'Sexting' becomes the next big worry for parents

Giving older children cell phones is a way for parents to be able to communicate with them at any moment, particularly in an emergency.

But this device of communication has now become a menace in the hands of some young people with something called "sexting".

A friend told me the story last week of her son's girlfriend who decided to send a naked picture of herself over her cell phone to his. So both sets of parents had to get together for a discussion.

I really don't how to curb this kind of use, because parents don't have time to daily go through every picture on their child's cell phone.

Or perhaps they will now have to make time.

AIG isn't only place where taxpayer-backed bonuses are paid: Congress dishes out big bonuses to its own staffs, and you're paying for it all

All those lawmakers trying to shame AIG's top officer last week on Capitol Hill for giving bonuses during tough times are doing the same damn thing, reports the Wall Street Journal in a well-researched piece.

And a spokesperson for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offers the same excuse as AIG -- bonuses are used to retain important personnel who could be working elsewhere.

Sometimes, I feel this nation is unsalvageable. The hypocrisy that's ripping off taxpayers is too prevalent.

The WSJ reports in this excerpt:

WASHINGTON -- While Congress has been flaying companies for giving out bonuses while on the government dole, lawmakers have a longstanding tradition of rewarding their own employees with extra cash -- also courtesy of taxpayers.

Capitol Hill bonuses in 2008 were among the highest in years, according to LegiStorm, an organization that tracks payroll data. The average House aide earned 17% more in the fourth quarter of the year, when the bonuses were paid, than in previous quarters, according to the data. That was the highest jump in the eight years LegiStorm has compiled payroll information.

Total end-of-year bonuses paid to congressional staffers are tiny compared with the $165 million recently showered on executives of American International Group Inc., which is being propped up by billions of dollars of U.S. government subsidies. But Capitol Hill bonuses provide a notable counterpoint to the populist rhetoric and sound bites emanating from Washington these past weeks.

Last year alone, more than 200 House lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, awarded bonuses totaling $9.1 million to more than 2,000 staff members, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of office-disbursement forms. The money comes out of taxpayer-funded office budgets, and is surplus cash that would otherwise be forfeited if not spent.

Payments ranged from a few hundred dollars to $14,000. Lawmakers, at their own discretion, gave the money to chiefs of staff, assistants, computer technicians, and more than 100 aides who earned salaries of more than $100,000 a year.

This has gone on for many years. There is no prohibition against handing out excess cash. The lawmakers say it is a nice incentive to get staff to conserve budgets, and it rewards hard work and long hours.

NYT's profile of country entertainer John Rich provides a great look at a passionate thinker

The New York Times has compiled an excellent profile of country music's John Rich, and how his passion and belief system has influenced the populist message in his songs.

And his latest song about "Shuttin' Detroit Down" provides a clear message to the bigwigs who have abused the working man and woman.

I'll provide an excerpt here, but go to The Times' website to read the complete profile. It is well worth the read:

There’s no screaming on the first great song of the bailout era. No audible rage. No tears. Instead, on “Shuttin’ Detroit Down,” the country star John Rich, singing evenly, sounds perfectly levelheaded, as if he’d thought through his position thoroughly and acquired the peace of the righteous:

I see all these big shots whining on my evening news

About how they’re losing billions and it’s up to me and you

To come running to

The rescue

“The song is not depressing,” Mr. Rich said last week, in an interview in the rooftop bar of a hotel in Gramercy Park. “The song is defiant.”

And for contemporary Nashville, shockingly topical. Mr. Rich, 35, conceived and wrote “Shuttin’ Detroit Down” in late January, in a fit of pique after watching news accounts of the $1.2 million office remodeling by John Thain, the Merrill Lynch chief executive. Within two weeks it had been recorded, mastered and released to country radio stations, as well as added to his new album “Son of a Preacher Man” (Warner Brothers Nashville), which had already been submitted to the label.

It reflects not only Mr. Rich’s songwriting gifts — he collaborated on the verses with the longtime country singer John Anderson — but also his acumen in gauging and channeling the mood of the country, aggressively striking a note of conservative populism rarely seen in any genre of pop since country music’s response to Sept. 11. (The video, which features Mickey Rourke and Kris Kristofferson, will be released shortly.)

But even though Mr. Rich’s subject matter is au courant, his tropes are familiar country tugs of war: urban versus rural, modern versus traditional, white collar versus blue. The most bracing moment on “Shuttin’ Detroit Down” comes not when Mr. Rich points a finger at those “living it up on Wall Street in that New York City town,” but when he reflects on the little guy: “Well that old man’s been working in that plant most all his life/ Now his pension plan’s been cut in half and he can’t afford to die,” his voice dropping a half-step on the last word to indicate where the real locus of tragedy resides.

Mr. Rich sees the song as being in the us-versus-them tradition of “Okie From Muskogee,” the 1969 semisatire of country life by Merle Haggard, with whom Mr. Rich recently crossed paths.

“He put his hand on my shoulder, and he looked me dead in the eye,” Mr. Rich recalled. “He said, ‘That new song you have out now, that reminds me a whole lot of “Okie.” As a songwriter, that is officially the highest compliment I’ve ever been paid.”

But in many ways “Detroit” has less to do with “Okie” and more to do with the left-wing protest music of that era. That it comes from the other side of the aisle seems a minor detail. “Shuttin’ Detroit Down” is skeptical of big business as well as big government — “D.C.’s bailing out them bankers as the farmers auction ground” — keeping a song that’s postpartisan, at least on the surface, consistent with right-wing thinking.

Those crazy Democrats just can't figure out how to pay their taxes; but boy can they spend ours

President Obama's nominee for HHS has disclosed that she and her husband could not figure out how to pay all their taxes from 2005-2007, reports The New York Times.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is the second Obama nominee for HHS to forget to pay taxes owed. Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle forgot to pay all his taxes on his private driver provided by a financial firm. Who knew people from the Dakotas didn't know how to drive?

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner forgot to pay all his taxes, but he has had no troubled giving away an incredible amount of our money to bail out the nation's financial industry.

It is fortunate for Obama that Sebelius' forgetfulness did not amount to a lot of money. But it remains indicative of a political party that has been shown not to be so keen on paying all its taxes but anxious to spend everything we pay and so much more.

This is politics at its most disgusting.

Here is The Times' story:

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, President Obama’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, said Tuesday that she and her husband had paid $7,040 in back taxes and $878 in interest after discovering “unintentional errors” in their tax returns for 2005-7.

Ms. Sebelius said she had erroneously taken tax deductions for certain mortgage interest and several charitable contributions. In a letter to the Senate Finance Committee, Ms. Sebelius said: “In July of 2006, my husband and I sold our home for an amount less than the outstanding balance on our mortgage. We continued paying off the loan, including interest we mistakenly believed continued to be deductible.”

Ms. Sebelius said she had been unable to locate records needed to document three of the 49 charitable contributions she and her husband, Gary Sebelius, had made. She is the latest of several Obama nominees to acknowledge underpaying taxes. Mr. Obama’s first choice for health secretary, Tom Daschle, withdrew after paying $128,203 in back taxes and $11,964 in interest, arising in part from the use of a luxury car and driver.

New GM exec says bankruptcy probable; that's good news for taxpayers who don't need bailout

GM's new top executive said today that bankruptcy is probable, which goes in line with yesterday's WSJ report that the Obama administration is intent on GM and Chrysler reinventing themselves in the courts or having their parts sold off.

Bankruptcy would save taxpayers mega billions of dollars to bail out these corporations and their unions that should have pay for the reprecussions of their greed and bad decisions.

The New York Times reports:

DETROIT — The new chief executive of General Motors, Frederick A. Henderson, said Tuesday that bankruptcy was “more probable” than ever for the automaker but that he still hoped to successfully restructure the company out of court.

“We will get the job done,” Mr. Henderson, who is known as Fritz, said in his first news conference since succeeding Rick Wagoner, who resigned at the request of the Obama administration over the weekend.

“We will either do it out of court or we will do it in court,” Mr. Henderson said, “but we will get the job done in terms of recreating and reinventing General Motors as a competitive enterprise, one that wins in the marketplace.”

Craig Moon retiring on top at USA Today; he will return to Nashville to explore new ventures

One of the last good guys in the newspaper industry is retiring. Former Tennessean publisher Craig Moon will return to Nashville after April 17, following his six years of leading USA today and maintaining its circulation.

It was pleasure to work for Moon during my tenure at The Tennessean. And unlike publishers today, he put the readers first, making investments in new reporters for new beats before considering the bottom line. He remains a man of integrity who demands the best from his people, not excuses.

Moon had discovered the secret to running a good newspaper or any other business, give the customers what they want and they will give you what you need --- credibility, trust and profits.

He proved that with his creation of Williamson A.M., which continues to be the most successful part of The Tennessean.

Moon said he will spend more time with his family here and explore business ventures with his partners. Let's pray that he looks at the disarray of the print business in Middle Tennessee and comes up with a hybrid to dominate the market and put the lesser publications out of business.

Here is the press release on his departure:

MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Craig Moon, president and publisher of USA TODAY, today said he plans to retire on April 17 after more than 23 years at Gannett. Moon also supervises USA WEEKEND, the Detroit Media Partnership, Gannett Offset and the Military Times operation.

“Craig has been a steady hand, a defender of strong journalism and a true champion of the USA TODAY brand in his six years as president and publisher of our flagship newspaper,” said Craig Dubow, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI - News). “He has combined his love of the newspaper business with a grasp of the digital future in ways that benefited not only USA TODAY but also the entire company. We will miss his counsel and his expertise.”

“While the challenging media environment has been difficult for this industry and its people, it also has created new opportunities which I plan to explore with partners,” Moon said.

"I will carry forward a multitude of memories and life experiences I would not have otherwise benefited from without my association with all the dedicated employees and the incredible USA TODAY brand," he added. He plans to return full time to the Nashville, TN area to spend more time with his family as he explores these new businesses.

Moon was named president and publisher of USA TODAY in 2003. At the time, he was executive vice president of the Newspaper Division, now U.S. Community Publishing. From 1991 until 2002, Moon was president and publisher of The Tennessean in Nashville. He also was president of the Piedmont Newspaper Group of Gannett.

Home prices slide to new record low in January; that represents greatest loss of wealth in nation

The factor that makes this recession different from others is the gigantic decline in home prices, and numbers released today show no end in sight for this record descent.

And without any sign of this descent ending, the economy cannot recover.

Houses represent the single greatest financial holding for any family. These kind of declines account for an incredible loss of wealth in society, and suburban places such as Williamson County are being hit hard. Forclosures are multiplying.

Western U.S. cities are being hit the hardest, along with Miami in the east. Atlanta showed a 14 percent drop, still precipitous.

The New York Times reports:

The decline in housing prices maintained its record-breaking descent in January, according to data released Tuesday.

Home Prices in Selected Cities Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index, a widely watched measure of 20 metropolitan areas, fell 19 percent in January from January 2008. That was slightly faster than it dropped in December.

The worst hit metropolitan areas have now fallen nearly in half. None of the cities showed month-to-month improvements. Thirteen showed record annual rates of decline.

“There’s no daylight that I can see in this report,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S.&P.

Phoenix is down 48.5 percent from its June 2006 peak, with Las Vegas not far behind. Dallas was the city with the smallest decline from its peak, 10.8 percent.

The 20-city index fell to 146.40, its lowest point since September 2003. The peak was 206.52 in July 2006.

It may be spring on the calendar, but analysts said it would remain winter on housing prices for a long time.

Consumers still set on not buying as their confidence in the economy remains poor; they were betrayed and their trust was violated

I had dinner with a couple the other night who should now be together every day as they approach their older years.

But he works in another state during the week and she works full time here. And one of the reasons for their separation during the week is the large amount of savings lost in the stock market to retire in comfort. And of course with the job market, no one knows how long his or her job is going to be around.

Some readers may sense the deep anger I have toward people like Dave Ramsey, and financial advisers and brokerage representatives.

This fine couple and many others I have met are the reason why. They were betrayed and robbed. And a lot of those people who betrayed them are still around offering the same advice with their stupid grins and without any reprecussions.

For example, the Williamson Herald last week featured Ramsey with a giant photo on its front page offering more advice and his economic forecast. When the market was at 10,600 last September, he was telling people that everything would be all right and for people to get into growth mutual funds.

Since then, they've lost 30 percent of their money. Yet Ramsey still is out there giving advice without any sense of remorse and no scrutiny by the media that still lets him ramble on without calling him out for being wrong and costing people a lot of money they could not afford to lose.

Today's Conference Board report on consumer confidence shows the American people remain in grave doubt, and they do not know who to trust for advice. And the numbers also show a drop in people who are going to buy cars and new appliances. That means more layoffs as people buy less.

Ultimately, some institution will need to step forward to make amends for the betrayals of the couples like the one I had dinner with Saturday night. It won't be the media that continues to feature Dave Ramsey as an expert. It won't be the financial advisers who can only make money if people get back into the markets, which they should not. The clergy have plenty of words of comfort to offer but perhaps it's time to sell some land and quit building so many big structures and share with the people -- as in the beginning Christian communities.

Someone needs to apologize and make reparations. Or at least commence the healing. Until then, the American people are not going to trust enough to spend any money in large amounts. They will not be fooled again.

Here is the Marketwatch report on consumer attitudes:

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Consumer confidence ticked up in March from a record low in February as severe worries about the economy and jobs in coming months slightly eased, according to the monthly Conference Board index reported Tuesday.

The March consumer confidence index rose to 26 from an upwardly revised 25.3 in February. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected a March reading of 28.

"Apprehension about the outlook for the economy, the labor market and earnings continues to weigh heavily on consumers' attitudes," said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's Consumer Research Center. "Looking ahead, consumers remain extremely pessimistic about the short-term future and do not foresee a turnaround in economic conditions over the coming six months."

Given the persistent and widespread economic weakness, gloom among consumers is understandable. On Friday the government will report on nonfarm payrolls for March, and economists polled by MarketWatch are looking for a loss of almost 700,000 jobs, and an unemployment rate of 8.5%.

Last week, a survey from the University of Michigan and Reuters reported that consumer sentiment index rose slightly in March from February though it remained near record low levels as mounting job losses and depleted investments weighed down consumers.

Consumers' views of current conditions fell, with those saying jobs are "hard to get" rising to 48.7% from 46.9%. Those saying business conditions are "bad" rose to 51.1% from 50.5%.

Meanwhile, consumers' expectations rose, with those expecting fewer jobs in six months declining to 42.6% from 47%. Those expecting "worse" business conditions fell to 39.1% from 40.7%.

Those with plans to buy an automobile within six months fell to 3.9% from 4.7%. Those with plans to buy a home also dropped, to 2% from 2.3%. Those with plans to buy major appliances fell to 24% from 25%.

WSJ says that Obama is leaning toward bankruptcy for automakers; GM could be sold off in parts

The Wall Street Journal reports from sources inside the Obama administration that the president now is leaning toward GM and Chrysler filing for bankruptcy and coming out reorganized into smaller companies or their parts sold off.

While I find that contention difficult to believe, perhaps President Obama now realizes it will cost too much to bail out the automakers. Their reorganization plans submitted to his auto industry committee were obviously disappointing, from his comments today.

Still, he seemed committed to some sort of U.S.-based auto industry operating in this country. Perhaps Ford will be the sole survivor and can operate some of GM's plants. Ford has not asked for government money.

Letting a federal court take care of GM bond-holding creditors and UAW members on retirement first, then seeing how much money is left to operate a company, makes better sense. I sure hope the president has reached that conclusion.

What this strategy means for the Spring Hill, TN., plant is anyone's guess.

The WSJ reports:

WASHINGTON— The Obama's administration's leading plan to fix General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC would use bankruptcy filings to purge the ailing companies of their biggest problems, including bondholder debt and retiree health-care costs, according to people familiar with the matter.

The move would in essence split both companies into their "good" and "bad" components. The government would like to see the "good" GM to be a standalone company, according to an administration official. The "good" Chrysler would be sold to Fiat SpA, assuming that deal is completed, this person said.

GM and Chrysler have had bankruptcy attorneys devising plans for such a move in recent months.

President Barack Obama's task force has told both companies that the administration prefers this route as a way to reorganize the two auto makers, rather than the prolonged out-of-court process that has thus far frustrated administration officials.

GM looks increasingly like it will be forced into filing for bankruptcy protection, sometime in mid-to-late May, in a plan where the automaker breaks into two companies, the surviving entity a "new GM" that maintains key brands such as Chevy and Cadillac and some international units, say several people familiar with the situation.

Stakes in this new GM could be given to creditors and UAW members. It is also possible the new company could be sold whole or in parts to investors.

The auto makers could avoid bankruptcy in the next two months. And there is some brinksmanship still going on in GM's high-level talks with bondholders, union members and creditors.

American Bar Association is tilted toward liberal nominees, says NYT in reporting on studies

The American Bar Association -- the non-transparent arm of this nation troubling legal industry -- is biased toward giving higher ratings to liberal court nominees, The New York Times reports in citing a new, independent study.

Give some credit to former AG Alberto Gonzales, who called out the ABA for its bias and quit using the group's grading system during the Bush administration.

The Obama administration has now invited the body back to grade nominees. The ABA, like state and local bar associations, leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to ensuring that the courts represent the interests of the people and justice first.

The Times reports:

Two weeks ago, the American Bar Association’s eight-year exile ended. The Obama administration restored the group to the special status it had enjoyed since the Eisenhower years, and it will once again get early word about potential nominees to the federal bench.

The group says it is serious and diligent about evaluating candidates without regard to ideology. But there is reason to wonder whether Alberto R. Gonzales, who was White House counsel at the time, might have had a point when he told the group eight years ago that its help would not be needed.

The A.B.A. is, after all, a private trade association, not an arm of the government. It takes public and generally liberal positions on all sorts of divisive issues. And a series of studies suggest that candidates nominated by Democratic presidents fare better in the group’s ratings than those nominated by Republicans.

Kim J. Askew, the chairwoman of the association’s 15-member Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which performs the evaluations, said her group is independent, hardworking and completely divorced from politics.

“We are an impartial group of lawyers that bring a peer review to the process,” Ms. Askew said. “We are all lawyers. We are officers of the court. We speak the language of the law. We do not consider politics.”

But a series of studies have found indications that liberal nominees do better in the process than conservative ones. The latest, to be presented next month at the Midwest Political Science Association, found evidence consistent with ideological bias.

“Holding all other factors constant,” the study found, “those nominations submitted by a Democratic president were significantly more likely to receive higher A.B.A. ratings than nominations submitted by a Republican president.”

The differences matter, said Amy Steigerwalt, a political scientist at Georgia State and an author of the study, along with Richard L. Vining Jr, of the University of Georgia and Susan Navarro Smelcer of Emory.

“A nominee who has a higher A.B.A. rating is more likely to move through the process,” Professor Steigerwalt said. “When problems arise, a higher A.B.A. rating provides one piece of ammunition for the president and supporting senators about why a person should be confirmed to the federal bench.”

Dow drops 254 points; it is going to be a very bad week for investors with terrible economic news

Investors who were measuring all the financial ground they had made up the past two weeks in a Bear market rally found a lot of their profits erased today.

The Dow closed down more than 250 points after falling more than 140 points on Friday.

Look for the rest of the profits to be erased by week's end with a new unemployment rate of 8.5 percent for the country and President Obama receiving a global dissing for his policies(including protectionist ones) at the EU 20 Summit in London.

China's continuing push for a global currency to replace the dollar will soon deliver its own economic reprecussions. And remember, the Chinese now own us since our government is printing money for all the new spending. To continue purchasing our debt, the Chinese can demand very favorable terms.

Who knew that the Communists actually won the Cold War?

After those hurdles, first quarter corporate earnings will start coming out after the first week of March, showing the economy is in much worse shape than anyone imagined.

It is going to be a very depressing several weeks on Wall Street and proof that the financial markets are no place to leave your money for any sense of security or return.

Why would black Memphis lawmakers oppose a better education for black children? Follow the money to teachers unions and corruption

The most sure way for a lawmaker to be re-elected is to be able to do favors for his or her friends and supporters. And of course, those favors are financed by you the taxpayer.

In Memphis, the most accessible funds are those tied to public education. Yet schools there are failing children most in need such as those in Nashville. And the children are poor and black and come from violent environments.

Besides state money, a lot of federal money comes with these impoverished children. But it doesn't go directly to help them. It goes to the education bureaucracy, to ensure the jobs of members of the state teachers union, the Tennessee Education Association, or as it should be called the Tennessee Entrenchment Association.

And lawmakers in Memphis use all that money to curry favor from the TEA to get campaign contributions and votes. And the best way to get those contributions and votes is to protect the jobs of TEA members in failing schools -- of which Memphis has the most in Tennessee -- and to hand out school patronage jobs to constituents and union members.

So lawmakers and the Tennessee Entrenchment Association do not want anybody getting in the way of their neat money deal. And they sure don't want competition for this money, even when it means poor black children getting a better education to get out of the violent environments of Memphis.

If they break out, then the TEA and the lawmakers won't have control over as much money to ensure jobs and votes.

That's why these lawmakers and the TEA oppose legislation this session to allow more children to go to charter public schools.

Data already shows that these schools do a better job with these children. Data also shows that these schools spend more of the taxpayer money on the classroom and not the bureaucracy. There are no assistant principals and other overpaid support staff at charter public schools. The money is sent for the classroom and the teachers. And that's why children in these public schools score higher when than those in the traditional ones.

The TEA and their puppet lawmakers do not want taxpayers to see the truth that you're already paying more than enough money for the education of poor, black children. They want to keep using Tennessee's low per pupil funding ranking nationally as an excuse for their failure and to grab more from your pocketbooks.

Charter public schools cannot accept failure or they are put out of business by state law. Accountability is key. And it should be that way for traditional public schools.

This session's charter public school legislation begins in the Senate, where Republicans will approve it. The House subcommittee on education is where the trouble will come, not only for the children in need but you the taxpayer.

In the coming days, look for the names, phone numbers and addresses for the obstructionist lawmakers in the House to contact. If children and their parents of this state are to win with more school choice, then the Tennessee Entrenchment Association and these lawmakers must lose on charter public schools this session.

Obama lectures GM, Chrysler for not making tough decisions while still promising to bail them out; how can a president dictate business decisions?

As has become his trait before bailing out entire industries, President Obama today lashed out at automakers GM and Chrysler for not making enough tough decisions in their restructuring plans.

Despite that and asking for GM's chief man to step down, the president still promised that the auto industry would not disappear, signaling his intent to use more of your tax dollars to bail out the unsavable. His administration even told Chrysler to merge with Fiat or else.

How is it that the federal government is now so involved with private industry that it is making decisions for it on staffing and mergers? That is way beyond what any voter wanted last November in putting Obama into office.

Does he really want to be running private enterprise in this nation along with public policy?

Obama did the same with Wall Street, bashing it for its greed then unveiling such a generous bail out of toxic assets last week that the market went on a big rally.

Now the markets have returned to reality and are off almost 300 points today. Coupled with a 150 point drop on Friday, the Bear market rally has given up a majority of its gains.

Bailing out the unsavable ultimately is not good economic policy. Capitalism demands winners and losers. The automakers have lost over years and years of bad decisions and greed. The American auto industry deserves to die. With the exception of Ford, it will if Obama leaves well enough alone.

State teachers union lies as usual: that's why charter public schools need more access to students for better use of your tax dollars

The Memphis Commercial-Appeal produced a good story today on the charter school movement in Tennessee and the obstacles faced by incredibly ignorant and selfish educators such as the president of the state teachers union.

Legislation will first be considered in the state Senate and will pass easily thanks to its sponsorship by Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey. The problem has always been in the state House subcommittee, where the education bureaucracy such as TEA dictates policy that first ensures the jobs of its members, not the proper education of Tennessee's children.

And those members have the ear and votes of black Democratic lawmakers from Memphis, who line up for the bureaucracy against the children.

