A message from Bob Tuke:

The recent devastation in Myanmar left by Cyclone Nargis has our hearts grieving, and our fervent prayers are with the victims of this unspeakable disaster. With the death toll already estimated as high as 100,000 and countless men, women, and children left homeless and destitute by this week's destruction, the call to give generously, with open hearts, cannot be ignored.

Earlier today our campaign made a donation to the Red Cross International Response Fund. Will you join me by donating $25 dollars to Myanmar relief today?

Click here to support relief efforts.

Your contribution will go entirely to the efforts of the Red Cross in providing medical attention, food, water, and shelter to hundreds of thousands in need of emergency assistance.

One of the many reasons I am proud to call myself a Tennessean is because our men and women have always answered the call of duty. Donate $25 today, and let's answer the call to provide for the victims of Cyclone Nargis and to deliver a message of hope to Myanmar.

Sincerely,
Bob Tuke

A good idea, regardless of which candidate you support.

Progressive Nashville:

Noted economist Phil Valentine says all this talk about a recession is nonsense. We haven't recorded two consecutive quarters of negative growth, so we should spend like drunken sailors lest our pessimism create a recession.

Thank heavens Valentine doesn't have control of anything more dangerous than a cough switch.

Yes, wingnut radio talk show hosts are the first place I turn for financial advice.

Some believe we can talk ourselves into a recession, or spend our way out of one. I'm not so sure the borrow-and-spend approach is working. What do you think?

Despite recent efforts to curtail copper theft in Tennessee...

If you still have above-ground power supply in your area, check the utility poles feeding your house.

I was just out at my street corner yesterday doing some pruning, and I noticed that the surface mounted conduit was slashed and about a 10' segment of the #6 ground wire was cut from the base of the pole to about the proper height for a man of average height equipped with a standard pair of bolt cutters.

Someone lifted our ground, so to speak. I figure that's probably not good, as the shortest path to ground is now through my house.

A cursory review of the poles along the line revealed the same pattern.

I called my power company and they're supposed to be having a look.

Appalachia is being utterly gutted by Big Coal. The desperate calls for change are coming from the ground up, and our candidates must now come here.

As "The Examiner" notes:

Of the remaining 566 Democratic delegates to be won, 352 will be awarded from Appalachian states. The western parts of Pennsylvania (April 22) and North Carolina (May 6) along with West Virginia (May 13) and Kentucky (May 20) will take on outsized importance in the weeks to come.

The choice is obvious...
A majority of West Virginians oppose mountaintop removal.
A majority of Americans oppose mountaintop removal.

The political will to end mountaintop removal is here.

Was just checking in from vacation land and learned the sad news that Volunteer Voters is no more. Today was apparently Kleinheider's last day.

I pretty much disagree with ACK's libertarian leaning right-wing politics, but as a media paid blogger he generally gave all points of view equal time. And if there was something going on in Tennessee politics, Kleinheider was all over it before anyone else. Over a short period of time he developed some pretty good sources, which is why Volunteer Voters was arguably the best political blog in the state of Tennessee.

The mainstream media corner office morons never cease to amaze me. Their business is changing, but some of them are too stupid to figure out how to change with it. Selling internet ads isn't rocket science. Kos gets $15K per week for his premium ad spot, and he doesn't even have a sales staff.

Kleinheider built a valuable brand, and WKRN flushed it down the toilet. The WKRN idiots in suits must have been out getting high and playing video games the day they covered branding in Marketing 101. And it's not the first time this has happened over there. The sad irony is, Hobbs still has a job. Sometimes there is no justice.

Anyway, so long ACK. Nice work, and we hope to see you around the blogosphere.

We has done made the big time here in Tennessee!!!!

Moody's Economy.com recently released a study assessing the U.S. economy at the state level. USA Today presented the findings in an interactive map.

According to the map, Tennessee remains in expansion mode.

The map also lists the status of the states' major metropolitan areas.

