone that thinks raising the tax on cigarettes is overly burdensome on seniors because they're already addicted and on a fixed income.

It's amazing how reading one page of the paper can show you everything that's good and everything that's completely ignorant about this region.

Posted by Paul Witt at 01:37 PM | Comments (4)

Honoring traitors

I had an entire post ready about how some people here in the South love to honor their traitorous heritage. Then I read this editorial from today's Knoxville News Sentinel.

Idea that slaves served Confederacy out of love, devotion absurd

By BY THEOTIS ROBINSON, SPECIAL TO THE SENTINEL
April 10, 2005

That anyone would contend African Americans, held as slaves in the South, would willingly take up arms to defend slave masters and to keep themselves in bondage is incredulous. But that is what Edward Bardill would have us believe. In an article that appeared in this newspaper on Feb. 27, Bardill decried the lack of recognition during Black History Month "of black Confederates who served and fought to defend their homeland." What homeland?

"Deep devotion, love of homeland and strong Christian faith joined black and white Confederate soldiers in defense of their homes and families," wrote Bardill. "The most amazing fact concerning black Confederates is that they served alongside their white brothers in arms while their Union counterpoints were kept separate in all-black units led by white officers."

Let's be clear. Racism in this country has never had any relevance to the Mason-Dixon line. The commerce of slavery was integral to the economy of the North through shipping, banking, insurance and sugar- and cotton-related industries just as it was to the plantation owners of the South. At the birth of our Union, when Thomas Jefferson was proclaiming, "All men are created equal," slavery was legal in all 13 states.

As Malcolm X said many years later and was just as applicable in Jefferson's day, "Everything below the Canadian border is the South." There were few whites, North or South, willing to accept blacks as their equals. It is not surprising that black and white Union soldiers fought in different units.

But neither is it surprising that any blacks within the Confederate ranks would be in integrated units. White Southerners had long feared slave rebellions. From the inception of slavery through the end of the Civil War, real and imagined slave revolts had bedeviled slave holders, filling them with fear that they would someday be held accountable by slaves for the brutalities they had visited upon them.

The 1791 slave revolt in Haiti did not go unnoticed on the plantations of the South nor in the seat of government in Washington. In that Caribbean nation, African slaves slaughtered white slave owners in a bloody revolution that ultimately led to Haiti's independence from France.

The most famous American slave revolt occurred in Virginia. In 1831, Nat Turner commanded a band of slaves in a revolt that saw more than 60 whites killed, including the owner -- and his family -- of the plantation where Turner lived. More than 100 slaves and freedmen were also killed as a result. Such revolts were not limited to Virginia.

Before slavery was ended in the North, revolts spread throughout the New England states and also across the South. Fear of slave uprisings were widespread among whites and led to the passage of increasingly repressive laws against blacks. Still, the desire to be free drove many blacks to seek freedom by any means available -- escape if possible, revolt if necessary.

Against this backdrop, it is more than a little difficult to believe that blacks would voluntarily take up arms to defend a system that had brutalized and reduced them and their families to nothing more than mere chattel for more than two centuries. While people differ on why the Civil War was fought, the question of slavery was central to the conflict. The words of Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, are informative.

"Our government is founded ... upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery -- subordination to the superior race -- is his natural and normal condition," said Stephens.

Second only to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, Stephens helped write the Confederate constitution which declared there could be no law enacted denying or impairing the right of whites to own slaves.

During the Revolutionary War, the British sent convulsions through the colonies, especially the Southern colonies, when they offered freedom to any slave willing to take up arms against the Americans. Thousands heeded the call. And what did the Confederates offer slaves in return for fighting against the Union? Eternal slavery. To believe that slaves found that call compelling flies in the face of logic.

Bardill claims "that between 50,000 to 60,000 (blacks) served in the Confederate units ... as cooks, musicians and even combatants." Based on 1860 U.S. Census data, only 3.4 percent of the black men of fighting age in the Confederate states were free. This suggests that fewer than 2,000 free blacks served the Confederacy and still fewer likely took up arms. It is one thing to be compelled to cook and quite another to fight against your own liberation.

The article by Bardill encourages the myth of "happy pickaninnies" down on the plantation picking cotton, singing "Ole Man River," satisfied to be beaten or killed at the whim of the plantation owner, having their wives, mothers and daughters raped whenever it pleased the "massa" and having their families ripped apart on the auction block.

That is the system he would have us believe slaves willingly took up arms to defend. It is more plausible that the Earth is flat, that there really is a tooth fairy and that the moon is made of green cheese.

Theotis Robinson is vice president of equity and diversity at the University of Tennessee. His e-mail address is thewriteroped@comcast.net.

Well put sir.

Posted by Paul Witt at 01:19 PM | Comments (0)

April 08, 2005

DFK May Meetup & House Party

Democracy for Knoxville will be holding a house party in combination with our monthly Meetup on May 7th in the evening. The exact time hasn't been determined but will most likely be around 7pm.

This is a fundraiser so donations to Democracy for Tennessee will be taken at the door.

Location:
Manny & Miranda Godena's House
2417 Steele Road
Knoxville, TN 37932
Yahoo! Maps

That's off of Hardin Valley Road.

RSVP by emailing me please or sign up on our Meetup event page here

Posted by Paul Witt at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)

Knox Democrats Convention

From Jim Gray, Chairman of the Knox County Democratic Party...

The Democratic Party of Knox County will be holding its 2006 re-organization convention on Saturday, April 9th at 9:30 am at the Bearden Middle School. The Convention begins with ward / precinct meetings to elect chairs and other officers. This is followed by a brief District caucus to elect two district representatives for the Knox County Democratic Party Board of Governors. The process continues with the County Convention where we elect County officers. All of this should take less than three hours -- you'll be done in plenty of time for lunch.

