Please. Because Aunt B. has enough to worry about without innumerable trips to a chiropractor.

So how about instead of this:

“My preliminary conclusion is, you’ve got a guy with too much time on his hands and is nosy and was showing people that he had access to all this kind of information and doing favors for friends and looking things up over a period of time,” the governor said Tuesday. “If it goes beyond that, it’ll be a very serious matter and we’ll handle it appropriately.”

You try this:

“It makes no difference what the motivation. It’s a very serious matter and we’ll handle it appropriately.”

Quick and to the point. Seriously.

There’s a Russia-Georgia conflict meme working its way through conservative talk radio that, until recently, I had shrugged off as juvenile. It wasn’t until our local shill wrote about it last week in the City Paper and repeated it ad nauseum on his show today that I was struck with how much it reveals a deep-rooted misunderstanding and hatred of democracy.

The basic idea behind the coordinated attack - besides distracting the American people from John McCain’s foreign policy blunders and lobbyist problems - is to demonize U.S. anti-war protesters by accusing them of being “anti-american.” If they were real anti-war protesters, the meme goes, then they would have taken to the streets to protest the “unprovoked” Russian attack on Georgia. Instead, because “the anti-war flag burners been so slow to mobilize,” it must mean that they don’t hate war, but rather, they just hate America.

They’re wrong, of course, and in typical right-wing Rovian fashion, they accuse their target of what they themselves actually feel - a hatred for our country.

How else do you explain their attack on these true patriots who, by taking to the streets, continue a long tradition of peaceably assembling “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances?” Protesting is one of the cornerstones of our democracy - an important tradition sealed in the First Amendment of our Constitution and handed down from generation to generation. It’s as American as free speech, freedom of religion, and a free press.

American citizens who take to the streets aren’t motivated by blind, ideologically-driven loyalties. Instead, they believe in the power of our democracy and the concept that accountability moments should come every day - not just once every four years.

Public demonstrations. Protest marches. Political rallies. Teach-ins. Pickets. Non-violent resistance. All examples of a healthy democracy. With this in mind you have to wonder, why do right-wing radio talk show hosts hate our freedom?

Summary: Guests include Bob Mancini and Elbert Ventura, research fellow, Media Matters for America.

• We Took a Vacation But Nashville Politics Did Not (Part 1) - Back to school - the best thing ever or a real drag? And we recap the Tennessee primary. (49:18 79MB)
• Sex Sells (Part 2) - John Edwards gets caught with his pants down and everybody has an opinion. (13:09 21.1MB)
• Stalking Stephen Colbert (Part 3) - Mary’s big brother Bob (former head coach and general manager of the Saginaw Spirit and guest on The Colbert Report) was nice enough, on their summer vacation, to throw caution to the wind and use his connections to get them tickets to see a taping of Stephen Colbert’s show. Despite heightened security brought on by the restraining order, a good time was had by all. (14:05 22.6MB)
• Media Matters for America Smackdown (Part 4) - Is Barack Obama too down-to-earth, too presidential, and too fit to lead this fast food nation? And note Cokie Roberts: We know you, as part of the media, must report on style rather than substance. But I gotta tell ya, Hawaii is part of America. It’s a State, actually. Love, Elbert Ventura. (20:32 32.9MB)

Here’s something for some people, including the candidates, to keep in mind during Rick Warren’s purpose driven forum:

U.S. Constitution: Article. VI. Section 3.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Dear Rep. Davis, Candidate Barnes, Nashville Public Radio, and, what the heck, the National Media,

First, I’d like to thank you all for your interest in the democratic process. As you know, it’s so important that as voters and American citizens we can count on our news media and elected officials to ensure that in every election our votes will be counted and counted as cast.

Since the story broke of potential recount challenges by both candidate Barnes and Rep. Davis, a couple of things have happened.

First, Nashville Public Radio, you ran a news story in which you interviewed Tennessee Election Coordinator Brook Thompson about the process for initiating a recount. In the report, Mr. Thompson made it very clear that, because this was a primary election, the responsibility for deciding to go forward with a recount challenge was up to an individual party and their committees:

“The party really sits as judge and jury in an election contest. And so the losing candidate will contest the election. They will be given time, I presume, to make their case. The winning candidate will also be given time to make their case, and the party has to determine what it wants to do.”