In the story below, the state teachers union, the Tennessee Education Association, says that charter public schools "cherry pick" the best students and most involved parents from traditional public schools.

That is an incredible lie, even for the TEA.

At charter public schools such as where I volunteer at Smithson Craighead Academy in Nashville, we take the kids that the TEA's members have failed to properly educate in traditional public schools. These human beings usually are black, poor children. And their parents are not educated enough to help them with homework. They, too, were failed by TEA members.

The TEA believes your tax dollars for the education of its children belong to it first, to make sure its members keep their jobs and keep getting higher salaries -- while failing to educate all these young people.

Consider if you could do the same on your job -- fail its primary objective but still keep it and even get paid more. You can't. So why do we allow our tax dollars to be used this way then?

President Obama has made charter public schools the centerpiece of his education agenda. So how can black, Memphis lawmakers oppose a black president on this issue? That's where the TEA and its campaign contributions come in. But the data is there that show charter public schools work. And there is even one located across from the White House.

Your support of charter school legislation this session, however, can promote the kind of competition that will make the education bureaucracy more accountable. At Smithson Craighead, we believe you as taxpayers are already paying enough for public education.

Please, just give us access to more students to show you that the money is there to properly educate the least of our children. Make the TEA and its members finally work for your dollars and educate these children properly or lose them. That's fair.

Below is the Commercial-Appeal story:


By Jane Roberts (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Sunday, March 29, 2009

Catch Roblin Webb on a busy day and her "parent line" cell phone crawls in a near-constant vibration across her desk.

The log of callers is the same day after day: parents who've heard one way or another about Freedom Preparatory Academy and want their kids in.

Mostly, they're calling from Whitehaven or Westwood or Walker Homes, where many of the public schools aren't making the grade and where Webb's been pounding the streets for a month now, playing a numbers game to fill 108 sixth-grade slots, the first class in the 6-12 college-prep charter she's approved to open this fall.

"We see kids out riding their bikes and I say, 'How old are you? What grade are you in?'" Webb says, laughing at the absurdity.

"We actually got two applications that way. The kids' mother came out and filled them out right there."

Tennessee has some of the most restrictive rules in the nation on who may attend charter schools. Under the law re-approved last year, only students already in a charter school, assigned to a failing school or who are failing themselves are eligible.

If you are Webb -- whose proposal sailed through a 500-page application process and was awarded a $250,000 grant from the Walton Family Foundation -- it means you have to find the parents of those students any way you can: in front of the grocery store, in community sessions or going door to door.

"We really formed our business plan based on the law," said Webb, who is a law school graduate, a member of the charter school movement called Building Excellent Schools and is single with no children.

"Of the 30 failing schools in the Memphis district, 20 percent are in the Westwood/Whitehaven area. The majority are middle and high schools."

Webb estimates 720 fifth-graders in the neighborhoods are eligible for Freedom Prep, a charter based on a national model of preparing low-achieving students to succeed in college.

A host of advocates, including local charter school operators, say the rules cripple children's chances, particularly in Memphis, which has both the largest number of failing schools and the largest population of at-risk children, based on the number receiving free or reduced school lunches.

"The most common thing we run into are parents that would like to come to a charter, but they can't because they have the wrong address," said Matt Throckmorton, head of the Tennessee Charter School Association.

"In order for our schools to have the student population it takes to run a school, we have to go to great efforts to recruit, which means going door-to-door, going to malls and grocery stores."

For leaders starting schools, it's time better spent hiring teachers, developing lesson plans and preparing data-driven instruction, he said.

Since charters were introduced in Minnesota in 1992, 41 states have passed legislation permitting them; 38 allow open enrollment in some form.

Charters are free, public schools given freedoms others are not. The teachers are not union members. The school day and year often run longer. Administrators can take creative license with curriculum.

But they must adhere to the goals of their charter. And if the school fails state exams two years in a row, it is shut down. Yo! Academy here lost its charter in 2007.

Webb and others say they want that level of accountability. What stymies the work is the restriction on who may attend.

Tennessee, like 19 other states, also caps the number of charters it authorizes.

In Memphis, with more charters than any city in the state, the cap is set at 20, based on population.

Memphis already has 19, including Soulsville, a college prep academy for students who excel in music, a handful of other career-specific middle and elementary academies, and four schools Memphis City Schools is opening for high school students two years over age for grade.

Unless the law changes this session, only one of the seven or eight applications in the works now will be approved.

Michael Whaley, completing a residency at K-8 charter in Brooklyn, N.Y., is submitting an application.

"We're confidently moving forward and fully expect to be chartered," he said.

As a Teach for America teacher at Getwell Elementary in 2006, "my eyes were opened to the scope of the problem," said Whaley, who is also with Building Excellent Schools.

"If students are not proficient readers by third grade, they're unlikely to graduate from high school."

Opponents say charter schools cherry-pick the most talented students with the most involved parents, weakening an already failing public school.

"I believe the legislature was very wise in putting a cap on the number and who can attend," said Earl Wiman, president of the 55,000-member Tennessee Education Association, including 7,000 Memphis teachers.

"The reason is because we truly do not have any substantial amount of research that says charters are better than public schools when you account for the fact that charters are essentially choosing the children they take."

According to research prepared by Hyde Family Foundations based on state test data, charter schools in Tennessee last year outpaced public school districts in the percentage of at-risk students scoring proficient and advanced in math and reading.

In math, 97.3 percent of students at Star Academy in Frayser scored proficient or advanced in math compared to 83.3 percent in the City Schools.

Wiman, principal for 15 years in "a high-poverty" school in Jackson, Tenn., winces when people assume children from poor homes are automatically risks for academic failure.

"The truly at-risk do not have parents involved in their lives," he said. "It's an enormous mistake in this state to think just because a child is getting free or reduced lunch means they are at risk."

Webb, supplied free office space by the Hyde Foundation, became an ardent supporter of charters when she volunteered to coach the Middle College High School mock trial team.

"They were not prepared to go to college because their ACT scores were 16 and 17," she said.

"But they had talent. It broke my heart that they wouldn't be attorneys because they couldn't get in college."

The civil rights lawyer quit law and got involved in school reform, first New Leaders for New Schools, then Building Excellent Schools, which recruits talented teachers and nonteachers to start charter schools from the ground up.

"I tell my parents their children are going to get in trouble a lot at first because our rules are very strong. We sweat every little thing they do. You've got to understand that and work with me. We are going to call you all the time."

Where the charter schools are in Tennessee

Nashville: KIPP Nashville, LEAD, Smithson Craighead

Memphis: Circles of Success, City University, Promise Academy, Star Academy, Soulsville, Memphis Academy of Health Sciences, Memphis Academy of Health Sciences (middle), Memphis Academy of Health Sciences (high), Memphis Business Academy (middle), Memphis Business Academy (high), Southern Avenue Charter School, Power Center Academy and KIPP Diamond

Approved for August start

Nashville: Smithson Craighead (middle), Global Academy

Memphis: Freedom Prep, City University Boys

Chattanooga: Ivy Academy, Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy

Note to the news media: Dave Ramsey does not know a damn thing about the economy, its future

The national news media has caught onto the truth that Dave Ramsey does not know a damn thing about the economy nor how people should invest their money.

Ramsey is showing up less on cable TV shows. But unfortunately, the Nashville area media still uses the guy way too much.

Ironically, this past week in the Williamson Herald, Ramsey was featured as offering hope. Yet early in the article, he noted that he was not prepared for the "September 2008" meltdown of the financial markets.

In fact, he was so unprepared then that he got on NewsChannel 5 on its Friday 6 p.m. newscast and told viewers there was hope then --- and put their money into growth mutual funds.

Then, the Dow was at 10,600. Now it is well below that mark despite a Bear rally of the past two weeks.

Look for stocks to lose that ground they gained. This week is supposed to deliver more bad economic news for this nation for the first quarter of 2009, with an unemployment rate rising to at least 8.5 percent. Marketwatch.com reports that companies continue to shed jobs at a fast rate.

Consider that Tennessee's jobless rate already is at 9.1 percent. So much for hope. The wings of the American people have been clipped. They cannot magically fly out of this situation.

So Ramsey's record when it comes to the economy and investing is quite bad. For the media to offer him as an authority is derelict. Ramsey did not predict this downturn and he should not be proffered as knowing when things will turn around.

We are in unprecedented economic times. This Great Recession cannot be compared to any other economic era. The Chinese own our future. This nation's future will be greatly determined in Beijing, not Washington. The loss of wealth in this nation is unprecedented, even when stacked against the Great Depression.

And Dave Ramsey will be the last person to know what's going on.

He should stick to telling people how to reduce their debt. Other than that, he is woefully unqualified and any media outlet that uses him for advice outside his realm should be avoided.

Once more into a disastrous economic breach: Obama to announce bailout of GM, Chrysler

One day very soon, someone with an important title is going to have to say that our government cannot just keep printing money to bail out the industry of the week.

And it may be someone in the Chinese government.

Last week, it was bankers with all the toxic assets of home loans they knew better to make who were given a most generous bail out by the Obama administration.

Tomorrow, it will be the auto industry, as President Obama keeps his promises to organized labor and bails out dinosaur corporations that should be allowed to die. Tonight, media are reporting that Obama has asked for the resignation of GM's top officer as part of the bailout for the industry.

Why isn't the head of the United Auto Workers also being asked to step down?
Economies must be treated as nature does its creations. Some things are supposed to die. Meanwhile in economies, some things can be done better, more cheaply and more honestly. Organized labor is not interested in things being done better, just the insurance of employment and spoils.

Pouring more money into the auto dinosaurs only ensure taxpayers will have another AIG to continually support with no end in sight.

The federal credit card cannot continue to run up without a major consequence. The Chinese have been given control over our fates because Obama is determined to spend more and more.

My father and my uncles did not fight for this nation during World War II to have it turned over to the Communists. The President is making some terrible choices for which a huge price will be demanded of each of us.

Obama again fails the honesty test

The Washington Post reports that President Obama's purported town hall meeting with the American people over the Internet last week was actually an event with selected questioners who backed his campaign.

Obama has promised a transparency to government, but his administration has been caught posting executive orders on its website instead of giving them to the press and hosting a second swearing in to office without notifying the media for coverage.

Accusations of it also having a Nixon-like hit list of critics have also clouded any new sense of integrity to the administration.

The Post reports:

President Obama has promised to change the way the government does business, but in at least one respect he is taking a page from the Bush playbook, stocking his town hall Thursday with supporters whose soft -- though far from planted -- questions provided openings to discuss his preferred message of the day.

Obama has said, "I think it's important to engage your critics ... because not only will you occasionally change their mind but, more importantly, sometimes they will change your mind," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs recounted to The Post's Lois Romano in an interview Wednesday.

But while the online question portion of the White House town hall was open to any member of the public with an Internet connection, the five fully identified questioners called on randomly by the president in the East Room were anything but a diverse lot.

They included: a member of the pro-Obama Service Employees International Union, a member of the Democratic National Committee who campaigned for Obama among Hispanics during the primary; a former Democratic candidate for Virginia state delegate who endorsed Obama last fall in an op-ed in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star; and a Virginia businessman who was a donor to Obama's campaign in 2008.

Understanding some Scripture requires living it; in losing many things recently, I have saved my life

I always had trouble understanding the Scripture I heard last night at Mass.

Christ is preaching to the crowd and says that whomever loves their life, will lose it; whomever hates their life because of this world will save it.

I don't like to use the word "hates", but I do not love my life in this world anymore. I have lost so much in a short time: my health to almost dying, my career of 34 years, my marriage, my cat of 18 years and worst of all, my mother, my hero and best friend. She decided to break my heart and go to heaven last June.

But in losing, which God did not cause, he has provided me refuge, to be closer to Him than at any time of my life. And I am most blessed than I ever thought possible.

I used to only pray the Rosary when I was in trouble. I now pray it every day out of joy and gratitude. I now work full time for no pay for the most deprived children of this city. And now I am just two months from the greatest achievement of my professional career. I'll let you know when it has been accomplished.

I no longer follow a busy schedule and career and buying more and more -- the false gods of this world. I now have time to sing in the choir to God's glory at church, instead of just being an observer in the pews. God truly expects more of us and deserves as much.

And it is all because I hate my life.

Because in hating it because of this world, I love God more. And my ultimate goal is not how much money I earn or fame I gain, but to die as Christ did so I can be reunited with my mother, my aunts, my grandmother and of course Our Lady of Guadalupe and Christ for eternity.

Usually, we only think of this goal after the day is over and we say prayers, or on a Sunday morning. But that is not saving your life. It is forgetting about it. And one day your busy schedule will be stopped and you'll look around for support. You'll lose the things of this world that you thought so important and realize they're weren't. Not even close.

God will be there, though, but He shouldn't be. But he is always faithful, even if we are not. And I sure wasn't when the doctor told me I had terminal leukemia on Dec. 15, 2005.

Leukemia has turned out to be the greatest blessing of my life. Through it, God brought me back to Him. I was able to leave behind all those false gods that made me love the life of this world and now save my life for the hereafter.

I should be overjoyed that the chemotherapy I have taken since Dec. 2005 will end next month. My doctor calls me a walking miracle. Actually, I am a reaffirmation of Scripture, and God's remarkable ways in making us into who we should be, not who we think we should.

Am I cured from leukemia? I guess. But that really doesn't matter any more to me. The real threat to me was this world, and its false gods that I worshipped in my career and busy schedule and in owning a nice home on a hill in the 11th most affluent county in the nation. Country music stars and pro athletes abound there with their fame and fortune. I don't begrudge them that. It's just that one can get so far off track without even knowing it.

Now I live in an apartment without TV, and I have no intention of getting cable or Direct TV. Television really is not necessary. Internet is king. I live just with my kitty cat. I don't cook big meals anymore as I used to, so I am as slender as I was in college, which provides for great health and loose-fitting clothes. I delight in not suffering from the middle-aged man mound hanging over my belt.

There are many things we actually can do without in this nation to accommodate more difficult economic times. From generation to generation, we seem to layer on possessions. Now is a good time to start peeling them back and remember how our parents and grandparents lived -- and prospered. Indeed, they took us everywhere without an SUV with DVD players in the back for the children.

Yes, sometimes I get lonely. I am a people person as my mother. I have lost friends who do not understand the truth I have lived. If Christ's words cannot convince them, however, mine sure can't.

But I have saved my life, for the world to come. I have plenty of oil for the bridegroom whose return we wait. Maranatha!

O, Lord, thy ways are true. And now I have understood your Scripture -- by living it.

Here's hoping Tennessean's Issues section tomorrow joins 21st Century with its diversity

Besides Tennessean editor Mark Silverman's commentary that newspapers are alive and well, the most disturbing aspect of The Tennessean's Issues section LAST SUNDAY was the lack of a writer of color with picture.

Consider that America now has an African-American president.

Consider that Nashville is 25 percent African-American.

Consider the growing immigrant population in the Midstate.

Consider that nearby Vanderbilt University -- a shining city on a hill -- has a global student body and faculty.

Yet The Tennessean could not find or did not try and find a perspective on the issues of the day from someone who was not white.

Incredible. And despicable. Lazy.

A lot of people complain about people identifying themselves as people of color, or as minorities, or as hyphenated Americans. I can see their point. But when we -- in the year 2009 -- can still be excluded from the political dialogue, then the fault does not belong with us.

It belongs with institutions such as The Tennessean, still led by all white folks, to who diversity of voices really means nothing because they have few if any relationships with such people.

And their readers are the poorer for it.

Always pray for the President; we do not need Obama-haters like we had Bush-haters

I frequently write in opposition to the President's programs on the economy and the cost to taxpayers.

But I do not do it with any hate for the man, or even disrespect.

We had that for eight years from some quarters of this nation for President Bush. And that did nothing but make meaningful discussion impossible and any dialogue more personal than purposeful.

There are some people who seek to make a name for themselves by being personal and hateful. Ann Coulter and Maureen Dowd come to mind. Rush Limbaugh and Bill Maher also are cut from the same cloth.

But we as Americans who want the best for this nation must not follow their paths and way of thinking.

Even though I disagree with President Obama's programs in some areas, I pray that he is successful. Too many people here in Tennessee and across this nation have lost their jobs and a sense of hope for anyone to be pleased with any politician's failure. His success is their recovery of dignity and a livelihood.

I believe the President is right on the single most important issue in this nation: education. His call for open enrollment in charter public schools will provide a place for children that traditional public and Catholic schools do not want.

That we in Tennessee have to fight black, Democratic lawmakers from Memphis to get this right under state law defies all logic. But they are the obstacle we face here in Tennessee to do what the President wants on this top agenda item.

Education is the single most important determinant about whether a person will be a contributor or taker from society, an individual seeking the American Dream or a threat to hurt themselves and others.

So please pray for the President and hope for his well-being. Do not hate him if you oppose his policies. Stay in the public debate with thoughtful responses to advance dialogue, not stop it.

A divided nation helps no one, except the few who would profit from it.

Make your presence known Monday at legislative hearing for disabled Tennesseans being sent to die

A critically important legislative hearing is slated for 1 p.m. Monday for 1,000 Tennesseans being forced by the state into nursing homes to suffer early deaths.

This change of the rules by the TennCare Bureau last summer was unnecessary and cruel. Legislation has been proposed to overturn these rules and allow these Tennesseans to live in their homes with the support of loved ones and necessary nursing.

The hearing will be Monday at 1 p.m. in Room 12 at Legislative Plaza for lawmakers to hear from the public and the disabled themselves. Please show up and demonstrate that these citizens matter.

Russians looking for payback as Obama moves to escalate war in Afghanistan and into Pakistan

History tells us that Afghanistan is a land that has had so much blood shed for it -- for so little gain in return.

Its northern region is mountainous and unusable for any value. The rest of the nation is known for poppy plants turned into narcotics. I can think of no other nation unworthy of the blood of our men and women.

The New York Times reports today that there was fierce debate inside the Obama administration about escalating the war, as the president announced this week. And the president is now making deeper inroads into the sovereignty of Pakistan with drone bombings, which will force that nation's government into a corner with hardline Muslim extremists gaining more power.

Vice President Biden, who was brought onto the Obama team for his foreign policy experience, advised against escalation. Generals argued for it. Vietnam, deja vu.

While Obama's mistakes on the economy will only prolong the recession, his mistakes on foreign policy will cost lives. And that Biden's advice was rejected on the first big test for the administration bodes ill for this nation that was counting on his experience to compensate for that of the president's on foreign policy.

You can bet the Russians are licking their lips at the chance of payback, for all the support our government provided the Taliban to kill Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980s. We made it Russia's Vietnam. The Russians will do their best to make Afghanistan Obama's Vietnam.

That desolate country is not worth the sacrifice to come. What once was a mission to find Osama bin Laden has become a fight against an entire phantom force of terrorists who will always find a home and support in this world, be it in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria or Iran.

We can't keep invading and endangering both American and civilian lives. Obama promised restraint in his campaign for president. Committing more forces to Afghanistan and taking the fight more into Pakistan is madness.

History tells us so.

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer's comments show why newspapers must change or die for good of the people

Former New York Times' writer Linda Greenhouse -- who won the Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court -- recently demonstrated why the newspaper business is in desperate need of an overhaul or extinction.

In this excerpt from the Poytner site: Greenhouse said she left the Times in part because she was asked to do additional, online-only reporting. The changing “news appetite” for immediacy, she explained, did not fit her personal approach to journalism.

Her personal approach to journalism!

That means what you the reader wanted did not mean a damn to her, only her personal approach to journalism, whatever the hell that is.

Perhaps since she won a Pulitzer Prize, Greenhouse merits such an elitist attitude. Yet many other journalists see it the same way. They could care less about the Web and its immediacy, even if it is something that better serves you.

I cannot think of another industry that deserves the ills befalling it than my former profession. It deserted you the reader long before you quit buying the product or advertising in it.

Krugman's warning worth heeding; nation's dependence on financial industry spells our ruin

Nobel Prize-winning columnist Paul Krugman delivered a necessary history lesson on America's overdependence on the financial sector and the myth of securization by spreading risk over many types of investment vehicles.

Ultimately, President Obama's plan on toxic assets is an attempt to return the financial markets to what they were two years ago, and that certainly was not healthy for the nation, Krugman writes.

In post-war America and into the 1960s, the financial sector made up just 4% of the Gross National Product. No financial firm was in the Dow 30 and the standard of living doubled in that era.

During the Reagan and Clinton eras of deregulation, however, the financial sector's part of GDP hit 8%. Now is it into the double digits, at 12 or 13%, and that's why all the mess with AIG and the fraudlent home lending spread across so many sources were able to drag the fourth quarter GDP to its worst performance since the 1930s.

It's also why Tennessee's unemployment rate is 9.1% and at least four states are in double digits. Some 6.65 million Americans are drawing unemployment benefits. And there are fewer available jobs out there.

Simply returning this nation's financial system to what it was before the Great Recession should give no one any sense of security. It just always keeps us at the edge.

For me, that is why I would like to see some big banks and some insurance corporations such as AIG fail, to reduce the size of the financial industry and serve as a warning to others about taking on too much risk.

If the sector is too big for our economy's health, then let it naturally reduce its size without government intervention. But Krugman believes in more intervention, just different from Obama's.

Still, Krugman's NYTIMES piece is a worthy read if only to build an understanding of the stakes at hand with Obama's toxic assets gamble.

Newspaper industry suffers a very bad week

Politico.com assesses the week for the American newspaper industry as going from bad to worse, with major cutbacks at the nation's franchise newspapers.

These new announcements are quite ironic considering Tennessean editor Mark Silverman's column on Sunday that the industry was doing just fine. So much for his credibility as an honest analyst.

The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal all took hits and The Christian Science Monitor will be publishing its last print edition. In addition, staffers at the WSJ learned that they would be judged by the breaking news they produce for the WSJ wire and not the days and week dedicated to projects.

Politico reports:

Is it Friday yet?

For staffers at The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, this week can’t end soon enough.

On Monday, news broke that The Wall Street Journal was losing two top investigative reporters. On Tuesday, President Barack Obama snubbed reporters from the big dailies at his primetime press conference. On Wednesday, Washington Post Co. Chairman Donald Graham signaled to shareholders that 2009 would be worse than the previous year.

On Thursday, the Times and the Post announced broad cost-cutting measures and plans for reductions in staff. And Friday will bring the final print edition of the Christian Science Monitor.

The Times handed out pink slips Thursday morning to about 100 staffers on the paper’s business side.

For those Times staffers who didn’t get the ax, there was still unpleasant news in memo form: a 5 percent pay cut beginning in April. The consolation: Staffers will now receive an additional 10 days off annually.

In a memo to staff, New York Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and CEO Janet Robinson wrote that the “economic outlook and the changes occurring in the media business” were forcing the company to “take even more steps to lower costs.”

At the Post, Graham offered a similarly grim view.

"The familiar problems of the newspaper industry — declining readership and the loss of classified — are now made worse by bankrupt advertisers," Graham wrote in a letter to shareholders on Wednesday. "The newspaper will lose substantial money in 2009. Some will be non-cash accelerated depreciation because we will be closing a printing plant. Most will be real losses."

Given expectations of a “substantial” loss, few were surprised when the paper’s top brass — Post publisher Katharine Weymouth and executive editor Marcus Brauchli — notified staff that they’d be offering another voluntary buyout package. It’s the fourth time since 2003 that the Post has offered buyouts.

Edward Atorino, a media analyst with Benchmark Co., said the cutbacks at the Times and Post “reinforc[e] the fact that business is getting worse, not better.”

The other shoe to drop: Commercial real estate values to tumble and put more pressure on banks

Billionaire and big Democratic Party donor George Soros says the value of commercial real estate in this nation will fall by 30 percent, putting new pressure on banks trying to get out from under their bad home lending.