The following cities have expanding economies: Knoxville, Memphis, Tri-Cities.

These cities are at risk of economic contraction: Chattanooga, Nashville.

Sorry, folks, no roundup this week. Bubba and the Mrs. are on vacation, watching the sunrise over the ocean, and for some reason not thinking about politics or much of anything else at the moment. The roundup will return when we do (or if I get bored next week). In meantime, check out the blogroll over there on the right and roll your own.

Memphis born and bred Cary Fowler is in charge of the “Doomsday Vault” seed bank in Svalbard, Norway. The Vault, which opened last week, will store seeds from every country on earth, and from every variety of food crop.

He will be in Memphis at the Pink Palace Museum, Monday, March 10, 2008, for a free public lecture entitled, “Seed Banks and Polar Bears: The Quest to Save Agriculture’s Past and Our Future.” This is one of a series of free public lectures in connection with our new exhibit, “Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics.” More details are available on the Pink Palace Museum page on Art Museum Touring.com (Link...).

Fowler grew up in Memphis, graduated from White Station High School and spent his summers on his grandmother’s farm near Madison, Tennessee. That is where his interest in agriculture began. Fowler is the Executive Director Global Crop Diversity Trust based in Rome.

This is a tremendous opportunity to learn more about this fantastic project to protect one of the world's most basic resources, food, and perhaps our species. If you can, you should make an effort to go to this lecture and reception to meet Fowler. The importance of the seed bank makes all the political squabbling pale in comparison. It would be a nice break!

Sherrie

Eleanor beat me to it, but...

Crossposted from LWC

All right. progressive blogosphere, it's time to crank up!

I learned about this effort as I learn many great things, from the fabulous DIGBY.

Monkeyfister, who is apparently FROM MEMPHIS, has this wonderful post up about aiding our brothers and sisters in the Mid-South who suffered damage and loss due to yesterday's horrifying tornado outbreak. With his blessing, I reprint the post here for your benefit:

Whilst we're waiting for George's Promised Prayers to roll in, down here in the Tornado-Stricken Mid-South, I might recommend some DIRECT HUMAN INTERACTION.

This Is My Best First Start To Help My Region.

As Scout Prime is to NOLA, I am, suddenly, to the Mid-South area (I LIVE here, and was Live-Blogging these horrible storms all night), and have started to get the help-ball rolling down here. Some of you know where I work. I started a Food Drive there today for the Mid-South United Way Food Bank.

As the area affected is so broad and detached, and everyone in the Country was distracted by politics last night, as yet, there is no central assistance hub set-up. So, at the link, above, you'll find the two agencies with the broadest radius to help the area right now. Both take DIRECT donations.

A small-blog swarm on that post (or this comment) would be greatly appreciated by more people than just me. I can't describe how wide-spread the damage is down here. It's enormous. The Media, per usual, is only just now waking up to the situation, after their Super-Duper-Let's-All-Wet-Our-Pants-Together- Tuesday Political Hangover. Like NOLA, these are REALLY poor folks down here, and have nothing, and nowhere to go.

A short post about this at YOUR Blog, linking either to my post, above, or directly to the two Orgs mentioned in the post above, would sure be a big help, and would be greatly appreciated by many people who are relying on help. They are all that we have right now.

I just donated a deer's worth of ground venison, along with the 100 pounds of rice and quart-sized ziplock bags that they said that they needed at the United Way Mid-South Food Bank, when I phoned them this morning. Their pantry is BARE, and I'll be loading them up with all the potatoes, rice, veggies, bags, and other staples that I can fit in my truck tomorrow.

This is serious Red State country, and a flood of help from the DFH Left would REALLY make a big difference in a number of good ways.

I thank you all in advance.

Click Here for more about what's going on down here. It's all that I am writing about right now. Help is needed.

Your humble peer,

Monkeyfister

Let's help out, bloggers!