Interesting story - but it was missing something. Where were the questions about the process for a recount? Where was the mention that, because of the types of electronic voting machines used in 93 of 95 counties here, a “recount” in Tennessee means pressing the same button and getting the same totals? Where was the factual statement that when using this methodology there would be absolutely no difference at all in the numbers either candidate would get after a recount? Isn’t that news? Hell, isn’t that the story?!?!

You also recently reported that “As recently as last year, two Republican candidates challenged primary results” but that “State Republican Party officials says both matters were resolved without a full recount because either the candidate couldn’t pay for it or because the committee ruled it inappropriate.”

The real reason, of course, as Rep. Davis and candidate Barnes have now figured out, is because a recount would be futile.

Now, I hear, both you, Rep. Davis, and you, candidate Barnes, are looking into challenges based on “cross-over” voting instead. Good luck with that. But is that it? Does the story of why a recount isn’t possible when an election is close now simply just go away?

I urge you, Nashville Public Radio, the National Media, Rep. David Davis, and Candidate Tim Barnes, as you go on with your news stories and your challenges, please DO NOT LET THIS STORY DIE.

Electronic voting (not bears) is the number one threat to our democracy - and not just in Tennessee:

• 28 States still use Electronic Voting Machines and will in this critical presidential election.
• The U.S. Senate is proposing an Electronic Voting Machine bill that would exacerbate these bad voting practices, not fix them.

But yes, this threat does continue in Tennessee and will do so until 2010. Right now, in Davidson County a small group of committed volunteers and Metro Council folk are fighting to prevent the Election Commission from spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to rent more of the same useless and unverifiable machines instead of buying the type that will allow for paper ballots and that they are mandated to purchase, by law, before the 2010 election.

It’s clear, sirs and madams, by the work you do that you love our democracy. But do you love it enough to realize the importance of this story - your story - and shout it from the rooftops until the rest of the country stand ups and takes notice?

Your pal,

Mary

Dear Tim Barnes,

Congratulations on a well-fought race against Senator Kurita. The race was so close in Tennessee State Senate District 22 (the fightin’ 22nd!) and the fact that incumbent Rosalind Kurita beat you by only 19 votes is a testament to your hard work and dedication to your campaign.

Due to the closeness of the race, it is completely understandable that you would want a recount. It’s the smart - and right - thing to do.

But there is one thing you should know - a recount is an absolute waste of time.

You see, the machines used in both Montgomery and Houston counties are electronic. So, to get vote totals for each machines, an election official merely presses a button. A “recount” for these machines means pressing the same button and getting the same totals. There will be no difference at all in the numbers you get after the recount.

Now, if Tennesseans used paper ballots to vote (and they will in 2010) and those paper ballots were the lawful ballot of record, then you might actually be able to see exactly how the voters in The Fightin’ 22nd voted. And rather than rely on easily hackable electronic machines that spit out the same results no matter how many times you request a “recount,” you would have tangible pieces of paper that represent the real intent of the voter.

Congratulations again on a well-fought contest. And good luck in 2010.

Your pal,

Mary

Moments after proclaiming that fixing the energy crisis of 2008 was “not a partisan issue” on this morning’s Steve Gill Show [guest host Larry Woods], Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn forgot the definition of “non-partisan.”

“…this is what inaction is getting us, the fact that the liberal elites in DC are controlling each house of Congress and not allowing these votes to come forward. The [price] increase has taken place primarily over the last couple of years.”

Someone might want to remind partisan hack Congresswoman Blackburn that she should refrain from using clichéd partisan-slurs to describe people who disagree with her when trying to present an issue as non-partisan. Just sayin’.

Oh and she also might want to check her claim that oil and gas price increases have increased “primarily over the last couple of years” and her explanation of why (three guesses whose fault…).

It’s easy to place blame for partisan reasons and Blackburn sure is good at it. But for the intellectually honesty of it all, let’s list some other reasons why we might be experiencing record high gas prices: increased consumption, production disruptions, turmoil in the middle east, the destabilization of Iraq, corporate greed, Iranian and U.S. saber-rattling, and whatever back-room shenanigans that go on between the Bushies and the Saudis (to name just a few). To lay blame at the feet of one of America’s political party for the global problem? Ridiculous. To lay blame at the feet of the leader of the free world’s administration whose policies encouraged global turmoil? Sounds about right.