As reported by Bloomberg News:

March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire investor George Soros said U.S. commercial real estate will probably drop at least 30 percent in value, causing further strains on banks.

“Commercial real estate has not yet fallen in value,” Soros, speaking at a forum in Washington, said. “It is inevitable, it is written, everybody knows it, there are already some transactions which reflect and anticipate it, so we know, they will drop at least 30 percent.”

U.S. commercial real estate values have fallen 30 percent from the 2007 peak as cheap financing disappeared and the recession reduced occupancies, RREFF, the real estate investment unit of Deutsche Bank AG, said yesterday in its 2009 forecast. Total returns in a commercial property index used by pension funds may decline as much as 11 percent this year, the group said.

God bless Rep. Ben West and may He provide speedy recovery: West is good lawmaker

State Rep. Ben West is a good man and lawmaker, and it was my pleasure to deal with him on legislation when I was writing for The Tennessean.

News of his heart attack is most distressing, and he is in my prayers for his speedy recovery and return to Legislative Plaza.

It needs him and his integrity.

No more waiting on the stock market; Bear rally is an illusion; Wall Street will be no dependable place to put your money for years, not months

I thought I could wait out the stock market's volatility to get back in this year after getting out last summer.

Despite the impressive and ongoing Bear market rally, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the stock market will not be the place to put one's money for somewhat safe harbor and good return for years, not months.

And while impressive in it structure, the Obama administration's toxic assets plan is only going to corrode the pocketbooks of taxpayers in what will become the most spectacular fiscal policy disaster in this nation's history.

Instruments outside of equities and commodities are the only place to go for security and a decent return. And that will require extensive individual research.

Stock brokers and financial advisers -- who are suffering economically from all the money on the sidelines -- are going to push you into instruments from which they'll receive a fee or commission. Don't depend on them to give you the right guidance.

And depending on the stock market to finally decide its direction is reckless.

Despite today's finalized Commerce Department determination that the GDP declined in the fourth quarter by 6.3 percent and mounting initial jobless claims filed, the market is up. That's representative of an institution out of control. And the only direction for it over the long term will be down.

AP reported these staggering figures: The total number of people claiming benefits jumped to 5.56 million, worse than economists' projections of 5.48 million, a ninth straight record and the highest total on records dating back to 1967.

I see no reason for the markets to be up, except that an insanity for new hope has taken hold. Wishing for recovery is not going to make it happen.

Marketwatch.com says that economists predict a similar decline for the GDP in the first quarter. Some economists are predicting even worse.

Economist Nouriel Roubini, who predicted the Great Recession, sees the Dow back down to 5,000 and home prices declining another whopping 20 percent.

He has yet to be proven wrong. Getting back into the stock market is now something off my radar for years, not months.

Where's Lou Dobbs when you need him? Debate over Mexico has now turned to negative influence of Americans and their huge hunger for drugs

After hearing from CNN's Lou Dobbs for years as to how bad Mexico and Mexicans have been to the United States, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today stated strongly that troubles plauging our Southern neighbor are the fault of Americans.

Drug violence has turned Mexico's streets into killing fields. The cartels have all the money because the American appetite for illegal drugs continues to grow in coping with hard economic times. And the druglords then buy weapons from American gun dealers with American money to kill Mexican police and army soldiers.

Mexican citizens are finding the heads of murdered authorities in their schoolyards and town squares to intimidate the public from cooperating with authorities. So you might guess that Mexican popular opinion concerning this nation is not high. They can't understand why Americans need so much illegal drugs.

Here the bottom line to this situation: Growing discord in Mexico means danger for this nation in stopping terrorists threats from coming up from South of the border.

Injustice has always had a way of changing minds and the traditional positive image American has enjoyed among Mexican citizens.

The New York Times reports:

MEXICO CITY — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived here Wednesday with the clearest acknowledgment yet from a senior Obama administration official of the role the United States plays in the violent drug trade racking Mexico.

“Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” she said, using unusually blunt language. “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians.”

Since last year, drug-related killings and battles between law enforcement authorities and the cartels have resulted in more than 7,200 deaths in Mexico, and raised doubts about the country’s stability. The violence has begun spilling across the border.

Senior officials said Mrs. Clinton would press the Mexican president, Felipe Calderon, to redouble his government’s effort to root out corruption in the police force and the courts.

“His commitment to the struggle for security and judicial reform, and the other elements of his agenda, to deal with lawlessness in Mexico, is full-speed-ahead,” she said. “I’m very impressed with his attention to these problems.”

Wife of Senate Banking Chair Dodd formerly tied to AIG; Dodd make sure bonuses were in legislation that caused great public outrage

Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd -- the congressional leader who made sure controversial bonuses to AIG executives were authorized in recent bailout legislation -- has a direct connection to this company via his wife.

She was a former outside director for a firm controlled by AIG.

RealClearPolitics provides the following column from the Hartford Courant:

No wonder Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) went wobbly last week when asked about his February amendment ratifying hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to executives at insurance giant AIG.

Dodd has been one of the company's favorite recipients of campaign contributions. But it turns out that Senator Dodd's wife has also benefited from past connections to AIG as well.

From 2001-2004, Jackie Clegg Dodd served as an "outside" director of IPC Holdings, Ltd., a Bermuda-based company controlled by AIG. IPC, which provides property casualty catastrophe insurance coverage, was formed in 1993 and currently has a market cap of $1.4 billion and trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol IPCR.

In 2001, in addition to a public offering of 15 million shares of stock that raised $380 million, IPC raised more than $109 million through a simultaneous private placement sale of 5.6 million shares of stock to AIG - giving AIG a 20% stake in IPC. (AIG sold its 13.397 million shares in IPC in August, 2006.)

Clegg was compensated for her duties to the company, which was managed by a subsidiary of AIG. In 2003, according to a proxy statement, Clegg received $12,000 per year and an additional $1,000 for each Directors' and committee meeting she attended. Clegg served on the Audit and Investment committees during her final year on the board.

IPC paid millions each year to other AIG-related companies for administrative and other services. Clegg was a diligent director. In 2003, the proxy statement report, she attended more than 75% of board and committee meetings. This while she served as the managing partner of Clegg International Consultants, LLC, which she created in 2001, the year she joined the board of IPC. (See Dodd's public financial disclosure reports with the Senate from 2001-2004 here.)

Dodd is likely more familiar with the complicated workings of AIG than he was letting on last week. This week may provide him with another opportunity to refresh his recollections.

Kevin Rennie, a former Republican state senator, is a columnist for the Hartford Courant. He can be reached at kfrennie@yahoo.com.


Dodd, and House Banking Chairman Barney Frank, represent the Abbott and Costello of congressional oversight of this nation's financial industry. But the American people, who are getting stuck with the enormous bill for their shenanigans, are not laughing.

Democratic senator proposes non-profit status for newspapers; this country is headed down toilet

No other industry is more unworthy of taxpayer support than newspapers.

Yet that did not stop a Democratic U.S. senator today from proposing non-profit status for newspapers, leaving their advertising and other revenue untouched by Uncle Sam to survive.

This is madness. Newspapers have caused their own demise. And the Internet has liberated the people to get the full truth.

In Tennessee, newspapers already are unnecessarily exempt from the oppressive sales tax rate. Federal support would be further outrageous assistance.

But Marketwatch.com reports:

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- As a growing number of American newspapers halt daily publication or threaten to do so, U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin introduced legislation Tuesday that would allow newspapers to operate as nonprofit organizations, providing significant tax breaks to the struggling industry.

Cardin, D-Md., said the decline of newspapers represents "a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy."
Under the proposal, newspapers could operate as nonprofits, if they chose to do so, claiming 501(c)(3) status for educational purposes, similar to public broadcasting.

'It is in the interest of our nation and good governance that we ensure [that newspapers] survive.'

— Sen. Benjamin Cardin

Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax-exempt, and contributions to support coverage or operations could be tax-deductible.

Nonprofit-status newspapers would not be allowed to make political endorsements but would be allowed to freely report on all issues, including political campaigns.

In a statement, Cardin acknowledged that consumers now have many other sources for news but said the public relies on newspapers "for in-depth reporting that follows important issues, records events and exposes misdeeds. In fact, most if not all sources of journalistic information ... gather their news from newspaper reporters who cover the news on a daily basis ... It is in the interest of our nation and good governance that we ensure [that newspapers] survive."


It is NOT in the public interest for newspapers to survive. They quit serving the people long ago for their own political bias and the bottom line.

The people of this nation are smart enough to tap into various media sources to receive all sides of the news, or coverage of issues and the most vulnerable newspapers no longer care about. Then the people can make their own decisions to keep this republic vibrant.

President Obama certainly showed the Internet to be a most effective tool for a free people to be heard during his campaign.

Just as with the decline of dinosaurs to make room for new life, so is the departure of newspapers to make room for a more democratic form of a free press.

Criticism of Obama bad asset plan leaves deep worry that taxpayers will get short end of deal as will economy; Krugman says 'time is running out'

It takes a lot of reading WSJ and NYT stories and listening to a lot of TV and radio analysts to determine if the Obama plan to get bad bank assets out of the financial system is a good idea.

But there is one part of the plan that is fundamentally wrong: the government is putting up way too much money to make buying these assets attractive to investors. And that's why Wall Street shot up yesterday.

It didn't know that the president and his treasury secretary were going to be so generous in putting 82-cents for every dollar of bad assets an investor take a risk on.

The administration is hoping to boost the value of the assets with your money, instead of letting the marketplace do it. And that's very bad news. Hopefully, the White House press corps will have done its homework and grill the president on his plan tonight at his press conference.

Nobel Prize-winning economics columnist Paul Krugman puts it this way:

But the real problem with this plan is that it won’t work.

Yes, troubled assets may be somewhat undervalued. But the fact is that financial executives literally bet their banks on the belief that there was no housing bubble, and the related belief that unprecedented levels of household debt were no problem. They lost that bet. And no amount of financial hocus-pocus — for that is what the Geithner plan amounts to — will change that fact.

You might say, why not try the plan and see what happens? One answer is that time is wasting: every month that we fail to come to grips with the economic crisis another 600,000 jobs are lost.

Even more important, however, is the way Mr. Obama is squandering his credibility. If this plan fails — as it almost surely will — it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to persuade Congress to come up with more funds to do what he should have done in the first place.

All is not lost: the public wants Mr. Obama to succeed, which means that he can still rescue his bank rescue plan. But time is running out.


AIG is going to look like a picnic compared to this.

Pulitzer Prize Committee should consider "Rich dog, poor dog" project in Tennessean edition

Dear Pulitzer judges,

I have just come across a piece of journalism that I believe should be included in your ongoing judging of entries for distinctive newspaper work in America.

I get the Davidson A.M. edition of The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville weekly. It is thrown on my lawn for free.

And the March 18 edition had an extensive package of investigative journalism that showed the local plight of a dog still going to the groomers and one in the animal shelter. Called "Rich dog, poor dog", the project followed the plight of these animals in an economy amid a deep recession.

The obvious factor that makes the project so unique is that the newspaper was able to investigate and find this special story amid more visible signs of misery such as tent cities cropping up around Nashville for homeless human beings and long lines of people needing free food.

The two stories in the investigative project took up four-fifths of the entire front page and then had to jump to the back page, which was entirely devoted to doggies. And then there was a new piece back there.

The project represented quite a commitment by The Tennessean to the welfare of animals while so many human beings including children are suffering in Nashville and Middle Tennessee due to the economy.

It takes a different kind of newspaper under the leadership of Mark Silverman to avoid the full story of human misery for that of animals.

I hope your committee could find time to review this work and respond with the appropriate comments.

Sincerely,

Tim Chavez
Tennessean reader(when it's free)

Seigenthaler was a giant; newspaper leaders now are so many midgets with no vision but for profit

I got the following response from a reader to my piece on Carpetbagger Tennessean Editor Mark Silverman's testimony to his newspaper's greatness because it is profitable:

Wish you'd been around when John Seigenthaler was running things. There was newspaper excitement back then. Dru

I wish I would have around, too. But I did get to meet the great man on several ocassions, and each time he left me more impressed.

The first was when I wrote a critical column of a forum he hosted with then Nashville First Lady Andrea Conte. Seigenthaler wrote back with such a gracious reply that still let me know how he believed I was wrong.

The second time when he provided me the great honor of bringing the late David Halberstam over to me at a Freedom Forum gathering. It still hurts to think of the incredible loss to my former profession and the craft of writing with the loss of this great man in a car accident a year or so ago.

The third time was when Seigenthaler called me at my home to praise me about columns I was writing about the unfair education of immigrant children in Nashville schools. For me, the call was an overwhelming compliment.

That's because the man when it came to projects and efforts to make a difference -- from my limited knowledge -- was morally and courageously out front for his community, state and region. Jerry Thompson's infiltration of the Klan remains one of the most heroic newspaper projects of our time. And it stopped the spread of the Klan in its tracks.

NewsChannel 5's Phil Williams used to work for The Tennessean. And he produced a Pulitzer Prize-winning finalist project.

There are more examples I can cite. But when you think of the journalists who came through The Tennessean under Seigenthaler's tenure, you realize why the newspaper had such a great reputation.

Seig even had employees at one time standing out in the streets collecting money to keep Fisk University from closing.

It seems the era that produced Seigenthaler and so many great leaders in journalism and politics has never returned. The greatest politician to come from that time was Bobby Kennedy -- not because of his power but due to his compassion.

When you would see the then senator carress the knapes of the necks of poor black children in Watts and poor white children in Appalachia, you knew the guy cared. And when talked tough to crowds like he did at Kansas State University at the start of his presidential campaign, people responded enthusiastically.

We don't have that kind of honesty anymore. No one is really willing to take the chance. There are flashes in President Obama. But great leaders take great chances -- not for profit -- but for progress.

Of course, that era also produced our greatest American, Dr. King, who knew that each time he appeared in public he was targeted for death. He was stabbed once. And then in Memphis, he got to look over into the Promised Land before being assassinated the next day.

Even though we have elected a black president, we still are not to that promised land. I know, because I regularly see the poor, black children of Nashville and Tennessee who are still wandering in the desert. They need a quality education from educators and schools that want them.

That's why the president's call for open enrollment in charter public schools must be followed. We have such a bill before the state Legislature to do so, but it is Republicans who are backing it and Democrats who are blocking it.

How can that be?

Some people look on the late 50s and 60s as a time of great turmoil. I instead see them as a golden era of American leadership in all the four estates, and cross over between the estates by people such as Seigenthaler.

Yes, I do wish I would have worked at or knew The Tennessean under Seigenthaler. His kind is rare. And so are the quality of the difference-making newspapers they produced.

Help right the wrong against our most vulnerable neighbors; support bill to keep disabled out of nursing homes and maintaining productive lives

One of the most cruel and senseless decisions I've ever seen at the state government level was last year's cut of support to 1,000 disabled Tennesseans that enabled them to stay out of nursing homes and stay alive with their loved ones in their residences.

The TennCare Bureau and Gov. Bredesen, however, thought it was fiscally and morally responsible to send these human beings to their deaths. Their only crime was that they were disabled and needed nursing help.

Thankfully, legislation has been introduced this session to stop this inhumanity. A vote could be taken Tuesday in a House committee and Wednesday in a Senate committee to stop Bredesen and the TennCare Bureau.

Here is how your voice can be heard, according to this alert from a coalition of concerned Tennesseans:

The Open Doors Home Health Care Act will face its first votes next week in the TN General Assembly.

On Tuesday morning, House Bill 1114 will be up in the House Professional Occupations Subcommittee and on Wednesday morning Senate Bill 851 will be up in Senate General Welfare.

Your calls, letters, and emails are needed by Tuesday morning to help ensure passage through these committees. If you have a legislator on one or both committees, then please take a few minutes to contact them and ask for their support. If they are a sponsor, then please thank them. A list of committee members and their contact information is below.

What is the Open Doors Home Health Care Act?

In 2008 new TennCare rules went into effect that essentially closed the door to the community and world for many people with disabilities. The rules, in most cases, prevent certain home health care providers from accompanying people with disabilities to:

Doctor appointments
School and other educational endeavors
Church
Employment, and other normal activities of daily living that most take for granted

The Solution - Rescind the new TennCare rules that prevent private duty nurses/home health nurses (PDN) and home health aides (HHA) from accompanying service recipients outside the home as they have historically done. This bill would simply allow them to accompany service recipients outside the home, thus ending what amounts to state mandated isolation for many persons with disabilities who have no where else to turn.
House of Representatives - Professional Occupations Subcommittee - HB 1114

Mike Harrison - District 9 - Hancock and part of Hawkins Counties
Phone: 615.741.7480 Email: rep.mike.harrison@capitol.tn.gov

Joanne Favors - District 29 - Part of Hamilton County
Phone: 615.741.2702, Email: rep.joanne.favors@capitol.tn.gov

Joe Armstrong - District15 - Part of Knox County
Phone: 615.741.0768, Email: rep.joe.armstrong@capitol.tn.gov

Dennis Ferguson - District 32 - Roane and part of Loudon Counties
Phone: 615.741.7658, Email: rep.dennis.ferguson@capitol.tn.gov

Joey Hensley - District 70 - Lawrence, Lewis and part of Wayne Counties
Phone: 615.741.7476, Email: rep.joey.hesley@capitol.tn.gov

Sherry Jones (Bill Co-sponsor) - District 59 - Part of Davidson County
Phone: 615.741.2035, Email: rep.sherry.jones@capitol.tn.gov

Debra Maggart - District 45 - Part of Sumner County
Phone: 615.741.3893, Email: rep.debra.maggart@capitol.tn.gov

Jason Mumpower - District 3 - Johnson and part of Sullivan Counties
Phone: 615.741.2050, Email: rep.jason.mumpower@capitol.tn.gov

Gary Odom - District 55 - Part of Davidson County
Phone: 615.741.4410, Email: rep.gary.odom@capitol.tn.gov

Bob Ramsey - District 20 - Part of Blount County
Phone: 615.741.3560, Email: rep.bob.ramsey@capitol.tn.gov

Barrett Rich - District 94 - Fayette and parts of Hardeman and Tipton Counties
Phone: 615.741.6890, Email: rep.barrett.rich@capitol.tn.gov

David Shepard (Bill Sponsor) - District 69 - Dickson and part of Hickman Counties
Phone: 615.741.3513, Email: rep.david.shepard@capitol.tn.gov

Tony Shipley - District 2 - Part of Sullivan County
Phone: 615.741.2886, Email: rep.tony.shipley@capitol.tn.gov

Mike Turner - District 51 - Part of Davidson County
Phone: 615-741-3229, Email: rep.mike.turner@capitol.tn.gov



Senate General Welfare, Health & Human Resources Committee - SB 851

Rusty Crowe - District 3 - Washington and Carter Counties
Phone: 615.741.2468, Email: sen.rusty.crowe@capitol.tn.gov

Bo Watson - District 11 - Part of Hamilton County
Phone: 615.741.3227, Email: sen.bo.watson@capitol.tn.gov

Beverly Marrero - District 30 - Part of Shelby County
Phone: 615.741.9128, Email: sen.beverly.marrero@capitol.tn.gov

Diane Black (Bill Sponsor) - District 18 - Robertson and part of Sumner Counties
Phone: 615.741.1999, Email: sen.diane.black@capitol.tn.gov

Ophelia Ford - District 29 - Part of Shelby County
Phone: 615.741.1767, Email: sen.ophelia.ford@capitol.tn.gov

Douglas Henry - District 21 - Part of Davidson County
Phone: 615.741.3291, Email: sen.douglas.henry@capitol.tn.gov

Roy Herron - District 24 - Benton, Decatur, Henry, Henderson, Lake, Obion, Perry, Stewart, and Weakley Phone: 615.741.4576, Email: sen.roy.herron@capitol.tn.gov

Randy McNally - District 5 - Anderson, Loudon, Monroe, and part of Knox
Phone: 615.741.6806, Email: sen.randy.mcnally@capitol.tn.gov

Doug Overbey - District 8 - Blount and Sevier Counties
Phone: 615.741.0981, Email: sen.doug.overbey@capitol.tn.gov

Philanthropy 101: Giving big is not as easy as it looks; every gift should be met with small investment by receiver; my first foray is disaster

In gratitude for support from a friend during my ongoing divorce, I gave two, new desktop computers to the classes of her twin granddaughters at the end of January.

With virus protection software, paper and line printers, total cost of the gift was $1,172.

God, in saving my life from leukemia so far, has blessed me with wealth and enough smarts to get out of the stock market above 13,000. Much is expected from those who are so blessed.

But this gift of technology to a rural elementary school has been doomed from the beginning. And I've learned by my own mistakes that philanthropy is not for small-time players such as me. There is much more I need to learn.

Mistake No. 1: Forgetting to stick to your game plan.

The friend did not know there were actually three, third grade classrooms at her granddaughters' school. So I came up one short on my gift when I brought the technology there.

But to be a good sport and caught in the good will of the moment, I promised the other classroom of students I'd get them a computer, too. Bad move.

Mistake No. 2: Not stopping when you are ahead.

I am blessed to be a parishioner at St. Edward Catholic Church in Nashville. And when it comes to technology, Father Joe Pat Breen -- the greatest man I have ever known -- has spared no expense. And he had something in the library at the church school that I never knew existed -- a Smart board.

The thing comes with a projector, and you can reproduce images from a laptop computer on the giant screen for kids to follow. And there are pens they can use to write on the board and the image.

Great stuff. So I told two of the classes that I would get them some smart boards. Wrong move.

Mistake No. 3: Delay spells disaster.

Well, all this happened at the end of January. My health swooned in February, crippled by the stress of the divorce and living in a studio apartment while battling leukemia. So by the beginning of March, my friend was after me to produce the Smart boards and other computer.

I showed her e-mails of my difficulty in negotiating a price from Dell based on the size of my order plus my difficulties with divorce lawyers. She was not impressed and got angry. She said her name was tied to the gift. I can understand that.

So I put the purchase of the Smart boards at the top of the list of things to do and directed they be sent to the school. Total cost for that equipment was $4,600. No big deal.

But at the advice of a big-time Nashville philanthropist who is mentoring me, he directed me to always ask for a small investment in return for any gift. He counseled -- from his experience of decades of philanthropy -- that people who receive without having to invest anything on their own are apt to not maintain it as well or fully appreciate it.

Well, the school principal did not like the idea of me asking him -- as an example of that kind of needed investment -- to buy the third computer for the classroom. That would cost $400. He said that would "brake" my promise to the children. Then I asked him to set up a stewardship committee to raise enough money for maintenance costs of the Smart boards. He told I would need to come and speak to the PTO about it.

Mistake No. 4: Don't fight it. Do better the next time.

The Smart boards arrived at the school anyway. And I decided just to let the matter go and not try and convince the principal anymore.

I had told Dell initially to divert the technology until there was a solid agreement on the school's stewardship role. But after praying about it, I called the corporation back and told it to forget about my request and to let the order be delivered.

Dell is a big corporation. And word did not get down to the salesman who had I originally told to divert the order. So to make matters worse, UPS went back to the school and took the equipment back.

The Smart boards and projectors are now in the hands of UPS, helping no child.

Finally, I listened to someone else, and not myself anymore. And that person came up with a great idea.

Buy the third computer for the third classroom and deliver one of the Smart boards to the school. Let the school put it in its library like at St. Edward's for all students to use.

Give the other Smart board to another school that would agree to set up a stewardship fund to support the gift.

The original school is rural and white.

And other school would be black and urban.

And so my first foray into philanthropy has been a disaster. And I hate the hard feelings over it. My friend and I are no longer friends, which is probably better for her anyway.

I did not know that giving on a larger scale could be so difficult, and that I could make so many mistakes. Perhaps I should not have attached a string to the gift, but just as with Habitat for Humanity, it requires sweat equity for homes that families will receive. The same should be with public education. Taxpayers have invested so much in schools without demanding some sort of accountability.

