« April 2005 | Main | June 2005 »

May 24, 2005

Stick a fork in him

And just like that Frist's chances in 2008 evaporate.

Posted by Paul Witt at 12:28 PM | Comments (16)

May 20, 2005

KNS on Newsweek

Today's paper had this editorial:

Newsweek messed up badly when it reported that a forthcoming Pentagon report would confirm a U.S. interrogator at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had flushed a Quran down the toilet.

The magazine pushed the envelope in reporting the story - using a single anonymous source, albeit a trusted one, and writing what the unseen report was expected to contain, a risky formulation considered by some a journalistic no-no. Further, both the editor and managing editor were away at deadline.

However, Newsweek took the precaution of running the item by the Pentagon, which had no objection. And maybe the staff could be faulted for a certain religious insensitivity, but it was by no means the first report that U.S. interrogators had desecrated the Quran.

After at least 17 Afghans were killed in rioting, allegedly over the Newsweek item, the perfect storm hit Newsweek.

The magazine took a fearful beating at the hands of the Bush administration, lawmakers and the claque of ideologues who resent what they call the mainstream media.

Newsweek apologized, retracted the story and, let us stipulate, has been thoroughly chastened, but we hope not so much that it pulls its journalistic punches.

What is striking is the pious hypocrisy that has accompanied much of this criticism, beginning with the White House. An entity that regularly insists on anonymity for its briefers and still shows no remorse for being hopelessly wrong about weapons of mass destruction has no business lecturing anyone about the perils of anonymous sources and flawed information.

It's nice to see something like this in conservative East Tennessee. Atrios linked to an article in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune that contained this:

Newsweek used as a source a "senior government official," normally a Cabinet secretary or someone fairly close to that rank, who had previously been a reliable source. It then showed the report to two Pentagon officials before publication. One declined comment and one corrected another aspect of the story. Neither challenged the Qur'an-in-the-toilet statement.

Only after the report had been printed did the original source back away from his assertion that he had seen the confirmation in a military report on abuse at Guantanamo. On reflection, he thought perhaps he saw it in other reports or drafts; but he did see it.

As for this short Newsweek item causing the rioting and deaths in Afghanistan, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan told Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers that the violence was "not at all" tied to Newsweek, but was an insurgency seeking to prevent the national reconciliation that President Hamid Karzai is trying to promote. Before the Newsweek item was even published, both the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse reported a new surge of Taliban-led violence.

Posted by Paul Witt at 11:04 AM | Comments (31)

May 18, 2005

Blistering

Read this. If only the Democratic Party had someone with the balls to stand up and say what needs to be said like MP George Galloway did yesterday.

Posted by Paul Witt at 11:42 AM | Comments (5)

May 16, 2005

Bush=Palpatine Part II

I posted about this a few days ago (see two posts down). Some idiotic comments from some right-winger about Episode III being anti-Bush. This story is getting enough traction now that this morning's Today Show did a segment about it in their first 1/2 hour.

a) Lucas wrote Episodes I-III before Episode I came out. This story has been building for 6 years now. This plot has been laid out plainly for 6 years now.

b) If you see any similarity between the manipulative rise of Palpatine from Senator to Evil Emperor, then you're either already a liberal or have some subconscious guilt about the man you elected.

c) The whole conversation is just stupid. It's a movie people.

Posted by Paul Witt at 11:21 AM | Comments (3)

May 15, 2005

KPD incident

From what I'm hearing there's a lot more to this story than this article is letting on. My sources are third-hand but it's sounding like this is a case of abusive police behavior.

This is the incident as I understand it. These young men were standing near their car Friday evening when KPD rolled up. They were smart enough to demand a search warrant from the officers before they'd allow their car to be searched. The officers left and brought back a drug sniffing dog which KPD claims alerted and witnesses say did not. The boys again demanded a search warrant and an argument ensued. Racist language was used and conveniently the officers microphones were off and their cruisers were angled such that their video cameras didn't catch what happened. The officers apparently got their asses kicked.

It's worth noting that these boys have 4 year football scholarships and excel academically in high school.

Oh and no drugs were found. The car was impounded and is currently being searched for trace drug residues.

A prayer vigil is to be held today at 4pm at St. Joseph's House of Prayer.

Keep your eyes on this one folks.

Posted by Paul Witt at 01:45 PM | Comments (3)

May 12, 2005

Think you are stupid, I do

How can anyone take these people seriously?

Posted by Paul Witt at 05:53 PM | Comments (1)

Another great letter

From today's paper:

What do other states do about medically needy? I feel sympathy for those who have lost or may lose medical insurance. I do not criticize their desire to have their coverage continue at any cost, regardless who pays.

It seems to have become a sinkhole which threatens to swallow the resources of our entire state. Parents want better educational facilities. Once residential requirements were not legal, and many on TennCare moved here to enroll - especially those with medical-needs children or other relatives.

Again, I do not cast blame. Surely everyone in this category did not move here. I am curious to know what states without a similar insurance program are doing about medically needy people who need or seek unlimited doctor visits and almost uncountable prescriptions.