And speaking of honesty, she and her friends standing in the dark in the House chamber might want to stop claiming that off-shore drilling will give us immediate relief from high gas prices. ‘Cause it won’t. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) - that’s the United States Energy Information Administration - “access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030. Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production would not be expected to start before 2017.”

Not sure about the good Congresswoman, but I don’t think the rest of us can wait until 2030.

Listen to Blackburn and Woods on Gill

UPDATE: NY Times’ favorite economist, Paul Krugman (aka FOL* Dr. Beardy), weighs in this morning on a party who believes that “that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise.” Paging, Congressman Blackburn.

In the case of oil, this takes the form of pretending that more drilling would produce fast relief at the gas pump. In fact, earlier this week Republicans in Congress actually claimed credit for the recent fall in oil prices: “The market is responding to the fact that we are here talking,” said Representative John Shadegg.

What about the experts at the Department of Energy who say that it would take years before offshore drilling would yield any oil at all, and that even then the effect on prices at the pump would be “insignificant”? Presumably they’re just a bunch of wimps, probably Democrats. And the Democrats, as Representative Michele Bachmann assures us, “want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements, take light rail to their government jobs.”

Is this political pitch too dumb to succeed? Don’t count on it.

Oy.

*Friend of Liberadio(!)

Barack Obama inserts himself into Tennessee politics and calls out Nikki Turner:

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, waded into the ugly politics being waged in today’s Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District’s Democratic primary.

“These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics,” Obama said in a statement, “and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee. It’s time to turn the page on a politics driven by negativity and division so that we can come together to lift up our communities and our country.”

Interestingly, Obama was referring to attacks being waged against the white incumbent, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., by an African-American challenger, corporate attorney Nikki Tinker.

Tinker has been accused of playing some of the more ugly racial politics of the campaign season.

She put the image of a Klansman standing before a burning cross in a TV ad to drive home the point that Cohen, as a member of the downtown development board in 2005, opposed renaming a park that is named for Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, a founder of the Ku Klux Klan. (Watch the ad HERE.)

Thrown in jail for knowing the voter ID laws in Tennessee? Maybe not, but just as bad is how many will just walk out the door without voting if someone with “authority” says “You can either give me what I told you to, or you can just get out that door and find someplace else to vote!”?

BradBlog has the full story of Missouri Election Integrity Activist, Phil Lindsey, of ShowMeTheVote.org, the victim of needless intimidation and unlawful disenfranchisement, who was arrested for having the right form of ID while attempting to vote in his state’s primary on Tuesday:

This story is unfrickin’-believable. Or maybe it isn’t. It took place in Thor Hearne country, after all. And though she didn’t get arrested and thrown in jail, a similar incident happened to the Missouri Secretary of State during the 2006 election.

A voter in Kansas City on Tuesday — one I happen to know, because he’s an Election Integrity advocate in the Show Me State — was arrested and sent to jail after he refused to show a driver’s license at the polling place before attempting to vote during the state’s Primary Election.

As user “galloglas,” Phil posted the unnerving details at DemocraticUnderground.com.

Or course, the official charge couldn’t be, “He knew what kind of ID he needed to vote legally,” so they slapped him with “disturbance/disorderly conduct…acts in a violent or tumultuous manner toward another, placing such person(s) in fear of safety by refusing to show proper I.D. when voting.”

Also over at BradBlog, links to local news coverage of the incident and similar stories experienced by the Missouri Secretary of State and Brad’s dad - two very nice people.

“Show-me” State Missouri needs a new slogan: The “Show-Me the ID I want Regardless of the Law or Get Thrown in the Hoosegow” State. Wordy, I know, but if the slogan fits…

A conversation with Honey this morning reminded me of something - sometimes people working our elections don’t know the rules. For instance, as he was running around looking for his voter registration card this morning I reminded him that he didn’t need it to vote in Tennessee. He said, “Well, I’ve been asked for it before and I want to be prepared.”

To be clear, here are the ID rules for voting in Tennessee.

Note the fine print:The requirements described apply ONLY to FIRST TIME VOTERS WHO REGISTERED BY MAIL. All other persons who registered to vote in person or have voted before must only present evidence of their signature or sign an Affidavit of Identity.

(Click to Enlarge)