But philanthropy probably is not the best place to start.

Somewhere in the middle of all this mess, I forgot about the children. That's my fault, and it is why I will pull back from this philanthropy business until my mentor can teach me more about avoiding pitfalls -- beginning with myself.

Wall Street loves Obama's toxic assets' buyback plan; but carefully read what he has gotten us into

The stock market is in love with President Obama's plan to buy back toxic assets of banks -- decisions these institutions made to buy up a lot of bad home loans to make a big profit.

The Dow this morning is up more than 300 points, and the price for a barrel of oil is above $53 a gallon as the dollar weakens. So we gain in one area and lose money in another as gas prices inch ever close to $2 a gallon.

I hope the plan works as the president wants to free up the capital markets to encourage lending and buying. But the plan is so complex and so intrusive into the free markets that I fear this nation is getting into a mess that will make AIG look like a good deal.

The New York Times tries to explain the program this way:

Initially, a new Public-Private Investment Program will provide financing for $500 billion in purchasing power to buy those troubled or toxic assets — which the government refers to more diplomatically as legacy assets — with the potential of expanding later to as much as $1 trillion, according to a fact sheet issued by the Treasury Department.

The plan calls for the government to put up most of the money for buying up troubled assets, and it would give private investors a clearly advantageous deal. In one program, the Treasury would match one-for-one every dollar of equity that private investors invest of their own money in each “Public Private Investment Fund.”

On top of that the F.D.I.C. — tapping its own credit lines with the Treasury — would lend six dollars for each dollar invested by the Treasury and private investors. If the mortgage pool turns bad and runs big losses, the private investors would be able to walk away from their F.D.I.C. loans and leave the government holding the soured mortgages and the bulk of the losses.

The Treasury Department offered this illustrative example of how the program would work: A pool of bad residential mortgage loans with a face value of, say, $100 is auctioned by the F.D.I.C. Private investors would submit bids. In the example, the top bidder, an investor offering $84, would win and purchase the pool. The F.D.I.C. would guarantee loans for $72 of that purchase price. The Treasury would then invest in half the $12 equity, with funds coming from the $700 billion bailout program; the private investor would contribute the remaining $6.

One institutional investor said he was surprised that the government was lending so much of the money, saying that private investors have been willing to buy up pools of mortgage-backed securities with less “leverage” or outside borrowing than the Treasury proposed on Monday.

The true magnitude of the toxic-asset purchase program could amount to well over $1 trillion. Buried in Mr. Geithner’s announcement was the detail that the Treasury would dramatically revise and expand its joint venture with the Federal Reserve, known as the Term Asset-backed Secure Lending Facility, which was originally created to finance consumer lending and some forms of business lending.

I really pray that the President is successful with this plan. The alternative is making things worse and prolonging this recession into a depression.

These times are quite frightening.

City Paper education story misses mark on NCLB; the media should cover education for the child's welfare, not that of whining bureaucrats

The education reporter at the City Paper usually does a good job, but the whining piece today about No Child Left Behind and children facing obstacles to their education really misses the mark.

And as I have found with most education reporters across this nation, it is representative of a journalist not in regular contact with the children and their parents. I make this contention as a three-time winner of commentary awards for national education reporting (at large newspapers) from the Education Writers Association in Washington, D.C.

NCLB is NOT about whether a school district bureaucracy is going to look good or school board members will keep their seats. It is about children -- who for generations have been left to anecdotal statements by educators as to their performance. And the statements are used to cover the ass of the bureaucracy first for job retention.

If Nashville does not want to have all these "subgroups" of immigrant and poor black children, then it should reincorporate itself to Green Hills and Belle Meade. But since it calls itself the Athens of the South and boasts of being a city proud of its diversity, then it should be prominently responsible for these children and its failure to properly educate them.

I was on hand this morning as children at Smithson Craighead Academy returned from Spring break. And they were excited to return to learn at a public charter school where they know they are wanted. Their achievement has been phenomenal. No one else wants these kids, as the City Paper story strongly showed.

But I know what it is like to be an outsider and a high school graduate of Frederick Douglass High School in Oklahoma City. So I am proud to be part of their lives as the chairman of the board of development for Project Reflect, sponsor of the school. We believe enough money already is being spent on public education. There just needs to be competition for those dollars to increase efficiency and accountability and give parents choices for their children's education.

Yet, what about the futures of these children ... not that of school district and state bureaucrats?

Consider that in the five years of the existence of state lottery scholarships, the enrollment at Tennessee State University has not increased. Why? Because black children after going through Metro Schools cannot score a qualifying 19 on ACT tests. Yet they are getting grades of A on their essays and tests.

We will be changing that at our alternative public school that will one day be K-12.

So who should we feel more sorry for -- whining bureaucrats and school board members or the children who are damned to an unbreakable cycle of poverty?

It was my privilege to be part of the passage of NCLB and to help George W. Bush get into office to bring actual achievement scores to the education of immigrant and poor black children -- all these subgroup kids.

The City Paper story was incredibly superficial and written for the bureaucrat, not the child. That NCLB is unfair to urban districts is of no matter when you consider the prisons, housing projects and unwanted pregnancies awaiting so many children still left behind.

Nashville and every other urban school district -- that first has contractural commitments to pro sports teams and is now considering building a $600 million convention center -- deserves to have everything in the law of this land thrown at them for this gross immorality.

I am just sorry there are no prison sentences attached to NCLB so that school board members and bureaucrats could join the children they've failed.

This condom story would be funny if it were not indicative of Washington way out of control

Three hundred of our neighbors in Alabama will be losing their jobs, because our federal government has discovered that the Chinese will make a condom a couple of cents cheaper.

With the dismal record of the Chinese in making toxic toys and lethal powered milk, entrusting them with condom-making for a U.S. program to stem unwanted pregnancies in poor countries is reckless.

Yet, after signing into law a stimulus bill that required the purchasing of U.S. steel for infrastructure projects, the government has now set Alabama workers adrift because human reproduction apparently is not considered as important.

Please, someone in Washington show at least a thread of consistency. As one of the Alabama workers told McClatchy Newspapers, there is not a whole hell of a lot of other careers that a former condom maker is qualified for.

Here is an excerpt of a story that is almost laughable:

At a time when the federal government is spending billions of stimulus dollars to stem the tide of U.S. layoffs, should that same government put even more Americans out of work by buying cheaper foreign products?

In this case, Chinese condoms.

That's the dilemma for the folks at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has distributed an estimated 10 billion U.S.-made AIDS-preventing condoms in poor countries around the world.

But not anymore.

In a move expected to cost 300 American jobs, the government is switching to cheaper off-shore condoms, including some made in China.

The switch comes despite implied assurances over the years that the agency would continue to buy American whenever possible.

"Of course, we considered how many U.S. jobs would be affected by this move,” said a USAID official who spoke on the condition that he would not be named. But he said the reasons for the change included lower prices (2 cents versus more than 5 cents for U.S.-made condoms) and the fact that Congress dropped “buy American language” in a recent appropriations bill.

Besides, he said, the sole U.S. supplier — an Alabama company called Alatech — had previous delivery problems under the program.

It's clear that Alatech's problems over the years, which apparently have been resolved, may have driven U.S. officials to seek much less expensive foreign-made condoms in the first place.

But that's cold comfort to Fannie Thomas, who has been making AIDS-preventing condoms in southeastern Alabama for nearly 40 years in the small town of Eufaula.

“We pay taxes down here, too, and with all this stimulus money going to save jobs, it seems to me like they (the U.S. government) should share this contract so they can save jobs here in America,” Thomas said.

Thomas and others at the Alatech plant said there aren’t many alternatives for them if it closes down, which is a likely result of the contracting switch.

In fact, the government is close to accepting condoms from two offshore companies: Unidus Corp., which makes condoms in South Korea, and Qingdao Double Butterfly Group, which makes them in China.

The honeymoon is over: The NYT comes out against President Obama on several fronts

Politico.com reports that The New York Times editorially and with three of its elitist columnist attacked the Obama administration and its policies Sunday that they so far find inadequate.

It has been a bad month for the president. His special Olympics' crack on Jay Leno really hurt him among folks The NYT covets. But the newspaper's all-out assault on him today must have caught his camp by surprise.

Politico says the administration prizes The Times' opinions.

Confidence continues to deteriorate under Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. He is going to roll out the administration's bad assets' plan for banks this week, and it is sure to disappoint Wall Street since there is not enough money in the world to cover all the bad decisions the nation's financial bigwigs made. Somebody is going to have to pay for these bad assets, and the administration is slowly learning that taxpayers are about to revolt.

An Orlando Tea Party drew thousands.

I like Obama's statements last week on reforming education, his continued support of No Child Left Behind reforms and his call for open enrollment for charter public schools. These are all things The Times would oppose. So he has my support on this agenda item for the little good it will do him.

So Obama's troubles may only be beginning to mount. With The Times after him, he is going to have to pare back some of ambitious plans or hire one of the irritated Timesmen or women for his administration.

The Carpetbagger speaketh: Tennessean's editor argues that newspapers like his aren't dying; they're already dead; they've lost their souls

I got into the newspaper business to make a difference in people's lives, most particularly the people of Matthew 25.

And with some good people in the community and in Washington, I won battles on authorizing charter public schools in Tennessee and getting Nashville Public Schools placed under a civil rights order by the U.S. Department of Education for improperly educating immigrant children. Thank you, George W. Bush.

I worked with Carlos Lowe to get the Magness-Potter Community Center up and running for the children of Sam Levy Homes in east Nashville. Before I came down with leukemia, I reported on enough deaths from Gov. Bredesen's TennCare cuts to help Gordon Bonnyman and Tony Garr reduce the number of the most vulnerable of Tennesseans the governor wanted to throw to the wolves. And I helped Sen. Diane Black oust then incumbent JoAnn Graves of Gallatin from her seat that was used to support the public education bureaucracy at the expense of the children.

No, it wasn't near enough for a career. But I always saw the purpose of a column to be so much more than for simple celebrity.

A lot of Catholics are in the newspaper profession for that reason of making a difference. There are a lot other denominations, too. We knew it would not pay well. We knew the hours would be lousy. We knew the deadline pressure would be tough, particularly under a bad editor -- of which there are too many in the profession.

But I stuck to it, until an insurance company said I couldn't write from my Vanderbilt hospital bed. And after God saved my life over 12 days, and I got better, the newspaper eliminated my job and my salary that had gotten too high after working 14 years for Gannett.

Earlier this month, I officially ended my newspaper writing career with little fanfare, telling the Williamson Herald in Franklin that I was assigning a dollar value to my columns and would rather just quit than write anymore.

The newspaper's publisher quickly said goodbye. I hope he honors my request to donate compensation for the columns to send four African-American children from Nashville to a science camp at Wake Forest this summer. I made the same request of the Gallatin newspaper that is run by the same company.

But money is what rules newspapers, so they don't part with it easily or at all nowadays. And that was proven by Mark Silverman, editor of The Tennessean, in today's publication.

He wrote and argued that newspapers aren't dying. And he based that contention on the fact that The Tennessean is making a profit.

And there you have it.

Making a profit is what proves The Tennessean as a newspaper is alive and well. Not prominently noted was anything The Tennessean has really done to make a real and lasting difference for its readers and the communities they live in. And there's ample reason why.

The Tennessean has done nothing. It doesn't even win internal, annual Gannett contests. It has cut its staff so much just to keep making a profit. The last reported profit margin was 21 percent. Obscene. AIG execs must be jealous.

I recently met one of The Tennessean's workers who was taking a week of unpaid leave to make sure the newspaper makes it profit. Expect workers to have to do the same each quarter. And that means you get less in the newspaper while they get one month less of pay.

Ultimately, a publication dedicated to Silverman's standard of making a profit to prove its viability is already dead.

It has no soul.

It is damned, and so are the readers still subscribing to it.

When greed becomes the major motivation for any institution, be it Wall Sreet or The Tennessean and Gannett, the people come last -- be they employees or consumers.

Silverman has no intention of living here in Tennessee after his corporate masters release him from his sentence.

Do you see him out in your communities? Have you ever met him?

He is a carpetbagger from the North, only here to suck out the profit until there is nothing left. History indeed does repeat itself.

One of the saddest things in Silverman's piece was his claim that his staff is the best in Tennessee. Not even close. It has lost too many good and talented journalists for that to be true, and that number does NOT include me. Columnists are a dime a dozen. How many names do you still recognize in the newspaper?

The best newspaper staff is the News-Sentinel in Knoxville. The best group of journalists in Tennessee are at NewsChannel 5 here in Nashville.

The bottom line to all of Silverman's silliness to distract from the obvious is this: he did not quote any newspaper subscriber numbers. They are disastrous. GM execs are making the same contention about their company, while sales were down 53% in February. The American people are not stupid. Neither are Tennesseans. They buy with common sense. They can smell a phony a mile away.

A good newspaper with enough fight and staff to make a difference in people's lives used to be something every community needed and every journalist wanted to work for.

Now, as Silverman writes, The Tennessean is viable because it makes a profit.

But, folks, it has no soul.

I am so blessed that I am no longer part of the walking dead.

For the love of Hunter: Death comes calling but his father saves the day with his special link to son

Six-year-old Hunter of Sumner County is most blessed to have two great parents and an outstanding older sister at Belmont University who love him dearly.

But Papa John and Hunter have a kind of second nature-thing going; they seem to know what the other is thinking and feeling before the other can say a word. That's wonderful, but you can tell from Dad's face how tough it has been for him to watch his son experience all the travails and unfairness of childhood leukemia.

Yet that closeness just paid off most preciously, in saving Hunter's life when all the extra-ordinary chemo he had been receiving combined to lower his white cell count to dangerous levels while his body was losing blood.

Together, these factors allowed the kind of bacteria we all possess in our bodies to act and put Hunter at death's doorstep.

With leukemia, these things happen so fast -- even if you're watching the person 24 hours a day. I know. That is what almost killed me more than two years ago.

We all have bacteria inside us. And our white cell count usually is high enough to keep it in check. But extra-ordinary chemo, when it clicks, starts killing all the cells. And Hunter's treatment may have been too effective while his bone marrow still was not producing enough white cells.

On this particular day, Dad had come home early from his landscaping business and his second nature kicked in. He somehow discovered that Hunter had been losing blood when he went to the bathroom with diarrhea. When you're on intense chemo, your bowels don't work well anyway. And so diarrhea is not unexpected.

But after Dad discovered the blood and his second nature kicked in as to what his son really could not tell anyone about how he was feeling, the parents rushed Hunter to Vanderbilt, which is a 90-minute trip. And Hunter fought the fight of his life for two and a half days in ICU.

Hunter is back home now. He is eating and is picking up his strength again. His return to the chemo will be determined by doctors this week. His eventual exit from this extra-ordinary period of chemo will mean he can go on a regular regimen of drugs as I take for leukemia.

Then, his return to a normal life will be virtually guaranteed, and father and son can take up more of the usual challenges -- like changing bike chains and breaking in a new baseball glove.

Pray for Hunter and his family that much better days are ahead.

Taking on the system makes few friends; here's a website on bad judges, attorneys in family courts; one woman's fight for simple justice for her child

Bonnie Russell was savaged in an article in Los Angeles' premiere legal journal for doing the unthinkable: speaking and fighting back against a judge and attorneys trying to wreck her daughter's life in divorce court.

The San Francisco area woman has made what happened to her an Internet cause along several websites, most recently www.USAjudges.com, and she has invited people who have experienced the same injustice to write in and complain and learn how to act.

Her site, www.familylawcourts.com , features a throrough news service on custody news and children killed during and after court battles by a parent.

The complaint part of the USAjudges website has thrown some fear into the industry, Russell tells me, and has won her appearances before law firms to speak about family court wrongs. Like cockroaches, the industry fears the light. And the industry then cannot use state judicial commissions to cover up its wrongs.

But keep your complaints direct and to the point. No one including Russell wants to hear someone drone on. And she does judicial oversight commissions are worthless. Any change must come from enough people getting enlightened and alarmed enough to demand justice.

Attorneys and judges don't like publicity. They sure don't want people coming into the courthouses and getting in the way of fees, bar association relationships and other profits.

Of course, the divorce industry must set out to discredit anyone that threatens its profits. And the Daily Journal piece -- in this most favorable of its excerpts about Russell -- is full of a "how dare she" attitude toward a citizen actually trying to defend her rights and more importantly those of her child before a judge.

These days Russell spends almost twelve hours a day in cyberspace, waking up at 4:30 a.m. to scan newspapers from around the country for family court horror stories. She lives alone, in a two-room apartment near the beach in Del Mar.

Her front door is glass, tinted so she can see out but visitors can't see in. On the wall in the entranceway hangs a large painting that her daughter made in the fourth grade. The apartment's main room is dominated by her workstation.

Her computer is surrounded by files and bookcases that hold enormous binders full of court documents and transcripts from hundreds of wounded family law litigants who have sought her help. She stores some of the documents in the room she is saving for her daughter, but that door remains closed.

Using one of her numerous email aliases, she spends much of the day doing a lot of what she calls "snooping"-logging on to message boards for family court professionals and other divorce- and custody-related sites.

Russell's Internet exploits began ... in 1999 ... . Exposing the divorce industry is now Russell's full-time job. She gets hundreds of emails a week, many of them filled with long, detailed child custody travails.

She catalogs the stories and replies with a form requesting the case number, the parties, the attorneys involved, and a simple summary of the facts. She asks those who respond to omit adjectives and superlatives.

"Long, complaining narratives only turn off the reader," she advises. She has received so many stories, in fact, that she bought a database program to keep them organized by state.

When Russell talks about her audience, it's often with a tinge of condescension and impatience. "Some people get involved in becoming professional victims," she says. "I don't want to be president of their club. I don't do support groups. I'm not into talking and sobbing and whining.

That's not action."


Russell, like many women in this nation, was put on special visitation status when she complained to the judge about the treatment of her daughter by her ex-husband. I did not know that ex-husbands had to be so protected and could not be complained about.

But she also is about defending fathers who are being treated unjustly in reverse in regards to have a meaningful and substantial role in the lives of their children --besides protecting them. She just forward me an e-mail from a friend in Pennsylvania.

Is Russell legitimate?

Anyone who takes the time she does to make judges and attorneys more accountable -- even to her own life experiences -- is doing our republic a favor. All our institutions must be challenged daily by the people who are supposed to be served, or we get messes like AIG, worthless bailouts and a financial industry that betrayed Americans and gutted their retirement savings.

But you make the call and go to her websites at www.USAjudges.com and www.familylawcourts.com, and let me know what you think.

Finding refuge: Few places left to secure one's life and soul from growing turmoil of outside world

When I told some folks recently that I was up on Legislative Plaza trying to encourage support for expanding the eligibility of poor children for charter public schools, they remarked that it must be exciting.

No, it is quite depressing.

It's not that I'm dumping on legislators. They inherited the system that they're trying to do some good in. But the day I was up there, it resembled a circus, except for the lack of elephants -- physical not political ones.

How the common person is supposed to be heard while Chief Serpas is holding another one of his ego-building press conferences is beyond me. And then there were the cute Brownies handing out cookies to stop the puppy mills.

I hate newsrooms, too. My former profession stinks the most of all the four estates that are supposed to be the pillars of our society. The print side truly has betrayed its First Amendment responsibilities for stock prices and corporate bonuses. AIG would fit right in at most newspapers in this nation, including The Tennessean and Gannett.

I also hate courts with all the attorneys and judges and how they have made that world only accessible to their own designs and profitmaking. WWJD in 2009? He would take the rod to every courthouse in this land. Truly, they have become dens for thieves after the hard-earned income of Tennesseans at the most vulnerable points of their lives.

Yet I know some very good human beings who are lawyers and judges.

As for the clergy, I await their response to the crisis in this land. They've got the operations' and repair manual. It's time to sell some church property, perhaps, and downscale the size of some operations that are more for man than God.

Among the movers and shakers in our state and nation, I find little from which to draw comfort that right will prevail and wrong will fail, as the old Christmas hymn promises.

As times become more desperate economically, dishonesty increases and the culture of the dollar prevails over common decency and even the law. I truly have been shocked from what I have discovered personally about the incestuous divorce industry in this state and nation.

Worse, I am stunned at how that industry is allowed to devour the very hearts and souls of the women who gave birth to the children in cruel custody rulings. Without any cause and evidence whatsoever presented by judges, these women are not only losing custody but the very right to even have phone contact with their babies.

Is there no shame?

Is there no honor?

Is there no fear of God's wrath over this abuse of the widow and the orphan, because that is what the courts are making of these caregivers and their children.

I pray every day, several times a day. I go to church several times a week. I pray my mother's Rosary daily.

But as with Tennessee's corrupt divorce industry, this state and nation are sinking into the kind of depravity that makes so many victims and leaves so few people unharmed and undamaged.

I guess it was Edmund Burke who said that for evil to triumph, good people have to do nothing.

Dr. King, our greatest American, told us that history's judgment would not be most harsh on the children of darkness and their vicious deeds -- but on the children of light and what they failed to do in response.

I am waiting on the children of light to make their presence felt. The darkness is descending so rapidly now that I fear we will never see the dawn once more.

Someone please show the way for shelter from the growing storm.

Watch WSMV Channel 4 and its 6 p.m. newscast

Many thanks to WSMV Channel 4 for this evening's airing of a story showing one of the many wrongs of Tennessee's divorce industry in its treatment of children and their mothers.

Please watch this evening and send me your responses and stories from your connection to the savage divorce industry. It has cost vulnerable Tennessee families too much money and caused too much misery.

Tonight's WSMV sotry is the beginning of an effort on the part of Tennesseans to confront this evil before it devours more children and caregiver lives.

Watch this blog for more details.

Obama administration underestimates deficit by $2.3 trillion; quick, somebody find more taxpayers

The Obama administration, while promising a new sense of honesty to the budget process, has underestimated the size of the nation's deficit from his new programs by an astounding $2.3 trillion.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said Friday that the administration was a tad too optimistic in its projections on economic growth and the resulting rising revenues.

You think?

The New York Times reported:

WASHINGTON — The Congressional Budget Office placed a new hurdle in front of President Obama’s agenda on Friday, calculating that the White House’s tax and spending plans would create deficits totaling $2.3 trillion more than the president’s budget projected for the next decade.

Senator Kent Conrad said the budget office analysis confirmed the need for adjustments.

The difference largely reflects the administration’s more optimistic forecasts of economic growth through 2019.

The budget office figures, which will guide Congress as it takes up Mr. Obama’s proposals in earnest next week, were worse than Democratic leaders expected and further complicated their job of achieving the president’s priorities on health care, energy policy and much more.

Moderate Democrats from competitive districts and states have already expressed nervousness about some of Mr. Obama’s plans, especially as Republicans have grown increasingly emboldened to stay on the attack.

Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said the new report “confirms that under the president’s plan, our debt will increase to shocking levels that are simply unsustainable and will devastate future economic opportunities for our children and grandchildren.”


The political reality here is that Obama is going to have to sacrifice one of his three, top agenda items. Look for it to be health care, as discussions there between the political parties have already turned quite nasty.

That's a shame. Because health care reform really can produce long-term savings.

Day 10 without television: I believe I can do this

With the excitement of the NCAA Basketball Tournament and big upsets last night, I thought I would be screaming out in misery after 10 days without television.

But I actually now feel that I can do without the medium. That's a lot for someone raised during the 1960s.

Since I'm writing about everyone sacrificing according to hard times, I should take my own advice. AT&T will provide me internet service, so I don't have to worry about my landlord not wanting to pay to properly wire where I live for cable TV.

Books are now looking so much more appealing. Maybe I can read them before the movies come out.

I go to sleep early anyway, so TV really is not necessary for after hours. The weather has been so great outside that I try to spend as much time out walking around Vanderbilt as possible, and I've been able to catch some Commodoore baseball games.