The answer for the Tennessee Justice Center seems to be to encourage lawsuits against TennCare, which means Tennessee taxpayers. I ask again, what are the other 49 states doing to solve this problem - maybe advising a move to Tennessee?

MRS. EDDIE AKERS
Knoxville

Mrs. Akers,
Tenncare enrollment has been closed for years now. Other states can send their people here, but they're not getting on Tenncare.

Tenncare (or something like it) is federally mandated. We have two choices, run Tenncare and have the federal government pay 2/3 of the cost or drop Tenncare and go back to Medicaid with the federal government paying 1/2 the cost.

There was more waste and fraud under the Medicaid system we had before Tenncare by the way. Oh and finding people defrauding Tenncare might actually prove to be pretty easy if we had a Governor willing to turn over the required data to the agency funded to review it.

Sincerly,
Paul Witt

Posted by Paul Witt at 05:47 PM | Comments (0)

Red light cameras again

Sunday's paper had editorials both for and against traffic cameras being installed in Knox County.

While Sterling Owen does make some good points in favor of the system, overall I'd have to give Steve Hall a clear win. Mr. Hall's arguments against the system just make more sense from a safety perspective.

Mr. Owen did explain something that, as I mentioned earlier, was bothering me. The tickets issued wouldn't be moving violations, they'd be similar to parking tickets and not put points on your license. That's both a good thing and a bad thing. Good in that it wouldn't raise your insurance rates. Bad in that Knoxville doesn't exactly have a stellar record regarding parking enforcement. Of course both of those things actually help a properly issued moving violation be something more than an annoyance. So what you're left with is getting a parking ticket in the mail that is just a one-time hit for some cash with (probably) a non existent appeals process.

Posted by Paul Witt at 05:35 PM | Comments (1)

Fixing our schools

So Bill Gates thinks today's high schools are obsolete and Greg Johnson's response is to bash Gov. Bredesen's pre-K education proposal.

Don't get me wrong. Books from Birth sounds like a terrific program but let's not simply dismiss pre-K education because the problem seems to be with our high schools. If you want to redesign our high schools then the kids in elementary school need to be prepared for it. That means changing educational priorities starting from their first day of Kindergarten. You can't start the program in High Schools.

If our junior and senior high schools have turned into a "every-child-is-a-star group hug" then I'll agree, that's just wrong. But I'm guessing it's a gross exaggeration. Just the other day the older brother of a kid on my son's little league team was telling me about taking AP Algebra in the 5th grade. When I took Algebra in the 8th grade in 1983 it was the first year they'd offered Algebra that early. Our 12th grade Calculus class was the first in our school too. Algebra in 5th grade doesn't sound mamby-pamby everyone earns an A today liberalized and pansified education to me.

I realize that's just one small example and there are dozens of examples on both sides of the issue. I realize too that there's a growing outcry for back-to-basics public education, which I somewhat agree with. But I don't think that the blame for school failures lies entirely with schools, school boards or teachers. Parents need to consider their own complicity in distracting their kids from the educational basics. How many hours a week do today's kids spend playing organized sports, choir, band, youth group, bible study, etc?

Maybe the problem isn't that school isn't challenging enough, it's that kids don't have the time to be challenged by school.

Posted by Paul Witt at 05:20 PM | Comments (2)

Enthusiasm

Last Saturday our local group, Democracy for Knoxville, hosted a house party at Miranda Godena's house. 30 open minded progressives were in attendance. This was in conjunction with about a dozen other house parties around the state.

The response was incredible. Much better than I expected.

The party featured a video made by the state PAC that featured Howard Dean speaking about what we're doing here in Tennessee and how it fits with the rest of the country. The video was recorded in March when Governor Dean was in Nashville. Apparently when he was asked to record a brief video his response was something like "well I can't do it tomorrow, I don't have time tonight, we have to do it right now." If only other politicians were so open and willing to give a few minutes of their time to people not kissing up to them or offering them money.

After the video and some mingling, there was a brief conference call where Tom Hughes, Executive Director of Democracy for America. He outlined what we're trying to accomplish. After the call we watched George Lakoff's video on the use of language and how to properly frame everything we do.

We didn't participate in the statewide letter writing campaign. Not because we think the state should restrict municipally run WiFi networks, but because we all pretty much despise letter writing campaigns. Especially ones where you sit in a room and everyone is expected to write a letter. Instead, we used the Lakoff video as an opening to discuss local issues and how to frame them. Most of our time was spent talking about the upcoming 2006 race for Knox County Sheriff or Tennessee being a "right to work" state and what being an employee at will means to Tennessee workers.

We were the only party to not charge admission at the door. It was a fundraiser but we felt that since we're still new and trying to grow our groups that it would be better to ask for donations after everyone had a chance to hear what we're about and what we're trying to accomplish. Apparently it was a good strategy. Our attendance was at or near the highest in the state and our contributions were also.

The most exciting piece of news for the evening was about the keynote speaker for the July 9 Democracy for Tennessee Convention. U.S. Senator Russ Feingold has agreed to speak to the group. An online registration page will be up within a week.