My endorsements for county party officers:

Chair - Jim Gray
Vice Chair - Mark Harmon, Lizajean Holt & Kevin Berry

That's not to say that there aren't others running for Vice Chair that I might support for the 4th slot if I knew them better. But I know these three and they have my full support.

I'm also running for precinct chair for 69N in the 5th district and would appreciate everyone's support.

Posted by Paul Witt at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2005

"Who the heck is that?"

Probably the one link in my blogroll that most liberals wouldn't recognize is the one to Bill Cope. Bill is the husband of my birth mother, Rebeca. They live near Boise Idaho and Bill writes a weekly opinion piece for their local independent paper.

Which, experience shows, brings up the next question... A "birth mother" is the woman that gives birth to you and then gives you up for adoption. I was adopted and raised near Cincinnati. I met Rebeca when I turned 21 and it was legal for her to contact me. My adoptive mother is my mom, Rebeca is my birth mother.

There's more detail to that obviously, but that's all I'm going to say.

Regardless, Bill's articles are usually fun to read. His piece last week about his childhood home was really good. You can find it here.

Posted by Paul Witt at 04:41 PM | Comments (1)

Why I don't march, protest or picket

Although I have rallied on occasion.

Yesterday Digby had this post in response to Kevin Mattson's piece in this month's The American Prospect. I'd have to say that I agree with Kevin Mattson's point more than Digby's. They both reminded me of something I've noticed. I've seen enough protests first-hand and on TV to know that providing positive PR moments they do not.

I've never understood the effectiveness of a crowd of protesters chanting "Hey hey, ho ho, (fill in the blank) has got to go!" These things seem to be serious freak magnets and at the end of the day the normal looking participant isn't the one with his picture on TV or in the paper. This isn't a left-right thing either. On the left we can't have an event without a group of bongo-beating hippies or drama club dropouts showing up and on the right they seem to have a staff of professional bible wavers and thugs just a phone call away. I'm thinking of that idiot screaming and crying "DON'T TOUCH MY GOD!" during the whole Roy Moore fiasco.

If you have a point to make there are better ways to get your message out than protesting. Democrats need to take a page from the Republican playbook and hire normal looking PR knowledgeable talking heads. Get their normal looking mugs on TV. Get their rational and semi-intelligent comments on radio and in print. Help them write a book.

Just keep them away from the bongo-beating hippies.

Posted by Paul Witt at 03:45 PM | Comments (2)

April 01, 2005

Okay, We Give Up

Via Slashdot

Okay, We Give Up
From the April 2005 Issue of Scientific American.
Who said scientists had no sense' of humor?

There's no easy way to admit this. For years, helpful letter writers told us to stick to science. They pointed out that science and politics don't mix. They said we should be more balanced in our presentation of such issues as creationism, missile defense and global warming. We resisted their advice and pretended not to be stung by the accusations that the magazine should be renamed Unscientific American, or Scientific Unamerican, or even Unscientific Unamerican. But spring is in the air, and all of nature is turning over a new leaf, so there's no better time to say: you were right, and we were wrong.

In retrospect, this magazine's coverage of socalled evolution has been hideously one-sided. For decades, we published articles in every issue that endorsed the ideas of Charles Darwin and his cronies. True, the theory of common descent through natural selection has been called the unifying concept for all of biology and one of the greatest scientific ideas of all time, but that was no excuse to be fanatics about it.

Where were the answering articles presenting the powerful case for scientific creationism? Why were we so unwilling to suggest that dinosaurs lived 6,000 years ago or that a cataclysmic flood carved the Grand Canyon? Blame the scientists. They dazzled us with their fancy fossils, their radiocarbon dating and their tens of thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles. As editors, we had no business being persuaded by mountains of evidence.

Moreover, we shamefully mistreated the Intelligent Design (ID) theorists by lumping them in with creationists. Creationists believe that God designed all life, and that's a somewhat religious idea. But ID theorists think that at unspecified times some unnamed superpowerful entity designed life, or maybe just some species, or maybe just some of the stuff in cells. That's what makes ID a superior scientific theory: it doesn't get bogged down in details.

Good journalism values balance above all else. We owe it to our readers to present everybody's ideas equally and not to ignore or discredit theories simply because they lack scientifically credible arguments or facts. Nor should we succumb to the easy mistake of thinking that scientists understand their fields better than, say, U.S. senators or best-selling novelists do. Indeed, if politicians or special-interest groups say things that seem untrue or misleading, our duty as journalists is to quote them without comment or contradiction. To do otherwise would be elitist and therefore wrong. In that spirit, we will end the practice of expressing our own views in this space: an editorial page is no place for opinions.

Get ready for a new Scientific American. No more discussions of how science should inform policy. If the government commits blindly to building an anti-ICBM defense system that can't work as promised, that will waste tens of billions of taxpayers' dollars and imperil national security, you won't hear about it from us. If studies suggest that the administration's antipollution measures would actually increase the dangerous particulates that people breathe during the next two decades, that's not our concern. No more discussions of how policies affect science either so what if the budget for the National Science Foundation is slashed? This magazine will be dedicated purely to science, fair and balanced science, and not just the science that scientists say is science. And it will start on April Fools' Day.

Okay, We Give Up

MATT COLLINS
THE EDITORS editors@sciam.com
COPYRIGHT 2005 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC

LOL

Posted by Paul Witt at 03:03 PM | Comments (1)

What's your best April Fools joke ever?

Post a comment and let me know.

Posted by Paul Witt at 10:55 AM | Comments (1)