Perhaps, just perhaps, my level of intelligence will rise from its depths, and this added wisdom might show up in my writing.

So after 10 days without television, I'm quite excited and ready for a new adventure in living without a remote control.

The smart investor will be out of the markets on Monday; this nation is in very serious trouble

While enjoyed by short traders, the Bear market rally of the past two weeks is over.

Put your parachute on if you're going to remain in equities, because a new bottom will be set as inflation fears rise, the dollar continues to fall, some people flock to gold and oil stays above $50 a barrel in expectation of the Chinese economy coming back in the second half of the year.

All in all, this is a very bad time to be investing in anything. Stay in cash and stay safe. Protect what you have. Potential profits are not worth the risk.

No one really knows how much worse the economic news can get in this country, but it will get worse. And any flinch by the Chinese that they're not going to buy our accumulating debt will send the markets into a tailspin.

This nation is in some very serious trouble. Obama and Geithner have shown they do not have the answers.

GM, Chrysler wanting more money than expected; and watch President Obama give it to them

Surprising news from Detroit: General Motors and Chrysler probably underestimated the amount of money they need from the federal government to keep operating.

And since the Obama administration just bailed out some of suppliers to the automakers, GM and Chrysler will get the added booty, too. Welcome to AIG, Part II.

Bloomberg News reports:

General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC may need “considerably” more than the $21.6 billion in aid they requested, which was based on optimistic recovery plans, said Steven Rattner, the Treasury’s chief auto adviser.

President Barack Obama’s auto task force is assessing proposals from GM and Chrysler to decide whether to recommend U.S. assistance or tip the carmakers into bankruptcy. Rattner made the comments yesterday on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend.

The task force will give its “sense of direction” by March 31, Rattner said. The companies have received $17.4 billion since December and asked for the additional $21.6 billion in aid last month, an amount that depends on achieving turnaround plans that are “somewhat ambitious,” Rattner said.

“It could be considerably higher, I won’t deny that,” Rattner said, when asked whether U.S. aid sought could rise. “Like all management teams they tend to take a reasonably, slightly perhaps, optimistic, view of their business. So it could be more, I can’t rule that out.”

Greg Martin, a GM spokesman, said yesterday its restructuring plan has “a conservative outlook.” The company will continue working with the task force “and we’ll keep them informed of our liquidity needs,” Martin said in an e-mail.

Chrysler said in a statement that its plan is “realistic” and “conservative.”

Destroying our children: Tennessee's corrupt divorce industry is leaving the primary caregivers out of these precious lives when needed the most

As a professional nurse, Polly has seen many things medically that would make most people retreat or faint.

But it took a statement inside a Legislative Plaza hearing room earlier this week to make her cry out in misery. That's because this good woman lives a life wrongly separated from her children, and her only hope is legislation this session that would somewhat even the playing field inside Tennessee's divorce courts.

Polly, in her nurse's uniform with a picture of her precious girls attached to her lapel, today told the camera of WSMV Channel 4 her story -- of how her ex-husband in a well-paying corporate job was able to take away the babies she had raised. And the Davidson County divorce judge approved it all in humiliating fashion.

A lot of the media don't want to get involved in anything that has to do with divorce, so Channel 4's presence today was most gratifying. At issue is not which side is right or wrong in a divorce, but the right of each parent to play a meaningful and major role in the lives of their children -- despite divorce.

But here in Tennessee -- the buckle of the Bible and home of family values -- we are seeing mothers who have raised their children being separated from them by divorcing spouses who can afford the best paid, gunslinger attorneys. And in turn, the judges overseeing the cases have significant connections to many of these big-time attorneys and their firms through the bar association.

As far as corruption, this wrong is a evil as it gets. These mothers are being put on supervised visitation, meaning they must pay $100 or more to a stranger for every hour they are with the children they raised. They don't have custody. And supervised visitation is being ordered by judges without citing any evidence that the welfare of the child is risk.

So the lives of children are being destroyed, in being taken from their original caregivers and delivered solely to the parent who did not spend the most time raising them. And many of the husbands, threatened by the close relationships the children share with the mothers, have successfully gotten the courts to cut off contact completely, or to limit these women to a few hours every couple of weeks.

Consider these national numbers from a survey of parents involved in custody disputes:

Father has custody; mother has supervised visitation - 29%
Mother has custody; father has supervised visitation - 3%

Father has custody; mother has no contact with the child/ren - 29%
Mother has custody; father has no contact with the child/ren - 0%

Somebody sure does feel threatened.

Ultimately, the mother gets her rights reduced each time the father returns to court with his high-paid attorney. Eventually, visitation is reduced to next to nothing. And the ex-husband can even delay rights the mother does have because she doesn't have the money to take him to court.

Essentially, the wrongful parent and the corrupt judge believe the children will simply forget the mother. They're wrong. The children remember, and it destroys their futures -- slowly but surely.

Consider this pearl of wisdom from a good divorce judge, taken from The Child Custody Book: How to Protect Your Children and Win Your Case, by Judge James W. Stewart:

The long-term emotional damage to children as a result of the improper conduct of their parents during a divorce inhibits their ability to lead happy and productive lives within the society. The alienated child will have a skewed view of adults and of the gender of the parent who is the victim of the alienation. The abandoned child will find it hard to fully trust as an adult, especially those who should be very close and deeply loved.

Indeed some abandoned children may spend their early adult years in the unhealthy search for a mate who will serve in the role of the parent who has abandoned the child. The child who witnesses abuse, physical or verbal, is far more likely to so abuse family members later in life.

Children who walk a tightrope, telling each parent what that parent wants to hear, over time lose touch with their own true feelings and needs. They have lost part of their grasp on reality. Such a loss can produce serious emotional disorders that may — without serious therapeutic interventions — last a lifetime. At the least, it is likely that these children will find it difficult to establish a lifelong love relationship.

That's a helluva price to pay for a divorce industry in Tennessee for sale to the highest bidder.

The issue here is the welfare of the children, something too many divorce judges in this state have forgotten.

Polly deserves to have her children back under her custody. But it will take more of us to step out to back her to see that justice is finally done and the divorce industry is forced to retreat.

Decisionmakers who ruined the newspaper industry should step aside; make room for honest, innovative and younger journalists with ideas

The assistant managing editor for The New York Times was asked a most pertinent question as to the survival of the newspaper industry.

And as most leaders in what used to be my industry(I officially quit writing newspaper columns earlier this month), he answered arrogantly and blindly.

Here is how Romenesko on the Poynter site reported it:

Young journo to NYTer: When will your generation quit and let my generation try our ideas?

"The people who sank the ship, namely those of the baby-boomer, Woodward-and-Bernstein era, are still at the helm, and giving up their lofty newsroom positions only with cold, dead hands," writes a young newspaperman. When will your generation quit? he asks Richard Berke.

Part of the Timesman's response:

You say you have ideas. So why not find your own way to pursue them?

Students I have met who are drawn to journalism are not just learning newspaper writing, they are also steeping themselves in writing for the web and learning to shoot video — and letting their versatility multiply their chances of finding an outlet.

Maybe I'm refusing to face reality, but I believe that if you're enterprising and talented enough, there are more opportunities than ever in the world of journalism. Not at the big dailies, perhaps, or traditional newspapers, but certainly on line.


Pity the future of The Times. How many more Mexican billionaires are left to bail its ass out? Berke is only concerned about keeping his job.

Gannett faces the same entrenchment problem. It put another Phil Currie disciple in the top news job at Corporate when he was finally forced out the door. How can it put the people who lacked the vision in the first place into such important jobs?

Gannett also is burdened with people such as Silverman at The Tennessean who are more about knocking people down than building them up. I'd be scared to bring a fresh idea to him.

The newspaper industry deserves its fate. I get all the news I need from the web and NPR. The consumer knows how to adjust, even if newspapers can't by leaving the same people at the helm.

Anyone in a newspaper position of authority over 40 should be asked to get ready to leave.

Rep. DeBerry makes passionate remarks about the evil of Tennessee's profits-first divorce industry; pity the children made pawns by the judges

The chairman of the House Committee on Children and Family Affairs characterized the evil of the divorce industry in Tennessee last week with the following remarks before the Family Justice subcommittee:

"The divorce industry has become a big business and about who can pay. And it has become a nasty business, of who can hire the biggest gun(attorney)."

The Memphis Democrat has wrongs brought before him and his committee in which mothers are losing custody of their children or being put on supervised visitations because they don't have the money to compete with their husbands' lawyers. Supervised visitations can cost the mother (or father) more than $100 per hour.

Divorce judges have increasingly shown themselves to rule according to who they like, not what the law says. And a woman put in a financial disadvantage in court comes off sounding too emotional or mean or out of control for the wrong being done her and her babies.

"What do we do for the individual who just lost the case with no record of abuse, now having to pay to see their children ... all because they couldn't hire the biggest gunslinger?"

At the subcommittee meeting where DeBerry made his comments, a bill that would have lowered the cost of supervised visits to $40 for each one-hour session was discussed and rolled over to next week.

But why are judges allowed to order supervised visits?

The law provides for protection of the child from abuse or neglect. Flight risk also can be cited.

But the bill would require judges to provide documentation and evidence to support their orders of supervised visitation. No more like and dislike, or who can afford the best lawyer and who also is well-connected to the bar association.

Any side can make any allegation in a divorce. A judge must follow the law and the evidence. Flight risk is too easy of an allegation. All cases must be decided individually, not by sensational national cases. And the welfare of the child in being in constant contact with both parents should be part of any decision.

This economy will bankrupt anyone paying $100 for a supervised visit of one hour.

DeBerry has rightly cited this massive problem when it comes to right and wrong and families in Tennessee. And he can only do so because he is not part of the legal system profiting off people's misery. He is a marketing executive. If he was an attorney, he could not speak up. Because then, a judge could make sure he couldn't make a living anymore in his or her court.

This stuff is evil. We loved Ronald Reagan for calling it like that with the Soviet Union. We should do the same when our institutions are made to profit the few at the expense of the many.

The system of accountability for judges, let alone divorce lawyers, is a joke in Tennessee. A former judge reviews all complaints about judges that come before a state judicial oversight body. The body only gets to hear the complaints the former judge lets through.

That was 7 percent of the complaints, according to a Chattanooga newspaper story a few years ago, and the gatekeeper says the complaints are mostly against judges in prisoner complaints. Actually, more and more women are filing complaints against judges in their divorce cases. There are at least three cases in which women have been thrown in jail for exercising their First Amendment rights in Tennessee divorce courts.

No one really knows which judges are a problem and how many complaints have been filed concerning abuse in divorce cases because all the complaints are SHREDDED!

Holy Ollie North, Batman!

This matter comes down to this one question: Who do the courts belong to?

You?

Or the judges, lawyers and all the other leeches seeking to suck a profit from people at the worst times of their lives?

The legal industry -- with some notable exceptions I've come across in my personal life including my own brother -- believes it owns the system, and it believes it doesn't have answer to you or anyone.

In my own divorce, I fired two Midstate attorneys. One thought I was working for him and failed to meet promised deadlines on answers to interrogatories and the other got me into a court hearing. Thankfully, no children are involved.

And my wife has been most helpful in working with me to avoid the courts. She mostly put together a temporary support agreement that would have cost a lot with an attorney compiling it. I'd prefer she get the money than the industry. And I trust her, something the industry would prefer someone not say. It makes money keeping you angry and adversarial.

Folks, you never want to get into a divorce court. Then a judge can do whatever he or she likes. And if they see that there is a lot of money in your estate, your case is going to go on forever. And the divorce industry simply claims more victims.

The most vulnerable of the victims are the children, the innocent ones the judges throw around like chopped wood, denying one parent through no fault of her (and his) own the right to see their child without first paying the system big bucks.

Remember, profits first!

The need for the child to see that parent regularly is not taken into account. With half of all marriages in Tennessee ending in divorce, we are talking about a lot of children being put at risk to grow up hurt and damaged forever. Constant contact with only one parent with the best legal gunslinger is not enough.

Making big profits off people's misery is despicable. More lawmakers should get behind DeBerry's remarks and demand change to the evil that is Tennessee's unaccountable divorce industry.

Many thanks to NewsChannel5+ for its great generosity; for the children of Tennessee no one wants, their blessed day of deliverance is coming

After the despair last week over the treatment of poor African-American children at Legislative Plaza, some very good things have happened outside of the political arena.

In the months to come, we the blessed few at Project Reflect and the Smithson Craighead Academy -- the first charter PUBLIC SCHOOL in Tennessee -- will have some important announcements that will affect young lives across the nation and the world.

That is how remarkable God has been to us following that terrible day at Legislative Plaza. He is just and never forgets.

Yesterday, Brian Bates -- who directs NewsChannel 5+ -- provided important studio time for our founder, Sister Sandra Smithson, to tell her story to the nation and the world.

NewsChannel 5+ is such a gift to Middle Tennessee in the programming it provides for people like Sister and organizations such as Project Reflect to tell their story.

It is sad to see its producer, Cherilyn Crowe, leave for a larger mission in Washington, D.C. She'll be there with an organization protecting religious liberties in this nation. She goes with our prayers for her success, which will make this nation stronger.

You'll be able to see the fruits of yesterday's taping soon on the Project Reflect website and on a different one for the Smithson Craighead Academy. Project Reflect sponsors the public school academy.

The terrible day on Capitol Hill did not keep us down, it only made us more determined. And now God has blessed us with some incredible opportunities we'll soon be able to tell you about.

Project Reflect -- quite simply -- represents the children society does not want and fears. They have been written off in public policy and in traditional public schools. Special ed classes and suspension and expulsions are all that has been left for these children.

These babies are mostly black and urban. And poor. And whites and blacks who have made it up the economic ladder don't want them around, particularly in the same classrooms as their children.

Neither do many of the Catholic and Christian schools. Go figure. Who knew Jesus drove a Lexus?

So where are they to go? To Project Reflect's Smithson Craighead Academy, where the model of their education and success has been perfected. And most of all, the child knows that he or she is wanted.

And consider this important fact: in five years of its existence, this charter PUBLIC SCHOOL has not expelled or suspended one child.

So Chief Serpas, you can't blame us for the problem of all the Metro school children on the streets and no one in the traditional schools knowing where they are.

When I was at the academy a couple of weeks ago, I came across a third grader made to stand in the corner in the hallway outside of his classroom. And you would have thought he had the entire world on his shoulders. The remorse on his face -- to be separated from his class -- was undeniable. I patted him on the shoulders and told him things would be all right. That's how sad the child looked.

And that is one of the wonderful things about Smithson Craighead Academy. Sister and the wonderful staff there know how to rescue these children and make them into achievers.

As Sister Sandra so eloquently said yesterday, society is not going to be able to build strong enough gated communities to keep children out when they become teens and have not been educated to have a future like the rest of us.

Society is not going to be able to build enough prisons. Already, overcrowding and tough budget times now are leading many states to decriminalize some offenses.

Society will have to continue shipping in engineers from overseas, instead of educating these children here for these higher-paying, high-tech jobs. These babies are more than smart enough.

I've been in their classes and taught writing. They have caught on faster than any traditional public school classroom I've been before. We have four children at Smithson Craighead who have been invited to a science and leadership summer program at Wake Forest. The cure for cancer is within their minds.

Thanks to NewsChannel5+, we are going to be able to spread more of this truth on our web sites with Sister Sandra providing the grace-filled vision and leadership and words. We who follow her are humbled.

And for all the babies who society has chosen to abandon, we will do everything in our power for you -- for your better futures and that of our nation.

Fed's action of pouring $1 trillion into financial markets leads us right back to what got our nation in trouble; households must not spend more

The decision this week by the Federal Reserve to float $1 trillion of our money into the financial marketplace is an incredibly derelict act that will just get more Americans in trouble.

An analysis on NPR cited the Fed action as a way to get more people spending -- specifically it wants to force down mortgage rates so people will refinance their homes and use the extra money to put on a deck, swimming pool or extra room they really don't need.

Or perhaps they'll go out and buy a car, or refrigerator or some big ticket item.

The end result, the Fed hopes, is that jobs will be retained in American industry through increased spending.

Wrong. You don't make things better by encouraging bad behavior.

The Fed is only encouraging the kind of overspending that got American households in trouble in the first place. The equity a person or people has in their home is there for an emergency -- or to leave to your heirs.

It is a sacred trust account not to be tampered with for reasons of the moment.

All this housing mess started when people who could not afford this part of the American Dream were encouraged to buy homes, often places way beyond their means.

The numbers were crunched by the bankers and other lenders to make it seem that these Americans could afford the homes with adjustable rate mortgages that initially would demnd lower monthly payments.

During the lower payment period, everyone figured that home prices would continue their meteoric rise and and the homebuyer could simply refinance their mortgage based on the greater value of the house and take out the equity to ultimately afford the home and maybe even add a swimming pool.

There was only one problem to this game: Home prices fell. And all the Wall Street firms that descended in for the profit got burned, too. But Washington was there to bail them out with your tax money. The people were left to rot.

This nation must learn from that debacle and these hard economic times. Our parents and grandparents did. Why do we consider ourselves more worthy to avoid these travails and truths?

We must tell Washington that its further intervention into the economy only spells ruin -- from AIG to flooding the marketplace with a trillion dollars to encourage the American people to do the wrong thing at the worst possible time.

For shame. Such acts of desperation are not what this nation needs.

Eight days without television, and I'm still living well; it's amazing what you can do without

It now has been eight days without television in my home besides no internet connection.

I'm not going to give in to my cheap landlord who doesn't believe that cable and the internet are basic utilities in today's technological world. I don't live in Grinder's Switch. I'm two blocks from Vanderbilt University, the state leading center of learning.

But El Cheapo Grande won't pay the bill to install the needed wiring even though there is a cable outlet in the place.

This is a sign of the times. I believe everyone is seeing landlords, retailers and other businesses taking the cheap way out in this economy. Integrity be damned. But this kind of practice is the quickest way to lose customers.

With the weather, I spend most of my time outside and watching Vandy baseball games anyway. The libraries are a wonderful resource in providing free computer use. And NPR on radio does a most thorough job of covering the days events globally, nationally and at the State Capitol.

Perhaps this period has taught me about how much each of us can really live without. It is much more than we believe. And my carpal tunnel in my right hand is much better now that I don't have the remote control in it all day long.

Commodities charge forward: If you're still in the market, I'd be worried about a big retreat

Some investors have been enjoying an early spring with the Bear market rally of the past few days.

But today's giant move in commodities shows that the smart money is headed back out of the market and into the inflation-hedge of Gold -- up an incredible $68 an ounce this morning -- and oil, which now has topped $50 a barrel based on a $3 gain this morning.

The financial markets are not for the weak of heart and anyone who cannot afford to lose what they already have. Don't let greed get you again.

Don't blame AIG: Pelosi, Frank, Reid, Bush and Obama share blame for the big bonuses

Let's break the AIG bonus scandal down to basics.

AIG is part of the capitalistic machine in this nation and world designed to make profits off anything. The more obscenely excessive the better for its executives. For government to try and legislate simple common decency in these corporations is like trying to put a cone around a dog's neck to keep it from licking itself on its private parts.

That dog is ultimately going to find a way around that cone and get back to his or her mind's desire. It is just part of its nature.

The breakdown in the AIG fiasco was in Washington -- where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House banking chairman Barney Frank, Senate banking chairman Christopher Dodd. Senate Majority Harry Reid and then presidential candidate Barack Obama pushed and supported the bailout of AIG, and then other financial institutions.

And the Bush administration could not do enough to make sure no Wall Street executive felt a twinge of discomfort.

The Chicken Little legislation was pushed through so quickly that lawmakers did not have time to read the sentence giving AIG the power to award these bonuses, agreed to a year ago.

So if you want to get angry, aim your ire at these lawmakers. The 73 AIG employees who got the million-dollar plus bonuses have made off with the loot. Your job now is to make sure the federal government feeds no more money into the pit called AIG, the nation's financial system, General Motors or anyone else with their hands out.

These giveaways of taxpayer money must end, because big-time capitalists such AIG can't help themselves around lots of money -- particularly yours.

Disabled veterans shocked by Obama plan to push them into private insurers for their needed care

Veterans and their advocacy groups are outraged over President Obama's intention to push their treatment and its costs under private insurers, breaking a long-held promise that our government would always stand behind those who had served.

For all of us who have dealt with private insurers, the hassle is incredibly frustrating. Debates over what is covered and what is not are endless.

Our veterans, particularly those wounded in battle, should certainly be held above that demeaning fray. We owe that to them at the very least.

Here is how McClatchy Newspapers reported the growing controversy:

Veterans claim that the costs of treating expensive war injuries could raise their insurance costs, as well as those for their employers. Some worried that it also could make it more difficult for disabled veterans to find work.

The leaders of several veterans groups had written Obama last month complaining about the new plan. “There is simply no logical explanation for billing a veteran’s personal insurance for care that the VA has a responsibility to provide,” they wrote.

Many veterans had high expectations for Obama after years of battling the Bush administration over benefit cuts and medical concerns such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

But the VA’s decision to float a potential change in its policy of paying for service-related injuries could signal a quick end to the honeymoon.

“It’s a betrayal,” said Joe Violante, legislative director of Disabled American Veterans, which signed the letter to Obama.

“My insurance company didn’t send me to Vietnam, my government did. The same holds true for men and women now fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s the government’s responsibility.”

Seattle P-I goes to web, but it won't succeed; newspapers must first help themselves in learning to be fair, objective and ideogically diverse

Big newspapers increasingly are going the way of the dinosaur deserve no great tears or periods of mourning.

All the lamenting over their decline, including by syndicated conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, are so self-serving. They claim the loss of the big newspapers is a calamity for democracy. In reality, Parker sees her income declining with each paper folding.

Yet just in Nashville alone, it is the Big 3 TV stations led by NewsChannel 5 that have performed quite well in being a watchdog for the people as The Tennessean has decreased in page number and overall commitment. Investigative reporter Phil Williams does more research and produces more supporting documents in one project than The Tennessean does in a year.

Let's quit with the bigotry here. TV journalism is equal to superior to the print version now being put out by most big city newspapers, with the exception of The New York Times, Washington Post and LA Times.

Our democracy will survive quite well. And hopefully, some of the best print journalists will go to TV. Williams used to work for The Tennessean.

Today, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer went to all web, dumping its print operations. And the web venture will fail. That's because it maintains the same bad attitude among its staff concerning what's fair and the need to get out of the office to learn about what the people want.

One of my favorite liberal media critics, columnist Bill Steigerwald, just wrote his last piece for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Here is a brief excerpt on what he fought all his 36-year career:

As a reporter, I've tried my best to be accurate, fair and truthful. I've always been aware of the difference between news and opinion, between balance and bias, and between being a government watchdog and a government lapdog.

And I have always known that every journalist and every editor I have ever worked with was helplessly subjective in their politics and in their definition of what news and bias were and were not.

Trust me, big-city daily newspapers don't go out of their way to achieve ideological diversity. About 90 percent of my work mates over the years were either avowed liberal Democrats or didn't know it. Reagan Republicans were virtually nonexistent. Until I got to the Trib, I was always the staff's lonely libertarian.

Newspapers have preached diversity by race and ethnicity, and done a poor job of it, particularly when it comes to producing an African-American journalism legacy at The Tennessean. And The Tennessean so happens to be located in the same city where the Freedom Forum has a diversity institute to produce journalists of color.

So someone is dropping the ball, on purpose.

Yet in a broader sense, newspapers such as The Tennessean have simply refused to invite intellectual diversity into their decision-making ranks. Conservatives were believed lazy or not caring for the community. Meanwhile, Tennessee went deep red in the last presidential election. Still, I believe Tennesseans to be good and decent people.

Across the country, FOXNEWS has become a powerhouse because of alienated TV viewers, due to the bias of the Big 3 national networks. When consumers don't have to take it anymore, they leave in droves.