Posted by Paul Witt at 04:55 PM | Comments (1)

May 10, 2005

The Huffington Post

For those that haven't seen it yet, Arianna Huffington has started a new progressive news site (blog included) called The Huffington Post. The lineup of writers is simply amazing.

It's at the top of my blogroll (look right).

Posted by Paul Witt at 02:42 PM | Comments (2)

May 02, 2005

An interesting weekend

Something non-political for a change. At least it's going to start off that way. No promises that I won't inject something political somewhere.

As I mentioned in this post, I'm adopted. I've known that I'm adopted for my entire life. By the way, being adopted is not a shameful thing and we don't need your pity. I only say that because there's always someone that thinks that being adopted deserves a pat on the back and that look that says "they feel your pain". For a mother to give up her baby is an incredibly unselfish act and there's never a question that a couple that adopts a child had an "accident".

Oh and when I refer to my mom and dad those are my adoptive parents (and only real parents). The same goes for my sister Jenny. This can get a bit confusing.

I digress.

I was always curious about my birth parents. I always wanted to know if I looked like them, talked like them, the whole nature vs. nurture thing. I'd thought about looking into what it takes to find out who they were but never did. My birth certificate listed my mom as the woman that gave birth to me and I had no clue where to begin to find my original birth certificate.

Then in 1991, about 9 months after I turned 21, I'm at my college apartment and get a phone call from my parents that they "needed to talk" (usually not a good sign) and were going to drive up to see me. They wouldn't say what it was about over the phone. As it turns out, my birth mother had contacted the adoption agency and asked to make contact with me. Apparently that's legal once the child turns 21, at least in Ohio it is. They called my parents and my parents told me about it. The agency faxed me a form to sign and my birth mother signed a form of her own and faxed it back. Then they swapped our phone numbers.

That's when I met my birth mother, Rebeca.

The basics: I'm 1/2 Venezuelan, never had a clue that I was anything but the palest of the pale caucasians. Although it did explain why I always tanned up so well and seldom burned. I also have two half-sisters, Jeni and Annie. They lived less than 30 minutes from where I grew up for most of my childhood and moved to Boise when I was about 14.

A month or two after we first spoke I flew out to Boise and met her, Jeni, Annie and her husband Bill. Eventually I met her father, brothers and sister and lots of cousins. Apparently I have cousins in Venezuela too. Oh and I have her hair. This incredibly dark thick curly hair.

She also gave me the name of my birth father, Greg (last name withheld). Not to embarrass Rebeca but I was an accident from a youthful indiscretion. He was never told that she was pregnant. The last she had heard, he lived about 20 minutes away from where I was at the time. This was pre-internet so searching for him would've meant libraries, old phone books and knocking on doors. I didn't bother.

So last summer I decided to look him up. Some searching on Google and whitepages.com showed that he still lived at the address listed in the 1982 phone book that Rebeca still has. Same phone number too. But as it turned out, I just missed him. His number was disconnected a month or two earlier and no new number was given. His county's tax assessor records showed that he bought a new house so I shelved my search for a few months and waited for his new phone number to make the online records. I've checked every couple of months since and it never showed up.

So last week when the tax assessor records showed that he still owned the first house, and the new one, and yet another one that he bought from HUD, I realized that he was buying them to fix up and probably sell. So I used whitepages.com to reverse-address his neighbors and got hold of one of them on the phone. The guy was nice enough to leave a note in Greg's mailbox that said "Looking for Greg" with my phone number.

Greg called me on Saturday.

So imagine you're 57 years old and about to find out that you had a son that's now 35 and were never told about him.

The conversation went like this:
Paul: "This is going to sound a bit strange but bear with me. I want to say first off that I'm not looking for anything from you."
Greg: "Ok"
Paul: "Do you remember a woman you dated around February, March, April of 1969 named Rebeca? Little Venezuelan girl."
Greg: "Yea, I remember her."
Paul: "Well... you knocked her up" (figured I'd try to ease the shock with some humor)
Greg: "You're kidding"
Paul: "Nope"

At first he didn't think it was possible and then remember that "one time". Guess that's all it takes.

The basics: The other half is scots-irish. That explains the paleness. He was divorced at the time and has a son that's older than me, and a son and daughter by another wife that are younger than me.

We talked for about 20 minutes and we're going to try to meet the next time I'm in Ohio. He gave me some family history that I jotted down as best I could. I won't keep it all straight anyway. I can't keep my own parents' family trees straight.

My relationship with Rebeca is very comfortable. She's family and I do consider her daughters to be sisters. None of them anywhere near as close as my feelings for my parents and sister though. I have no expectations for anything of the sort with Greg's family. It's just nice to know that the men in his family don't die of heart disease at 60.

Posted by Paul Witt at 12:24 PM | Comments (14)

Spelling police!

I received the following email from W. Republican this weekend:

Hey Moron: Look at the links on your website. Knox County Democrat Parth. What is a Parth?I assume you mean Party. You, Jim Gray and the leadership of the KCDP need to pass elementary school spelling. You were probably never invited to any parties as a child, so it wasn't neccesary to learn the spelling.

Thanks friend!

By the way, it's "necessary" not "neccesary".

Posted by Paul Witt at 10:01 AM | Comments (1)