UPDATE: I still want you to read his posts, but let's cut to the chase, donations go here:

American Red Cross
Mid-South Chapter
1400 Central Avenue
Memphis, TN 38104
901-726-1690

And:
United Way of the Mid-South phone in a donation at (901) 433-4300.

Don't know about y'all, but I'm being deluged by emails and communiques from friends near and far asking how they can help folks affected by the recent disaster. From Tennessean.com...

Link...

Most of my money's probably going to Second Harvest and the Community Foundation of Middle TN.

Supercell storms have caused serious damage at Union College in Memphis; some students trapped.

One fatality reported so far.

The storm knocked out a couple of TVA main lines in Western Kentucky and caused significant damage throughout Middle TN.

According to Channel 4 in Nashville, there's a pileup between mile marker 70 and 80 involving at least 60 (edit: now reported to be 20) transfer trucks and an unreported number of automobiles. TEMA and the THP are on the site.

...developing...

Here's hoping that everyone is OK.

But you might need to find alternate routes if you're moving through West Tennessee tomorrow.

Late add: Lightning apparently caused an explosion at a natural gas transfer facility in Trousdale. Still burning at this hour.

This is so cool. Free classes and lectures, even if they don't count towards a specific degree are awesome!

Washington Post article

MIT OpenCourseWare

Open Yale Courses

UC Berkeley YouTube channel

Zotero: collect, manage, and cite research sources

Disturbing rumors.

Knoxville City Councilman Joe Hultquist has a great post over at KnoxViews about the grand opening of Charlotte NC's light rail line.

What he said:

...steep, sandy hillsides adjacent to backcountry scrub are every bit as stupid a place to live as muddy, below sea level gulf coast floodplains. Any right-thinking Californians are hereby requested to not be retarded about rebuilding, and I hope you don’t get one red cent of government money if you are.

• 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera: Paul supporters busted for minting coins

• Andy Axel: Fall Color, plus Wherefore art thou Red Pickup?

• BlountViews: TVA Green Power presentation at the library

• The Crone Speaks: Vote the issues

• Cup of Joe Powell: Send the Open Government Committee home

• Enclave: Cooper votes against linking war funding to withdrawal timetable

• Fletch: Sunset on the Beach

• KnoxViews: CNN the big loser in debate

• Lean Left: Dem leadership takes sides on telecom immunity

• Left of the Dial: NYT profiles TN Lottery CEO

• Left Wing Cracker: How many black eyes can Memphis take?

• Loose TN Canon: the Fox News culture of porn

• NewsComa: Sunshine law rendered meaningless

• Pesky Fly: Dodd blogging

• Progress Nashville: Warning Sign$

• Resonance: Fox News: Speaker Pelosi responsible for high gas prices (Check out the graph. Heh.)

• RoaneViews: Good Job, Lincoln!, plus: Numbers craze school daze

• Russ McBee: You have no privacy. Get over it.

• Sharon Cobb: Biggest trainwreck in American history occurred in Nashville (with some interesting social and political background)

• Silence Isn't Golden: It's not symbolic, it's what they were elected to do!, bonus, Sen. Clinton, there is only one correct answer to that question.

• Southern Beale: No one could have anticipated this., bonus: Get back in the kitchen!

• Tennessee Guerilla Women: Rove's first column for Newsweek, bonus: And the swiftboating begins

• Whites Creek Journal: Al Gore will be in the White House, bonus: Fred explains electoral and economic theory

• Women's Health News: Ballot initiative to define fertilized eggs as persons, part 1, and Part 2

The Nashville Business Journal reports that Tennessee's unemployment rate was 4.7% in October, down from 5.1% in 2006.

The report summarizes gains in a number of sectors, but notes that Tennessee lost 7,400 manufacturing jobs as compared to October 2006.

After a long, ongoing dispute, Nashville's Belmont University and the Tennessee Baptist Convention have reached a multi-million dollar settlement to end their relationship of 56 years.