Meanwhile, to counter that trend, those newspapers that try and throw a carrot or two to conservative readers piss off the liberal ones who are used to only hearing the side they want. This is what happens when fairness is not the guide, particularly on the news pages.

The P-I and any other newspaper that tries to go to web will fail because people don't believe they should pay for this content. And that is the only way to make a profit.

Print journalism will now exist in a much smaller, community size. It will be locally owned and come out less frequently. And the people will still be served and this democracy will survive.

The man in the arena: Actor Ron Silver was so much more than his scatter-brained profession

In one of his greatest speeches, President Teddy Roosevelt extolled the courage and virtue of the man who ventured into the arena of public life and took a stand on right and wrong.

And so it is with great regret to learn that actor Ron Silver passed away from cancer at the age of 62. He was such a man as Roosevelt invoked, on matters traditionally associated with the left and the right.

Silver was liberal on social policy and headed the actors' union throughout the 1990s. But he was a hawk on defense and supported Reagan on Star Wars and GW Bush on the all out fight on terrorism. He spoke at the 2004 Republican National Convention and did a fine job.

Silver was most consistent in a way that most people might consider inconsistent. But he took his position based not on ideology or party but what was right. He was most unlike Hollywood, that made pronouncements on the rest of us and society from high atop their canyoned-mansions.

He did not lobby for the closing of Guantanamo like many of his fellow actors, then back away when the question came as to where in the U.S. these people would be re-located. A canyon near Hollywood sounds like a very secure place to me.

Ron Silver was often brutally honest. For that and more, the arena will dearly miss him.

Undocumented immigrants cost America dearly during these economic times; let us be humane, but we must encourage them to return home

I was speaking to my cousin, a fellow American of Mexican descent, and she told me about the horrors of undocumented immigration in California where she lived for 30 years.

And she floored me with her statements.

There is no other conclusion in these economic times that undocumented immigrants have to leave our country.

Our grandparents came to this country in 1910 working hard and asking for nothing. Our parents born in this nation did the same. And my father and nine of my uncles fought in World War II.

The culture today of the undocumented immigrant is entirely different to that our loved ones through hard work and full respect for the law.

My cousin tells me that undocumented immigrants still receive welfare checks in California -- for their children born in this nation. Yes, they are American citizens. But they should not be born to simply take from the taxpayers. We have critical services to citizens in many states being cut due to a lack of revenue.

New money must be found somewhere. And the best place is shifting it from places where it is being wrongly used.

My cousin tells me of the deep shame she felt when undocumented women would take two or three welfare checks to be cashed at a local store specifically set up to take those checks and deliver cash. And these women felt entitled.

I was shocked.

I guess my mind has never been open enough to this other side on the issue of undocumented immigration. I do know of the contributions undocumented immigrants have always provided this nation. And they contributed to this nation's prosperity most recently in the 1990s and through 2007.

But economic fortunes have turned, and it is American citizens who now need the jobs they hold. And if these businesses only have citizens from which to hire, then maybe they'll pay higher wages.

The argument can no longer be offered that undocumented immigrants give more to America than they take. The Obama administration should step up raids of workplaces to free up jobs for citizens. They come first.

And if times ever do get better, then a jobs program based on the law can be established to return these human beings to our land.

My cousin agrees.

Penny-pinching customer service: This sign of the times is only going to get worse with more layoffs

I've gone five full days without television, which as a child of the '60s is akin to a violation of 8th Amendment protections.

Worse, I've had no CNBC during that time to measure the current Bear market rally for its legs.

I'm in a dispute with my landlord about the company's responsibility to provide a place that is cable and internet ready.

The place is an old home a couple of blocks north of one of this nation's most respected centers of enlightenment and research, Vanderbilt University. I also receive medical treatment there for my leukemia.

Yet I am stuck in a home -- that does have a cable outlet and cable running into the home -- which I spotted when I agreed to take the place. But the COMCAST guy now tells me the cable is so old that it won't support the basic service I need.

So I told the management company. It replied that it wasn't its responsibility. Old homes come with limitations. Then their smart ass attorney writes and tells me not to be so stressed and how to handle my leukemia. Pretty insulting stuff.

I'm writing this because it is indicative of what I am seeing from so many places -- a sharp decline in service to the public and a penny-pinching attitude that ignores all fairness and integrity.

As layoffs mount, we'll see more of this. And that creates the necessity to only communicate in writing with people you are doing business with. What they say vocally will be forgotten, or you'll be told you didn't understand.

Protect yourselves. You'll be surprised as to who is going to cheat you next.

Clarfication and Apology: Gov. Ramsey was not part of canceling rally for charter public schools

In the smoke that is clearing from the disaster of Charter Public School Day on the Hill last Wednesday, some needed truths are emerging that will provide direction for the next steps to be taken on providing open enrollment for these places education rescue.

First, the staff for Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey tells me he did not cancel out on the 12:30 rally on the Capitol steps for the legislation. The charter public school association did.

It seems some people were scared about the temperature outside. Yet after the rally was canceled, many of these children including the smallest were outside walking with their parents to find an affordable place to eat. The LP cafeteria was filled.

So I want to apologize immediately to Gov. Ramsey. He did not slight the children.

As for the association, I have not seen in my many years of fighting for education reforms all the way up to the Bush Oval Office more a disaster -- that also let down so many children and their parents who traveled many hours to Nashville. The association brags of making contact with 80 lawmakers. I witnessed one of those contacts, with a Memphis Democrat, who made no commitment to the needed legislation.

It is quite obvious now -- for those of us who successfully fought the first charter school battle -- that a new way free of the association is necessary. Power must be met with power, and money.

I have heard people talk of compromise of the legislation and waiting until next year. Why? We have a president who just endorsed charter public schools.

We need 100 percent open enrollment in charter public schools for any child being failed in any traditional public school. We also need a new approving authority for charter public school expansion and creation. School boards are not going to favor competition for public tax dollars. We need a state level agency to do so.

To Gov. Ramsey and his staff, my apologies. I look forward working with you personally -- along with a few of my colleagues -- on the way to do right thing for our children needing the most help in this state.

In tough economy, Tennessee's divorce industry is destroying people's lives and those of their children; tomorrow on Hill is bill to help fight back

I wish I still had my newspaper column in The Tennessean, not for celebrity, for the ability to bring the following evil to as broad as audience as possible.

Tennessee's divorce industry is robbing good people of income they can ill afford in this tough economy and destroying the lives of children as the most imperiled pawns in all of this mess.

Tomorrow at 9:15 a.m. in House Hearing Room 30 is legislation that represents taking back this legal mechanism to serve the public. The "Avin and Preston Law" -- named for two children who have been most victimized by a divorce industry geared first to robbing Tennesseans of their hard-earned income and dignity -- will be considered before a House subcommittee.

I can think of no better place for my TV media colleagues to be hear some unbelievable horror stories amid incredibly difficult economic times. Some parents who do not have custody are only getting to see their children for three hours in a year under supervised visits. And they have to pay for visits that begin at $48 an hour and run up.

Who can afford that in today's economy?

These fathers and mothers are not drug addicts, prostitutes and ex-criminals. These parents are hard-working Tennesseans who just don't have the money that the ex-spouse has to hire the best attorney and influence the judge and a guardian ad litem.

This injustice is not men versus women. Both genders have been victimized. Fathers' rights group have joined with former officers in NOW to push this legislation.

But you don't have to feel sorry for the spouses. Pity the poor child or children who want to see both parents, without some stranger looking on. This situation is outrage in a nation that supposedly cherishes family values.

This is the outrage that must not stand. And I wish I had my column to wage this fight.

The New York Times just published a story on the mistreatment of non-custodial spouses in New York City. Some parents are on waiting lists to see their children. Income determines justice, something the lady holding the scales with a blindfold never told us about.

Custody battles are rarely gentle affairs, but if you are poor, such fights can carry an added frustration: waiting months to get a court-approved visit with your own child.

In cases involving allegations of domestic violence, which are increasing, or other issues, such as drug abuse and long absenteeism, judges often require that child’s visits with the noncustodial parent take place only in the presence of a professional, like a social worker.

But when judges order supervised visitation, neither the court nor other government agencies pay for the service, a growing problem in New York City and across the nation.

Because he cannot afford to pay for supervised visitation, which routinely costs $100 an hour, Juan Manuel Fernandez, 51, of Washington Heights, said, he has not seen his two daughters, ages 6 and 11, since last October.

A year ago, he said, his wife walked out, moved the girls to New Jersey, and told the court he was threatening her. He denies the accusation, but the judge in his case ruled that supervision was necessary. So now he is waiting for free supervision through a nonprofit agency, which can take months.

“It’s very hard to have to wait to see your own kids,” Mr. Fernandez said in Spanish, through a translator.

“Imagine it, they’re just little girls. I felt like crying when I had to leave them,” he said, especially because he knew it could be a long time before he could see them.

In supervised visitations, a third party oversees the handoff of children between parents and then monitors the interaction. The concept is not new, and sometimes the supervision can be done by a member of one of the couple’s families.

Still, more judges think it is safer to order professional supervision, particularly in cases involving domestic violence or sexual abuse, drug use, mental illness, a history of criminal activity or jail time, or simply longtime absenteeism.
When these factors turn up in custody fights, for low-income couples, the ensuing costs for supervised visits can be insurmountable.

The only option for most of those families is to get in line for free supervision through a nonprofit agency. But only a handful of groups provide the free service, and they say because of financing pressures, the wait can often reach six months.

Jacqueline W. Silbermann, deputy chief administrative judge of New York for matrimony matters, says of supervised visitation, “You can order it, but unfortunately we don’t control the resources. So finding affordable services is a very serious, serious problem.”

Now all of us know that it is quite easy to make an accusation in a divorce case. And most attorneys and their industry feed the already existing anger that led to a separation to make everyone adversaries. That means more money for everyone in the divorce industry and days in court in which each side tries to win, not do what is best for the child.

One would think the judge is there to resolve matters fairly. That's increasingly is not the case in Tennessee. The more money in the estate being battled over, the longer the proceedings go. And then when a guardian is appointed, that means even more money to pay her costs.

In Tennessee, that guardian comes from a non-profit agency that uses all the high hourly fees to help fill their budgets. So the longer there is a guardian in a case. the better the non-profit does.

Money corrupts, absolutely.

So that is why I am making my appeal to my TV journalist colleagues. You are the only hope left in Middle Tennessee and beyond to enlighten the populace to the evil that eats away at our society.

Please show up tomorrow morning and talk to law-abiding Tennesseans and parents who are experiencing the worst of nightmares from a legal system that is serving itself during the worst of economic times.


1. *HB0677 by *Cooper B, *DeBerry J, *Jones U, *Turner M, *Jones S. (SB2213 by *Ford, O..)
Child Custody and Support - As introduced, imposes various requirements on court ordered supervised visitation. - Amends TCA Title 36, Chapter 6, Part 3.

Beyond racism: Biggest threat to good education of poor black children is black lawmakers

If broader charter PUBLIC SCHOOL legislation is to be passed this session of the Tennessee General Assembly, it must get by a surprising roadblock: black, Democratic lawmakers from Memphis.

On the surface, that would seem odd, that black legislators would be denying more school choice to black children and their parents. And President Obama just cited charter PUBLIC SCHOOLS as the way of the future.

But in the racial spoils system of separate and unequal in Tennessee's history, black politicians were given control of the monies delivered to public education for their race and communities. And high-paying, education jobs were given to friends and campaign supporters.

The bureaucracy, not the support to the classroom, grew.

The competition of charter PUBLIC SCHOOLS threatens that sweet deal. And so black lawmakers in the House are first about protecting their patronage machines and mega-millions of dollars in funding from the county, state and federal governments.

You can't call this treatment racism. It is just immoral, and black lawmakers should be singled out in their districts and made to pay a price.

For white children at Legislative Plaza last Wednesday, they received better treatment; racism is alive and doing very well in Tennessee

I don't make charges of racism easily.

But from what I saw Wednesday at Legislative Plaza, the sight and stench were unmistakable as poor African-American children and their parents were treated as if they did not exist. And that is how public policy concerning the availability of charter PUBLIC SCHOOLS in Tennessee treats their fates.

Consider these scenes of Wednesday morning:

On the first floor in front of a committee room in Legislative Plaza, Brownies -- all white -- were holding plates full of cookies. They were noticed and pictures taken of them as they held up signs asking for legislation to ban puppy mills.

Sumner County Schools were well represented with at least three buses outside Legislative Plaza.

On the second floor of the War Memorial Building, a group of well-dressed high schoolers had seven long tables assembled for them. And they were treated to a great barbecue lunch that included desert. Of the 30 or so students there for a leadership gathering, one was African-American and one was Asian-American.

On the first floor of the War Memorial Building, another big group of white students were addressed at length by their legislator. They had many rows of chairs set up for them for their comfort to wait for their lawmaker, then listen.

So why were the black children and their parents -- who made a three-plus hour bus trip from their homes by getting up at 4:30 in the morning -- treated like virus-carrying vagabonds?

Some of the blame should be placed with the charter school association. It set up this lobbying day and gave everyone a list of specific lawmakers to see -- to lobby for legislation that would provide 100 percent open enrollment for Charter PUBLIC SCHOOLS. This way, any child being failed by traditional public schools can find a future in a charter PUBLIC SCHOOL. A parent needs that kind of choice.

We also need the authorizing authority for a charter PUBLIC SCHOOL taken away from local school boards and given to a state board. Charter PUBLIC SCHOOLS have shown they work in rescuing children in just their five years of existence.

But the school boards don't want the competition. They want a monopoly on your tax money so they can pay a host of administrative salaries first and guarantee tenure to teachers no matter if they perform well or not.

It is like giving Kroger's the authority to say whether a Harris-Teeter can open in your community, or a Food Lion, or a Publix. Choice saves money, for the shopper, and the taxpayers and child in the education system.

Would Kroger's offer many sales and try harder to please you if you didn't have other places to shop? It's the same with public schools.

And President Obama just this past week made charter PUBLIC SCHOOLS the centerpiece of his education agenda. He wants more -- as a more effective use of taxpayer money so it gets to the classrooms. The president also wants to challenge the education lobby that has had a stranglehold over funding for the few at the expense of the children.

A charter PUBLIC SCHOOL has a specific mission to carry out in rescuing children and bringing their academic performance and behavior back to age-appropriate levels. Your taxpayer money follows that the child to this place of rescue and redemption. A big difference in the charter PUBLIC SCHOOL is that they do not have all the administrative positions to pay first. There is one principal. And there sure isn't a school district director drawing $137,000 a year plus perks.

On that terrible Wednesday last week, even the lawmakers who are sponsoring the needed reforms in Tennessee, Rep. Beth Harwell and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, were unavailable. Harwell was running late most of the morning. I kept stopping by her office and she had not yet arrived. Ramsey was supposed to hold a rally for the children and their parents on the Capitol building steps at 12:30. He canceled.

It was obvious that these children from Memphis and charter PUBLIC SCHOOLS in general are not a priority on their lists of things to do this legislative session. But how long can a child being failed in a traditional public school wait to be rescued? How long is it before that child only sees negatives as the only resolution for notice, money and association?

So after that Wednesday morning turned into disaster, the Memphis children and their parents were left to wander outside on the cold day, trying to find somewhere inexpensive to eat.

Oh, there were excuses offered for this racism. Some lawmakers explained that the legislative leadership switched things up and canceled session that day and forced everyone into subcommittee and committee to work on their bills. But that leadership knew these children were coming on that day. A schedule for visits had already been printed and sent out days in advance.

This is the old Tennessee two step. But in their avoidance of this issue of grave importance to the futures of children and a more effective use of your taxpayer money, these lawmakers stomped all over everything that was right and decent.

President Obama cannot change what is happening in Tennessee. Only we can. And racism remains alive and well in the place where it can do the most damage, Legislative Plaza.

For the first time in my life, I was ashamed of my country. My heart was broken. But one thing I can guarantee every lawmaker -- this most grievous offense to the least among us will not go unanswered.

The cause is right, the children are worthy and God is on our side.

Don't be fooled by a Bear market rally; be patient

The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted some nice gains this week.

The financial reports due out next week, however, will suck all the wind out of this Bear market rally. So don't start putting your money in now. We saw the same thing with Gold earlier. It had headed above 1,000 an ounce for a moment, then it dropped back to 900 or below.

When a lot of people rush to do something, that's reason to pause and think. You must first be about protecting what you have.

We'll re-hit the previous stock market lows soon, then make a decision -- not now.

Big trouble in Big China: Worries about T-bills

A prominent Chinese official voiced strong and blunt concerns yesterday about his country's $1 trillion investment in U.S. Treasury bills, citing poor American financial plans to resolve its various crises.

The unprecedented statement should send chills through U.S. officials who are counting on the Chinese to buy much of the new debt being issued by the Obama administration.

We also could see the Chinese demand more assurance on the value of the T-Bills being sustained. And that would mean more money from us -- naturally. We also will see new Chinese military movement into previous restricted lands, knowing our nation cannot fight nor really protest actions against our nation's largest creditor.

Folks, this is as big as it gets on the world scene.

The New York Times writes:

BEIJING — The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, spoke in unusually blunt terms on Friday about the “safety” of China’s $1 trillion investment in American government debt, the world’s largest such holding, and urged the Obama administration to offer assurances that the securities would maintain their value.

Speaking ahead of a meeting of finance ministers and bankers this weekend near London to lay the groundwork for next month’s Group of 20 summit meeting of the nations with the 20 largest economies, Mr. Wen said that he was “worried” about China’s holdings of United States Treasury bonds and other debt, and that China was watching economic developments in the United States closely.

As the financial crisis has unfolded, China has become increasingly vocal about what it perceives as Washington’s mismanagement of the global economy and financial system, joining a chorus of foreign critics of unbridled American capitalism. On Thursday, for example, France and Germany rebuffed American calls to coordinate a global stimulus package at the G-20 meeting, saying financial regulation should come first.

In January, Mr. Wen gave a speech criticizing what he called an “unsustainable model of development characterized by prolonged low savings and high consumption.” There was little doubt that he was referring to the United States.

So what was the media doing Wednesday on the Hill? Focusing on the giant ego of Ronal Serpas

Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas loves the TV cameras for his dramatics before governing boards.

Now the chief claims to be there advocating for more laws to deal with crime. Actually, he is building up his public persona, and some of media clustered in front of him Wednesday morning on the Hill were quipping about him running for governor.

Serpas, who boasts of all his sociological study, was in full raging bull mode in ranting about rising robberies in Nashville and need for legislative action. And the TV cameras loved it.

Meanwhile, behind this self-described sociological expert, charter public school children from Memphis and Nashville were walking by like plastic ducks on a carnival shooting game.

They were trying to get heard by any legislator about their cause to get a fair and adequate education for every child like them from the wrong side of the tracks and with the wrong skin color to be heard by people in power.

But they had to walk back and forth behind Serpas to try and find someone to listen. Unsuccessfully. Yet all the media were paying attention to Serpas. And all the lawmakers had scurried for cover in meetings rooms.

You don't need to be deeply educated in sociological studies to know if you want to prevent robberies, murders or whatever mayhem, then show the child soon turning teen a better way. Educate them, challenge them and provide them opportunity for doing right. And that includes summer jobs to make money in a positive way.

C'mon Chief. That's a no-brainer. But it won't get you before the TV cameras as often. It will put you in the trenches with these children and their parents fighting each day for a better Memphis and Nashville without any concerns about running for governor.

Turn some of the TV cameras in hot pursuit of your every rant in the direction of these children and their parents as the real solution to fighting crime.

A catastrophe for the children of Tennessee Wednesday on the Hill, and the media missed it; racism is alive and doing well in our state

The little African-American girl in pigtails and a nice checkered school uniform of dark gray and white had gotten up at 4:30 in the morning to board a bus from Memphis to Nashville.

She was joined by other classmates and their parents. Their destination and purpose was to encourage legislators to support open enrollment for charter public schools in Tennessee. That would mean that any child who is being failed by a traditional public school could go to a charter public school to receive help in catching up and then moving forward according to her age and class level.

The success of this method has been proven at Smithson Craighead Academy in Nashville. I know. I am chairman for the board of development and I teach some classes there on writing. And one fourth grade class I visited last week was the best in catching on to what I was teaching than any other Middle Tennessee class I'd been before.

The great potential is there. The problem is that we have to go through a Legislature that does not give a damn about these children become of the color of their skin and difficult environment from which they live.

That was proved when most lawmakers were not even available for these children to talk to, the show their model behavior and to speak of their dreams. Leadership had changed the day's schedule, fully knowing these children and their parents were headed to the Hill. Lawmakers was forced into subcommittee and committee meetings to move their bills forward. And these bills are for people who come from the right side of the tracks with the correct skin color.

I witnessed the most dehumanizing sight of my life -- poor black children dressed in their best with their parents leading the way, being bounced from empty office to administrative aide like ping pong balls. Some doors were even closed.

Each group had been given a schedule of lawmakers to meet by the charter school association organizing the day. They might have been given a route to walk to Hawaii. That's how useful it was.

The last politician to really give a damn about these children was Bobby Kennedy. And you could tell by the way he caressed the backs of the necks of these children in Watts and Harlem. He knew that when these young people reached the age of 12, they came to the realization that there was no hope for them as characters they'd been watching on TV realizing the American Dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Only if they can become like LeBron James was there any way out of the societal trap that has been set for them from centuries of bigotry. I must apologize to Attorney General Eric Holder for my rebuke of him lecturing this nation about being a nation of cowards over race. We are. And we have damned children such as those from Memphis who drove six hours on Wednesday only to be ignored.

Just the day before, President Obama strongly endorsed charter public schools. Such schools are public -- your tax money follows these children to the schools.

In Nashville, that is per pupil spending of $8,176. Charter public schools have proven to be more successful than traditional public schools due to drastically lower administration costs that allows more tax money to get to classroom instruction. Charter schools also mix behavior modification into the curriculum to bring the social skills of the students in line with their age and grade level. Teachers are taught these skills first, so they can more effectively reach the children.

There is no easy way out of Smithson Craighead. Some kids wants to get thrown out so they can roam the streets. They've learned that such fortune won't happen as in traditional public schools. CEO Sister Sandra Smithson makes sure of that.

O America, my America. God shed his grace on thee. But your indifference and outright hate for these children from the wrong side of the tracks and with a different skin color is most worthy of God's wrath.

If I am not blind to this, He is neither. And his righteousness will ultimately be swift and terrible. Ignore these children, and you ensure more crime, more unwanted babies and more prison costs. Embrace them, and you ensure a better and safer future in this nation, and one in which America deserves the claim of being under God.

Hurrah for Jon Stewart! Cramer finally gets dressed down for stunts, bad financial advice

It took Jon Stewart to do it, but someone finally put CNBC's silly entertainer Jim Cramer in his place. Now, this dressing down is becoming a celebrated clip on TV news and YouTube.

CNBC has been spreading Cramer all over its network lately like smelly manure, even though he gave incredibly bad financial advice about people investing in a friend's company during his Mad Money show last year. And Washington Mutual later went belly up and had to bailed out. Pity the stockholders.

I really don't know how someone can be allowed back on the network after that. Viewers lost money. They watch CNBC to make money.

But Cramer has now been unleashed even further. I think he was right on the White House having a Nixon-like enemies list. But if Cramer is on it, then that's actually good for the American people.

Stewart rightly pointed out that he and Cramer are both snake oil salesmen on television. But the Daily Show makes that truth clear. Cramer does not. Stewart told Cramer he should rely on more reporting and less theatrics.

Ouch! Wow! Right on! Kaboom!

Big Bad Jon took on the Cramer monster and slew it before a national audience. Hopefully, it won't have a second life.

And it's past time to bring Big Bad Jon to network television in prime time to slay some more monsters whose celebrity serves only themselves.

Media making too big of a deal over Obama's right decision on stem cell research; his move is only controversial to sensationalists and advocates

President Barack Obama made the right decision yesterday in reversing President Bush's decision on stem cell research of embryos.

And the decision is not controversial when it comes to people on Main Street. It actually is a no-brainer. The media coverage of the decision has been to sensational in searching from controversy.

The embryos -- that federal funding will now accompany for research -- are discarded. They never were going to be brought to new life.

From walking the chemo cubicles at Vanderbilt Medical Center where people and I are receiving treatment for leukemia and other extra-ordinary cancers, this research is critical. I talk to the patients and their families. They need new hope. Obama's decision provides just that.

His decision was clearly right. The only moral offense here is in not using these embryos -- that never were going to become life -- to help save people who want to keep on living. Federal funding now makes more research possible.

Well done, Mr. President.

Economist who predicted Great Recession forsees a 36-month recession, zero GDP growth in 2010

Nouriel Roubini, the New York economist who predicted the current economic downturn, sees a Dow 5000 and no reason for investors to buy now despite the low level of individual stock prices.

He told CNBC:

He said that while U.S. GDP next year could be zero, global GDP could dip into negative territory.

"We could end up ... with a 36-month recession, that could be "L-shaped stagnation, or near depression," Roubini said. He puts the chance of a severe U-shaped recession at 66.7 percent, and a more severe L-shaped recession at 33.3 percent.

Roubini listed a litany of negative omens: Capex spending down 20-30 percent for investment grade companies, self-perpetuating deflation, all making a bad situation worse.

"If you expect prices to be lower tomorrow, why would you buy today?", asked Roubini. He says it's easier to break out of am inflationary cycle than a deflationary one, and while a year of deflation "is okay," longer would be "a disaster."

We are 15 months into the Great Recession, Roubini said.

Tennessee losing a journalism giant whose name you don't know; Cherilyn Crowe will be missed

When people talk of journalism giants in Tennessee, they cite John Seigenthaler and Phil Williams. And they are worthy of such recognition.

But the top one for me is Cherilyn Crowe, the producer for all the NewsChannel 5Plus programs aimed at touching readers and their values and what is important in their communities.

And if journalism is to prosper in an increasing competitive world, then Crowe's example must be followed.

Crowe knows just about everyone in Nashville, and you can see that by the diversity of guests on her shows and issues considered. And she even stooped way down and put me on the air a few times. It was a privilege.

You never saw Crowe before the camera. She always was behind it making things happen. And when there was no taping going on, she was making calls around the community for guests and issues or out among us herself.

I got this note from her about the new and exciting opportunity presented to her:

I am moving to Washington, D.C. in April to take a new job. I’ll be working at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (www.bjconline.org). It’s a group that works on making sure everyone continues to respect the 2 religion clauses in the First Amendment.

In other words, they work exclusively for religious freedom for everyone (not just Baptists), and they make sure that government does not establish one religion over another. Part of me is sad about leaving a town and a station I love so much, but I am excited about the opportunity to work in D.C. and for a group I really respect.

She'll be great in that job, which unfortunately means we won't ever see her back in Nashville. We'll be the poorer for it.

But if her fellow journalists including me learn from her example of embracing the community first as a good person and then as a provider of important information, we'll make sure someone of her quality emerges from our ranks to take her place.

God bless you, Cherilyn, and thank you for who you were here and who you will be in Washington -- still making a big difference in people's lives.

Charter schools are public schools; tomorrow's lobbyng effort at statehouse will be effort to educate adults on best way to educate children

A very important and giving man that it is now my privilege be working with told me a truth that I failed to realize:

Most people still believe a charter school is a private school.

So I need to backtrack and start at the beginning of this most important cause that will take me to the place I hate for the children I love. I'll be part of charter public school supporters on Capitol Hill to lobby for legislation to broaden student eligibility for these places of rescue.

Notice that I used the phrase charter public schools. That is what they are.

Your tax dollars follow the child to the school, which usually is a place of last hope because the regular public schools have failed this child and have set him or her on the path to early pregnancy, crime, welfare dependence and imprisonment. All those things will be more costly to you as a taxpayer and society as a better and safer place to live.

Charter public schools emphasize efficient use of the education dollar and new approaches to reach the child and cast him or her up academically and by behavior.

Charter public schools have much less administration at the top. The education bureaucracy in traditional public schools eat up so much of your tax dollar before it ever reaches the child.

But when we go to the statehouse, we face great opposition to what should be a no-brainer. That's because the education bureaucracy has strong special interest forces there to prevent needed change. And those special interest pool their union dues and member contributions to buy the best lobbyists.

I'll be on the Hill representing the sensational Smithson Craighead Academy, a public school that has the fifth highest achievement scores in Metro. And it is doing this with the children the traditional public schools do not want.

I fought for charter public schools earlier this decade with my column in The Tennessean. There was no law here to even allow this kind of school choice for children and their parents. We won, but the law was a weak one. Now it needs to be strengthened because charter public schools have proved themselves, and the education bureaucracy hates that.

And now so many more children need this kind of heroic help.

Please follow this blog to learn who we will need to fight at the statehouse to bring more change to public schools for children and more efficient use of money for taxpayers -- and to save you even more when these youngsters become adults with good jobs and bright futures.

The sad unbeliever: God doesn't bring suffering, He shows us the way to cope, excel as people

I got the following reader response from a poor soul living in Atlanta.

He has such a misunderstanding of God's role in people's lives for the better.

Are you saying that individuals suffering from the recession, or the country as a whole perhaps, deserve to suffer because they don't believe in [your] God? Perhaps we should work to make the times less desperate rather than clinging to antique fairytales.

Another godless American,
Brian King
Atlanta

God doesn't bring suffering. He provides us the choices to deal with it, like when I got leukemia, lost my career job, lost my mother and lost my marriage in just three years.

But it is just that America suffers, because it has turned its back on these choices, which would lead to living lives closer to His will and closer to the values that lead away from greed and self.

What ails this nation is beyond man's wisdom, or woman's. We as a nation got so far away from God's will and discipline and simple honesty. We now suffer from our excess.

For instance with housing, a lot of Americans believed they deserved very nice new homes when their income did not support it. A lot of banks found a new quick way to make big profits. And then Wall Street packaged all these bad loans outside of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae tougher standards into securities to make even more money.

This house of cards finally collapsed, and rightly so. Home values could not keep rising to cover for all this fraud. No commodity can.

The poor non-believer puts his or her faith in humans to resolve what is really a spiritual issue that affects how we act and live responsibly.

Resolution is in God and our own conduct, not in Washington and lawmakers and a president bent on socialism.

Pity the American people: More say they have no religion just as times become more desperate

More Americans say they have no religion, which leaves them most exposed to suffer with anger and desperation amid the ongoing recession turning into a depression.

Without religion, there is no real refuge. And putting faith in elected leaders from both political parties only leaves people feeling betrayed.

Pity the American people. When they need God most, they have closed their minds, hearts and lives off from the only true rock upon which to cling.

The fact that the percentage of people without religion has doubled since 1990 shows that more Americans have put their faith in the values of this world and its wealth. Now, both are fleeting.

Sometimes, suffering is most just.

AP reports:

A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all.

Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2 percent in 2001 and 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey.

Northern New England surpassed the Pacific Northwest as the least religious region, with Vermont reporting the highest share of those claiming no religion, at 34 percent. Still, the study found that the numbers of Americans with no religion rose in every state.

"No other religious bloc has kept such a pace in every state," the study's authors said.

In the Northeast, self-identified Catholics made up 36 percent of adults last year, down from 43 percent in 1990. At the same time, however, Catholics grew to about one-third of the adult population in California and Texas, and one-quarter of Floridians, largely due to Latino immigration, according to the research.

Nationally, Catholics remain the largest religious group, with 57 million people saying they belong to the church. The tradition gained 11 million followers since 1990, but its share of the population fell by about a percentage point to 25 percent.

Christians who aren't Catholic also are a declining segment of the country.

Letterman on General Motors: A cruel gem

Comedian David Letterman took aim at GM and other companies such as Citigroup that have been managed so poorly that their stock trades per share at less than one dollar.

Letterman quipped: "Things have gotten so bad that I tipped my cab driver with 100 shares of GM stock."

Sad, funny and true.

Bad moon rising: NewsChannel 5 profile of jobless rate in Maury County shows glimpse of ill future to come for Midstate, auto industry, small business

NewsChannel 5 reports tonight that the unemployment rate for Maury County almost doubled in January, to more than 15 percent, or nearly 6,000 workers.

While GM workers accounted for much of the rise due to a holiday shutdown at the Spring Hill plant, the rate also was fueled by small businesses like landscaping and garage door installers laying off one and two workers each. And these kind of layoffs add up fast.

A Maury County official tried to persuade that the downturn would improve when the GM Spring Hill plant returns to full operations in the spring and the economy rebounds at the end of the year. But reality dictates otherwise.

General Motors is headed toward closure. There is little support in Congress to rescue this money loser. And no matter how good the workers are in Spring Hill and the amount of new money invested there, the company's overall financial fate weighs most on any plant's future.

GM will not be able to pay its bills and workers by the end of the month. That's it, end of story for any business, factory and workers. And if you don't think something like that can happen, then you've learned nothing from these unprecedented times.

So that means Maury County's jobless rate will remain disturbingly high, and this economic trend -- steeply downward -- will spread around the Midstate as its dependence on the auto industry proves to be disastrous with declining consumer spending and investor confidence.

Good, comprehensive economic reporting such as that tonight on NewsChannel 5 will be needed to enlighten and encourage Midstate public officials to make decisions based on reality, not unsubstantiated and unsupported hopes.

Shape up, America; this nation has a lot of room to save itself by cutting back, acting responsibly

A reader thought I was a little too tough on Americans in telling them that hard times can be good.

Yet consider:

* How did paying for our children to take spring breaks trips to exotic locations become part of the household budget? My parents never would have considered such nonsense. I worked beginning at 13. I worked through high school and college. And you were expected to keep up your grades while working.

Children do not learn the important lessons of life while vacationing with their friends on spring break. They haven't earned that privilege yet.

* How did America become so obese or way overweight? Buffets and overeating have become a tradition. There's a lot of money to save there. Being fit and slender saves a lot on health care costs, too. Get some discipline and pull away from the table, America.

* When did DVD players with TV screens become standard equipment in SUVs? Families used to talk and sing and play games about things they saw along the road. These kind of luxuries are really kind of obscene.

* Cell phones. When did every child have to have one? When did every parent have to have one to talk while driving and make themselves a hazard to everyone on the road?

* Bring back home economics classes. There is a lot to save by simply learning to cook for the family. Spaghetti with tomato sauce and bread is a filling meal and a cheap one, too. Too much pizza ordered from the local or chain eatery can be too costly. Publix in Cool Springs(TN) features a free, daily entree sampling and recipe of how to cook great meals at home.

There's more to add to this list. I just don't understand why such expenditures became household necessities.

Americans have pursued a lavish lifestyle beyond their means. They should cut their own household spending first before demanding government do more.

Warren Buffett has lost his credibility on investing and politics; CNBC interview uneventful and sad

Billionaire Warren Buffett scrambled this morning to explain his gross inconsistencies in his financial and political advice to the nation, showing how much credibility he has lost to influence political opinion and investor action.

Buffett told investors last September to get back into the stock market, even though he didn't tell us that he gets to invest in preferred stock with guaranteed dividends while the rest of us have to go with the common stock that's on a roller coaster.

I didn't follow his advice.

Buffett was trotted out repeatedly as Barack Obama's adviser on the economy during the presidential race. Now Buffett says he does not regularly communicate with Obama. Still, he defends the president's socialist policies to cover his own reputation.

I can't. Obama is destroying free market capitalism.

The Oracle of Omaha made himself a lot of money during the debauchery of the past two decades. But now that times are tough, he is no more of a visionary about how to invest than I am.

While he has billions to lose yet still enough arrogance to appear on CNBC as someone who knows what is going on, the rest of us don't. And if you followed his advice in September, you don't even a few dollars to lose.

Gannett stock falls belows $2 per share; McClatchy announces big layoffs, cuts; good change coming

The nation's big newspaper industry took another Rocky-like body blow today with Gannett Inc., Co. stock falling below $2 per share as the value of its chain newspapers continued to plummet.

Meanwhile, the McClatchy newspaper chain announced today that it was cutting 15 percent of its workforce.

The nation's big newspapers and their chains rightly suffer for their arrogance and ignoring balance and fairness for their own political agenda on the news pages.

Like GM, many deserve to close in favor of a new, community-based and owned journalism on the Internet and in smaller independent publications that publicly state their political inclinations such as The Nashville Free Press, a progressive publication.

Readers are not fooled anymore. Be upfront and truthful, and the profits and support will come.

A warning to investors: Avoid CNBC's Larry Kudlow's call that market is nearing its low and ready to rebound; he's a shameless Pollyanna

A year ago, CNBC's Larry Kudlow tried to convince investors that the stock market decline would not last.

He had charts and numbers to try and tell everyone that the economy was not as bad as people believed.

We all know what happened afterward. And then Barack Obama took office and made things worse.

Yet CNBC still allows Kudlow to pass on his Pollyanna view of the markets to wrongly convince investors to get back in or stay in. Tonight, he is at it again.

The man is a fool who should be avoided. Here is what I wrote a colleague about keeping her money in the market despite my warnings three previous times to get out. The colleague wanted to know what to do now.

The Dow finished down today almost 80 points to close near 6500.

We are in a time of hard truths. People who have lost money in the stock market because they have remained in it expecting a return to a Dow 10,000 or more are not going to make that money back in any significant form.

The 25 percent loss so far this year in the Dow just aggravated the situation.

People need to protect what they have left, not think about making back what they lost. The Dow is headed to 4000. The economy is going into a depression. When it starts back up, the Dow will gain slowly like it did in the 1960s before the Dow ever reached 1000. Gains of 10 points daily will be considered good days.

I don't like to be right about bad financial things and watch people suffer. But they suffer because of their greed, in believing they can regain what they've lost from their bad decisions.

God has provided me the talent to see these things and to understand that in things being bad, there can be important lessons thought. He did the same with the Israelites. He did the same with my leukemia.

Too many Americans are trying to avoid this truth.

We are in a time when bad decisions are going to be punished from GM to all the people who got home loans they really didn't deserve to folks who stayed in the market when there was plenty of warning to get out.

Sorry, but the future now is anyone's guess. I believe losses are now permanent for people who stayed in too long, and we are headed toward a depression when we will see things once thought unthinkable.

Hard times can be greatest teacher if we give up victimhood, greed, excess for needed change

I try to bounce my political opinions off a couple of people I really respect because they have constant contact with the public as families and consumers.

So today I was talking to a Williamson County businessman and recalling his remark from a few weeks ago that hard times are not necessarily bad for society.

And it was only now that I could really appreciate his remarks as I listen to more people scream for government and courts to solve their problems instead of looking to themselves, just as my parents and their parents did.

Hard times are a great teacher. My friend drives a $700 pickup even though he could afford a brand new car. I drive a 1994 Taurus. And we both delight in defying society's standards in saving money when others would prefer to spend and look good.

I love denying myself a treat, like a Whopper or an ICEE. First, both aren't good for me. Second, our Catholic faith teaches us to rejoice in denial of the body for the spirit.

This nation and its citizens have lived on over-excess for more than two decades, believing there would never be an end to rising home prices and better paying jobs and a robust stock market. But economic cycles dictate otherwise. And now for this nation, all three have come to grinding halt and even reversal.

We can complain and whine, or we can do something about it and do as our grandparents did in the Great Depression. We can toughen up and do without to simply survive now, and then take on prosperity with a new discipline and responsibility.

If we do not learn from misfortune and see it as an opportunity to change for the better, then we are doomed to dwell in despair and self pity that will only keep us down for good.

Nashville one of 10 most unhappiest cities in America: suicide rate, unemployment, divorces feed bad tune in Music City as recession deepens

In a remarkable article, BusinessWeek has compiled the top 10 unhappiest cities in America. And Nashville-Davidson County ranks No. 8.

Here is the profile:

8. Nashville-Davidson, Tenn.
Overall rank: 8
Depression rank: 4
Suicide rank: 26
Crime (property and violent) rank: 8
Divorce rate rank: 8
Cloudy days: 156
Unemployment rate (December 2008): 6%

The ranking makes sense. And it matches what I have been hearing from clergy, including Father Joe Pat Breen of St. Edward Catholic Church.

A week ago, he told his congregation of the growing anger he is feeling from people who feel betrayed, have been laid off and lost so much of their savings and retirement funds in the stock market.

NewsChannel 5 had a remarkable report about at least 30 tent cities that have popped around Nashville.

Small layoffs are mounting beneath the radar screen. I hear about someone being laid off everyday.

Music City is going through some very unmelodious times that are not going to get better anytime soon. The potential closing of the Spring Hill, TN., plant will only make matters worse.

The Nashville ranking is quite shocking and should be a warning to city and law enforcement leaders.

Unhappiness can manifest itself in many negative ways that will endanger the security and welfare of all.

Here is the top 10:

1. Portland, Ore.

2. St. Louis

3. New Orleans

4. Detroit

5. Cleveland

6. Jacksonville, Fla.

7. Las Vegas

8. Nashville-Davidson, Tenn.

9. Cincinnati

10. Atlanta

Tulip, other tress blooming around state Capitol

Spring in Tennessee is more beautiful than any place I've lived around the nation.

Around the state Capitol building, the tulip trees are blooming with their small off-red and white bulb flowers. I love the look but hate the smell. The blooms to me smell like stale beer.

White flowers are appearing on other trees. Spring has come amid a growing economic winter in Tennessee and the nation.

Let us then appreciate the moment of the changing of the natural seasons and thank our merciful Lord even if the economic one continues to grow colder and meaner.

More Sunday morning, TV News: Republicans say some big banks should be allowed to fail; Omigosh! Will kitty cats soon be sleeping with puppy dogs

In an incredible shift of traditional GOP positions, two key Republican senators told Sunday morning TV audiences that some big banks should be allowed to fail.

Yes. They actually said that.

One was Richard Shelby of Alabama and the other was John McCain. That would wipe out investors in bank common stock and a lot of executives, groups traditionally supported by the GOP.

I'm not saying that I disagree. I'm just shocked. Pleasantly so.

And the Obama administration wants to bailout all the big banks. Go figure.

Truly, the political world is turned upside down.

The New York Times reports:

John McCain and Richard Shelby, two high-profile Republican senators, said on Sunday that the government should allow a number of the biggest American banks to fail.

“Close them down, get them out of business,” Mr. Shelby, the senior Republican on the Banking Committee, told ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” “If they’re dead, they ought to be buried.”

While the Alabama senator did not say which banks to shutter, he suggested that Citigroup might be on that list, saying the bank has “always been a problem child.”

Mr. McCain, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” echoed that sentiment without identifying any banks. Mr. McCain, who lost the presidential election last November, also accused the Treasury Department of avoiding the “hard decision” to let “these banks fail.”

Investor concern about the future of banks, including Citigroup, have been one issue weighing heavily on the stock market. Financial shares continue to be among the worst hit, despite the trillions that governments are spending to try and restore the system. Citigroup shares, for example, closed at $1.03 on Friday; two years ago, the stock was trading at $55 a share.

Wow!

SIgn of the times: 700 people apply from one janitorial job in Ohio with benefits at $15 an hour

The Drudge Report is carrying this shocking story of how hard the economic times have hit this nation, at least in Canton, Ohio.

The economy was the main topic on this morning's Meet the Press. And the conclusion was that no one knows what is going to happen. A depression was not ruled out.

That is not very reassuring.


PERRY TWP. — Plant closed. Laid off.

Lack of work.

How hungry are people for work in today’s sinking economy?

Nearly 700 people have applied for a single job as a school custodian.

Perry Local Schools have an open position — full time with benefits — at Edison Junior High School after its afternoon janitor retired. It pays $15 to $16 an hour.

The job opened last Saturday, and district officials say the stack of applications continues to expand daily.

So much so, the deadline to apply for the position was moved from yesterday to 3:30 p.m. Monday to give potential hires more time.

Many of those who have applied say they lost their previous job due to budget cutbacks by their former employer.

“A lot of people have their stories when they come in. It’s heart-wrenching,” said Superintendent John Richard.

HOPE?

Dane Steed, 51, forged blades at Heinemann Saw Co. in Canton for nearly four years until last month.

He and several co-workers were let go because of a lack of work available. He put his name in the mix for Perry custodian post.

“Times are bad,” the Plain Township man said.

Steed said he has previous custodial experience at a school district and hopes he can retire at Edison.

“I don’t want to be doing this again,” Steed said.

Donna Croston, 49, of Plain Township, spent nine years on the assembly line at the Hoover Co. in North Canton before it closed last winter.

Prior to Hoover, she lost another factory job because the plant shut down.

For her, the custodial position at Edison represents more than a paycheck.

“There’s a lot of people out there like me that are looking for stability,” Croston said Friday.

Her two brothers are custodians for North Canton schools.

“They all love their jobs. They’ve never been laid off,” Croston said.ton, Ohio.

Gingrich shoots and scores! He compares Obama White House's Emmanuel to Nixon's Haldelman

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich scored the biggest points on Sunday morning political TV by comparing the Obama White House strategy of discrediting critics to that employed of Bob Haldeman during the Nixon administration.

Gingrich rightly cited Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel as the Obama administration's Haldeman. And we've seen the cesspool from which Emmanuel emerged, Chicago politics, where the governor was forced from office and the current U.S. senator refuses to resign despite lying to a legislative panel.

Obama has been trying to tie the GOP to being around the nose by Rush Limbaugh. Gingrich refuted that. And he went a better step further by saying no one in their right mind wants Obama to fail as president. The American people would suffer, he said.

But he rightly added that Obama's policies deepening the recession should fail. Watch for Gingrich's star to rise.

David Gregory takes apart two hypocrites of both political parties from the Senate; if you're not watching Meet the Press, you're missing a lot

Meet the Press moderator David Gregory continues to shed incredible light on the hypocrisy of Washington, this morning taking apart Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

The topic was the $410 billion omnibus spending bill to keep government operations going. Inside it are more than 7,000 earmarks for pork projects. Sen. John McCain and Sen. Russ Feingold have called on Obama to veto it and demand the earmarks be taken out, in keeping with his promise about earmarks in general in the State of the Union.

Obama, however, is not inclined to do so.

Schumer, a Democrat, has a load of earmarks in the bill. And Graham, a Republican, has a 37 earmarks, including $950,000 for Myrtle Beach to build a convention center. If Myrtle Beach wants a convention center, then it should sell revenue bonds to finance it and let taxpayers there pay off the instruments each year. Graham, however, continued to defend it despite Gregory's grilling.

Schumer tried to defend good earmarks, which there are some, but not more than 7,000. As a good earmark, he cited funding for a mortgage fraud protection program the Brookyln DA said he could not afford.

I'm sorry, but NYC has a hell of a lot of money, and a lot of wealthy people. If the program is needed, why not first go to them first, or get Mayor Bloomberg to fund it. He doesn't mind raising taxes. New Yorkers don't seem to mind paying high taxes.

You can't expect the federal government to cover the cost for even something supposedly good as Schumer cites when its credit card has been overused by $1.5 trillion. Households can't do that. Government should not either.

Schumer and Graham show how much both political parties betray. An Independent political party -- that only is dedicated to protecting the taxpayer first and ensuring he or she keeps as much as their income as possible -- is the only solution to destroy this kind of betrayal and hypocrisy.

Washington has shown it does not have the kind of discipline or responsibility to spend our money. It should then come back to us.

A very interesting question: Could America go bankrupt? Six in 10 Americans say it could but ...

Six in 10 Americans told FOXNEWS that they believe America could go bankrupt, but the same six in 10 say President Obama has met expectations.

The Dow is down 25 percent this year. And this year is only two months old. We've lost four million jobs.

Technically, since the nation can print its own money, it can't really go bankrupt. Yes, there needs to be someone to buy our debt. The Chinese so far have responded to our begging.

But the Communists soon will demand their own price: which would be taking over Taiwan and completing other expansionist policies.

No, America's can't go bankrupt. But that still doesn't mean people around the world won't suffer for too much spending by our government amid a recession becoming a depression.

How many employees does it take to operate a web-only, large newspaper: surprisingly few

The Hearst Corp. has the Seattle Post-Intelligencer up for sale or closure, perhaps as early as next week.

But if it decides to go a website-only publication, it could operate the Metro daily with just 22 full-time employees -- down from 170, says www.gannettblog.blogspot.com.

That's remarkable. I would think the newspaper would then hire private contract writers for more content, and save big money by not paying them benefits.

That could be the new model for the Fourth Estate, just as the auto industry will have to remodel itself as well.

Free at last, free at last: Obama rebukes his AG for trying to perpetuate black victimhood through condemning Americans over race relations

There is no bigger tyranny in this nation than the race-baiting industry maintained by some African-American leaders to maintain power by making whites feel bad about race relations and this nation's history.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder tried to reinforce that tyranny last month by calling Americans "a nation of cowards" for not regularly discussing race relations and for segregating in their communities.

It was a strange address considering that he is supposed to be the unbiased gatekeeper of the nation's law enforcement.

To his credit, President Barack Obama rebuked his AG and his comments in an interview Friday with The New York Times.

WASHINGTON — President Obama has chided his attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., for describing America as a “nation of cowards” when discussing race, wading into a tumult that flared over Mr. Holder’s indictment of the way this country talks about ethnicity.

“I think it’s fair to say that if I had been advising my attorney general, we would have used different language,” Mr. Obama said in a mild rebuke from America’s first black president to its first black attorney general.


Mild or not, the rebuke is needed. And Holder has shown that the merchants of terrorizing talk about race in this nation should be discredited and no longer allowed to wield influence in American social discourse on the subject.

I led race relations meetings called study circles in Utica, N.Y., as an editorial page editor. Our effort called Building Bridges was so successful that the Clinton White House in 1998 cited it as one of four national media efforts to use in American communities.

What Holder was seeking, however, was to re-energize the black victim hood industry used to shake down corporations and make Americans feel like failures over race relations.

The Nashville church I attend is not segregated. And even Williamson County, an affluent suburb of Nashville, has different races there -- segregated by class. All races want better schools, safe neighborhoods and lower taxes.

Despite what Holder stated, there is so much more than unites than divides in this nation. But he wants to focus on division to become more powerful.

He should take directions from Americans of Hispanic descent as myself. We don't want victim hood. We're not looking back history good or bad. We want government just to get out of the way for the future so we can work our butts off. Then, we'll choose our vision of the American Dream. We don't want some government program to do it, or a power-hungry Attorney General.

Revisiting race over and over as a problem serves only the few who want to be the ones dictating the discourse as a damning exercise and dividing the spoils that come from perpetuating guilt.

Obama didn't run on victim hood. He did not run as an African-American. And that is part of the reason why he won. He won as a candidate with the best ideas and campaign.

Holder has ultimately discredited the race-baiting industry that he tried to re-energize.

Indeed, this nation is free at last.

Market falls another 80 points, Obama's investment advice served him, not investors

A couple of days ago, President Obama told investors that now would be a good time to get into the market since P/E ratios on stocks are so low.

Now here comes this bit of wisdom today from a stock expert on Marketwatch.com:

'There's no doubt that people can look at market valuations and determine that stocks are relatively inexpensive — but that doesn't mean they're going to quit going down.'

— Michael Gibbs,
Morgan Keegan & Co.

And the Dow is down 80 points today. It is going to break the once unthinkable 6500 floor. I believe it will easily fall below 5000 by the end of the year as our recession turns into a depression.

So for all of you who followed Obama's advice and invested a couple of days ago, send your monthly financial statement to him.

Perhaps he can fire his private chef and give you a little of your money back.

Now, he'll argue that he said people should buy for the long term. But he said as much because national confidence is being severely undermined by the falling stock market. So Obama was seeking some political cover.

But folks who invest now are risking everything. These are unprecedented economic and investing times. Some analysts now are talking of a Dow 4000. Citi now trades under $1. Incredible.

The President should stick to something he knows, which from his spending plans so far, is not a helluva lot.

UPDATE: Dow recovers to gain six points. Every little bit helps.

Tapping into the anger: the following poem is worth a read to help you vent your feelings; taxpayers of America, you're being heard

I was up on Capitol Hill here in Nashville and was given this great poem that speaks so directly to the anger many Tennesseans and Americans are feeling toward the gross overspending in Washington.

Taxpayers, your voice is starting to be heard. An omnibus spending bill of $410 billion was stopped last night in the Senate for all the ridiculous earmarks in it. Democratic U.S. Evan Bayh of Indiana has come against the Obama spending spree.

So here's a poem to take to heart. And spread it around to focus the anger on the points it makes lest our nation become a socialist failure.

I don't agree with all its points. Government spending over the past 100 years has done some incredible good. And the health care system must be reformed toward universal care as a moral and economic choice that will cut down on the number of victims and costs.

Still, strong feelings must be raised and directed to prevent Obama and the Congress from destroying individualism and the American Dream in this nation.

Use the following for some inspiration that your voice is being heard.

The Tax Poem

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table
At which he's fed.

Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.

Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for peanuts anyway!

Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.

Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.

Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries
Tax his tears.

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.

Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won't be done
Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He's good and sore.

Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he's laid.

Put these words
Upon his tomb,
'Taxes drove me
to my doom...'

When he's gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (44.75 cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge T ax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Sales Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our
nation was the most prosperous in the world.

We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest
middleclass in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What in the heck happened? Can you spell 'politicians?'

And I still have to 'press 1' for English !?!
I hope this goes around THE USA at least 100 times!! YOU
can help it get there!!!!
GO AHEAD - - - BE AN AMERICAN!

Job losses in February push jobless rate to 8.1%

More than 650,000 more jobs were lost in February, pushing the unemployment rate above 8% with a distinct possibility that we will see a jobless rate of 10% this year.

The only sector that realized job gains last month was government, which ironically means that you the taxpayers are funding this job creation and not the private sector.

That's the wrong direction for this nation.

Health care reform needed but Obama, advocates must be honest in their portrayals of problem

ABC News says that President Barack Obama today misrepresented the truth about the severity of health care costs on American families.

Obama said there was a bankruptcy due to medical costs every 30 seconds. ABC News says he was way off.

In addition, the figure of 48 million used to describe the number of uninsured Americans needs more clarification. The Heritage Foundation says that 30 million actually are without health care. The remainder have access to it but don't sign for whatever reason. I have seen no one dispute the Heritage Foundation contention.

I believe in universal health care for the savings it will ultimately produce for all health care consumers. We've got the stop the money grubbers in the health care industry by forcing collective change.

I also believe no American should live in fear of being without the care to save their lives. I know such fear as a leukemia survivor so far.

But the issue must be represented accurately. Obama failed to do that today at a gathering meant to show the nation the extent of the problem. He hurt more than helped.

ABC reports:

President Obama’s kicking off his health care reform today in the worst possible way: with a mischaracterization of data.

“The cost of health care now causes a bankruptcy in America every thirty seconds," Obama said at the opening of his White House forum on health care reform. The problem: That claim, based on a 2001 survey, is simply unsupportable.

The figure comes from a 2005 Harvard University study saying that 54 percent of bankruptcies in 2001 were caused by health expenses. We reviewed it internally and knocked it down at the time; an academic reviewer did the same in 2006. Recalculating Harvard’s own data, he came up with a far lower figure – 17 percent.

A more recent study by another group, approaching it another way, indicates that in 2007 about eight-tenths of one percent of Americans lived in families that filed for bankruptcy as a result of medical costs. That rings a little less loudly than “one every 30 seconds.”

Barney Frank: Lawmakers have auto bailout fatigue; GM's fate and that of Spring Hill plant being sealed by taxpayer revolt over spending

CNBC reports tonight that Rep. Barney Frank -- a friend of big government spending -- how says his congressional colleagues have fatigue over considering an auto industry bailout.

That's bad news for General Motors, since it is the biggest money loser among the automakers and needs big financial help by the end of this month to pay bills and employees.

If Frank is losing interest, then President Obama faces an uphill battle to keep GM and its plants across the country open.

Dow 4000 amid a depression comes closer to reality after today's drop of 281 points on Dow

The prospect of a Dow 4000 amid an economic depression came closer to reality today as the financial markets prepared for tomorrow's jobs report that will show the worst employment losses since the 1940s.

The Dow today was off 281 points to 6,596 points. The S&P sagged below the important 700-point floor to 682 and the Nasdaq succumbed to lows below last November's levels. Now all three indices are below November's lows.

While economists and financial analysts love to debate the premise, the financial markers are a key barometer of what is to come. Yesterday's Wall Street Journal column by Harvard professor Barros cited in this blog showed irrefutable research that financial markets often have foretold depressions.

Investor confidence in 2009 is gone. Now it is all about safety. And people with money on the sidelines know that there will be no security on Wall Street for the duration of the Obama administration and a Pelosi-led house.

A Dow 4000 used to be laughed at, just as two decades ago a Dow 10,000 was considered crazy. But we reached the summit. Now we are going to experience the bottom.

If you are still in the market, your losses are for good. You can take your money out for security and earn a little in money market funds, but you have to face the reality that your money is not going to come back. Might as well protect what you have left and learn to accept it.

Things are only going to get worse, with a Dow headed below 5000 and a recession that is headed now toward a depression.

GM should fold for the nation's good, taxpayers

The auditor for General Motors concluded three months ago that the automaker should go into bankruptcy, according to a government-required report to stockholders.

Since then, the automaker's plight has worsened, leaving little doubt now that it should fold despite the White House's intent to bail it out. That would hurt many communities, including Spring Hill, TN. But tazpayers cannot afford another AIG.

GM sales fell 53 percent last month. With the economy not expected to improve for the remainder of this year and into the next, GM's survival is not fiscally wise.

Here is a report on the shocking findings from the auditor:

(MarketWatch) -- General Motors Corp. shares fell as much as 17% in early trading Thursday, retreating as the automaker and its auditor stoked more doubts that the company can keep its assembly lines running amid a historic dearth of new-car buyers.

GM said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission that bankruptcy was a possibility if its Viability Plan, as submitted to the Congress, didn't succeed.

The Detroit-based giant is seeking up to $30 billion in loans from the U.S. government, as well as loans from foreign governments including Canada, Germany, the U.K., Sweden and Thailand for up to $6 billion more.

Vehicle sales, which have dropped 40% in the U.S. from their peak, need to recover next year under the plan submitted to Congress.

GM's survival also depends on its ability to obtain liquidity and financing to establish an appropriate level of debt, cut costs and have consumers convinced of its viability -- as well as partly owned GMAC's ability to obtain funding from both wholesale and retail financing.

Deloitte & Touche made a similar analysis, concluding that GM's "recurring losses from operations, stockholders' deficit and inability to generate sufficient cash flow to meet its obligations and sustain its operations raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."

Shades of Richard Nixon: Obama has a White House enemies' list to go after vocal opposition

It's shocking but increasingly true:

The Obama White House has taken a page from Richard Nixon and adopted an enemies' list strategy to go after prominent people who disagree with its policies.

Rick Santelli, Rush Limbaugh and now Jim Cramer. At least that is what Cramer says:

When I come to work each day, whether as a commentator for TheStreet.com or a host of Mad Money With Jim Cramer, I have only one thought in mind: helping people with their money.

I fight to help viewers and readers make and preserve capital. I fight for their 401(k)s, for their 529s and their IRAs. I fight for their annuities and for their life insurance policies. I fight for their profits, trading and investing. And in this horrible market, I fight to keep their losses to a minimum by having some good dividend-yielding stocks from different sectors, some bonds, some gold and some cash.

The lines are drawn pretty clearly: If you can help people make money to be able to retire, enjoy life, pay for college, pay down debt, etc., you are a "good guy," so to speak. If you take the other side of the trade, you are, well, let's say, a less favored fellow. And if you gun for the gigantic investor class that is out there that includes 90 million people in one form or another, whether it be 401(k)s or individual stocks or pension plans, then you are on my enemies list.

Now some, including Rush Limbaugh, would say I am on another enemies list: that of the White House. Limbaugh says there are only a handful of us on it, and if I am on it for defending all of the shareholders out there, then I am in good company. Limbaugh -- whom I do not know personally, but having been in radio myself, know professionally as a genius of the medium -- says, "They're going to shut Cramer up pretty soon, too, but he'll go down with a fight."


The Obama administration, as is the case with many of those of a liberal perspective, are showing their intolerance for differing opinion. I discovered that truth after I quit carrying the Democratic Party line at The Tennessean. The venom from the Left -- from inside the newsroom and from outside -- was shocking, vulgar and disillusioning.

Frank Ritter, who also differed from the liberal elite in writing his column for The Tennessean, received the same reception. We talked about this topic often and shook our heads in disappointment.

Conservatives in turn are willing to listen to the other side, even if they vocally disagree.

An enemies' list in which the White House press secretary publicly goes after those who disagree with the president will backfire. It did on Nixon. Obama will reap the same.

I'm not a Cramer fan. He has given some bad advice in the past. But now he has come to his senses and told investors to beware. That is sound advice amid a market in which Obama has become a big negative for his socialism and the destruction of individualism in this nation.

White House behind making Rush the face of GOP

The White House is part of the strategy to paint Rush Limbaugh as the image and voice of the Republican Party, POLITICO reports. And it seems to be successful, thanks to Rush.

The GOP is hampered by the lack of a leader, a national public voice. And Limbaugh is embracing the White House and Democratic Party effort, POLITICO says.

I don't care for Rush. And the White House thinks most of the American people feel the same.

Here is what POLITICO reports:

Top Democrats believe they have struck political gold by depicting Rush Limbaugh as the new face of the Republican Party, a full-scale effort first hatched by some of the most familiar names in politics and now being guided in part from inside the White House.

The strategy took shape after Democratic strategists Stanley Greenberg and James Carville included Limbaugh’s name in an October poll and learned their longtime tormentor was deeply unpopular with many Americans, especially younger voters. Then the conservative talk-radio host emerged as an unapologetic critic of Barack Obama shortly before his inauguration, when even many Republicans were showering him with praise.

Soon it clicked: Democrats realized they could roll out a new GOP bogeyman for the post-Bush era by turning to an old one in Limbaugh, a polarizing figure since he rose to prominence in the 1990s.

Limbaugh is embracing the line of attack, suggesting a certain symbiosis between him and his political adversaries.

"The administration is enabling me,” he wrote in an e-mail to POLITICO. “They are expanding my profile, expanding my audience and expanding my influence. An ever larger number of people are now being exposed to the antidote to Obamaism: conservatism, as articulated by me. An ever larger number of people are now exposed to substantive warnings, analysis and criticism of Obama's policies and intentions, a ‘story’ I own because the [mainstream media] is largely the Obama Press Office.”

The bigger, the better, agreed Carville. “It’s great for us, great for him, great for the press,” he said of Limbaugh. “The only people he’s not good for are the actual Republicans in Congress.”

If Limbaugh himself were to coin a phrase for it, he might call it Operation Rushbo – an idea that started out simply enough but quickly proved to be deeply resonant by a rapid succession of events, say Democrats inside and outside the West Wing.


There's no doubt that Obama's people know the image game front and back. They elected their man with ease. And now they'll keep the GOP opposition minimized with Rush as its face.

Chance of a Depression in America is one in five

A Harvard economist has determined that the U.S. economy has a one in five chance of slipping into a Depression.

His research is painstakingly thorough. And it tries to match up a potential crash in the stock market with the current economic woes.

A Depression is not the end of the world. Our parents and their parents survived it. We can, too. But it is important now to prepare in your spending and saving.

Professor Robert J. Barro's research is worthy to read as a matter of education as to the times we face now, and potentially worse to come.

Here is an excerpt:

The U.S. macroeconomy has been so tame for so long that it's impossible to get an accurate reading about depression odds just from the U.S. data. My approach uses long-term data for many countries and takes into account the historical linkages between depressions and stock-market crashes.

(The research is described in "Stock-Market Crashes and Depressions," a working paper Jose Ursua and I wrote for the National Bureau of Economic Research last month.)

The bottom line is that there is ample reason to worry about slipping into a depression. There is a roughly one-in-five chance that U.S. GDP and consumption will fall by 10% or more, something not seen since the early 1930s.

Our research classifies just two such U.S. events since 1870: the Great Depression from 1929 to 1933, with a macroeconomic decline by 25%, and the post-World War I years from 1917 to 1921, with a fall by 16%.

We also assembled long-term data on GDP, consumption and stock-market returns for 33 other countries, sometimes going back as far as 1870. Our conjecture was that depressions would be closely connected to stock-market crashes (at least in the sense that a crash would signal a substantially increased chance of a depression).

This idea seems to conflict with the oft-repeated 1966 quip from Paul Samuelson that "The stock market has predicted nine of the last five recessions." The line is clever, but it unfairly denigrates the predictive power of stock markets.

In fact, knowing that a stock-market crash has occurred sharply raises the odds of depression. And, in reverse, knowing that there is no stock-market crash makes a depression less likely.

Our data reveal 251 stock-market crashes (defined as cumulative real returns of -25% or less) and 97 depressions. In 71 cases, the timing of a market crash matched up to a depression. For example, the U.S. had a stock-market crash of 55% between 1929-31 and a macroeconomic decline of 25% for 1929-33.

Likewise, Finland had a stock-market crash of 47% for 1989-91 and a macroeconomic fall of 13% for 1989-93.

In this relatively favorable scenario, we may follow the path recently sketched by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, with the economy recovering by 2010. On the other hand, the 59 nonwar depressions in our sample have an average duration of nearly four years, which, if we have one here, means that it is likely recovery would not be substantial until 2012.

Given our situation, it is right that radical government policies should be considered if they promise to lower the probability and likely size of a depression. However, many governmental actions -- including several pursued by Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression -- can make things worse.

I wish I could be confident that the array of U.S. policies already in place and those likely forthcoming will be helpful. But I think it more likely that the economy will eventually recover despite these policies, rather than because of them.

REVOLT! Democratic Sen. Bayh of Indiana takes on President Obama over spending too much so soon; We the Taxpayers may have an advocate after all

Today brought the first break in Democratic Party ranks as Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh -- once a favorite to be President Obama's running mate -- came out strongly against excessive spending in Washington and by the White House.

Bayh also came out against raising taxes on people making more than $250,000 a year.

At issue presently is an omnibus spending bill of more than $400 billion with more earmarks than even Dumbo could leave in one flyby. Republicans and Democrats have larded down the measure to be considered this week. Bayh is urging the measure's defeat, and if not, an Obama veto.

Also today, Sen. Russ Feingold, another Democrat, and Sen. John McCain urged defeat of the measure. It was drawn up the previous Congress. Its passage is needed to keep government operating.

But Bayh went a step further than his colleagues and criticized the overzealous spending by the Obama administration in a column for The Wall Street Journal:

Our nation's current fiscal imbalance is unprecedented, unsustainable and, if unaddressed, a major threat to our currency and our economic vitality. The national debt now exceeds $10 trillion. This is almost double what it was just eight years ago, and the debt is growing at a rate of about $1 million a minute.

Washington borrows from foreign creditors to fund its profligacy. The amount of U.S. debt held by countries such as China and Japan is at a historic high, with foreign investors holding half of America's publicly held debt. This dependence raises the specter that other nations will be able to influence our policies in ways antithetical to American interests. The more of our debt that foreign governments control, the more leverage they have on issues like trade, currency and national security. Massive debts owed to foreign creditors weaken our global influence, and threaten high inflation and steep tax increases for our children and grandchildren.

The solution going forward is to stop wasteful spending before it starts. Families and businesses are tightening their belts to make ends meet -- and Washington should too.

The omnibus debate is not merely a battle over last year's unfinished business, but the first indication of how we will shape our fiscal future. Spending should be held in check before taxes are raised, even on the wealthy. Most people are willing to do their duty by paying taxes, but they want to know that their money is going toward important priorities and won't be wasted.

Last week I was pleased to attend the president's White House Fiscal Responsibility Summit. It's about time we had a leader committed to addressing the deficit, and Mr. Obama deserves great credit for doing so. But what ultimately matters are not meetings or words, but actions. Those who vote for the omnibus this week -- after standing with the president and pledging to slice our deficit in half last week -- jeopardize their credibility.

As Indiana's governor, I balanced eight budgets, never raised taxes, and left the largest surplus in state history. It wasn't always easy. Cuts had to be made and some initiatives deferred. Occasionally I had to say "no."

But the bloated omnibus requires sacrifice from no one, least of all the government. It only exacerbates the problem and hastens the day of reckoning. Voters rightly demanded change in November's election, but this approach to spending represents business as usual in Washington, not the voters' mandate.

Now is the time to win back the confidence and trust of the American people. Congress should vote "no" on this omnibus and show working families across the country that we are as committed to living within our means as they are.

Three House lawmakers decide that UT football game buses are more important than saving lives

Kudos to WSMV's Cara Kumari for a fine report on a House subcommittee meeting oday tin which a no-brainer measure to ban open containers in motor vehicles failed to get needed support.

Why? Because state Rep. Ulyssess Jones of Memphis, the most worthless member of the House next to Rep. Joe Towns also of Memphis, said that such a measure would interfere with UT buses full of fans drinking on the way to the game.

Yes, you read right. UT football is more important than getting alcohol out of motor vehicles on the road driving by your family.

State law bans a driver from having an open container. But passengers can drink up. And only a fool would believe that the alcohol doesn't ultimately get to the driver.

MADD advocates say we are talking about saving 20 lives.

But in the 3-3 vote, those lives were considered less worthy than the enjoyment of UT football fans wanting to get loaded.

If this gets you mad, then ask that a subcommittee member bring the measure to the full House floor. State Rep. Jon Lundberg, (R-Bristol), supports the bill.

Tennessee's legal industry: It serves itself before you for profit and arrogance; WSMV finds men restrained by protection orders still keep guns

Here's something you already know individually: Tennessee's legal system serves itself first to your detriment and needs.

From divorce courts to criminal ones, the people are ill-served and often robbed of their dignity and dollars. But there can be an even higher cost. And nothing is more shocking than what a WMSV investigation found in a random search of protection orders across Tennessee in domestic violence cases.

A legislative committee today reviewed WSMV's findings of 100 men found not to have been stripped of their gun carrying permits despite being restrained by court orders.

Committee members were outraged. And the TBI chief tried to explain why. Ultimately, one of the biggest problems is that the courts are not getting the protection orders fast enough to the TBI so permits can be stripped.

And that means women die.

All the state Legislature feels it can do is ask for the Judiciary to do better. That's ridiculously wrong.

If not lawmakers, then who is to represent the people's interests? Is sure isn't going to be too many -- but not all -- judges and attorneys using the people's business as a profit-making industry.

But there is a new day coming of accountability.

Look to this blog for developments in a new state effort to shed light on the wrongs of the legal industry so you can know how to demand change.

And congratulations to WSMV for trying to save the lives of women targeted for abuse and even death.

Coming tomorrow in Williamson Herald: We need independent political party created only to preserve American Dream and individualism

My column in tomorrow's Williamson Herald highlights way for taxpayers and homeowners to address political mess in Washington and protect their own backs financially.

The American Dream has been threatened along with individualism that made this nation great.

Electric bills will be rising to help pay for overspending; call it 'The Obama tax hike' on all Americans, particularly the most impoverished

A friend of mine sent me the following message:

DUE TO RECENT BUDGET CUTS, AND
THE RISING COST OF ELECTRICITY,
GAS AND OIL, THE LIGHT AT THE END
OF THE TUNNEL HAS BEEN TURNED OFF.
W