"Hello, Memphis..." (VIDEO)

Following up on my post from earlier this week.

Race to the Top comes through for Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis, TN (VIDEO)

I'm hoping they put the speech up somewhere, because it looks like a good time was had by all.



This last bit was first caught by The Only Adult In The Room:

Does anyone else smell a lawsuit brewing in Tennessee? (VIDEO)

A quick repeat of last night's Number One story on Countdown with Keith Olbermann:



Think Progress:

As ThinkProgress has noted, there are currently two competing visions of governance in the United States. One, the conservative vision, believes in the on-your-own society, and informs a policy agenda that primarily serves the well off and privileged sectors of the country. The other vision, the progressive one, believes in an American Dream that works for all people, regardless of their racial, religious, or economic background.

The conservative vision was on full display last week in Obion County, Tennessee. In this rural section of Tennessee, Gene Cranick’s home caught on fire. As the Cranicks fled their home, their neighbors alerted the county’s firefighters, who soon arrived at the scene. Yet when the firefighters arrived, they refused to put out the fire, saying that the family failed to pay the annual subscription fee to the fire department. Because the county’s fire services for rural residences is based on household subscription fees, the firefighters, fully equipped to help the Cranicks, stood by and watched as the home burned to the ground:

Paul Krugman:

This is essentially the same as denying someone essential medical care because he doesn’t have insurance. So the question is, do you want to live in the kind of society in which this happens?

Jonathan Cohn:

I really don't know enough about the specifics of this story to address it authoritatively, other than to share the general sense of shock that Foster seems to feel. (The fire fighters stood there and let the house burn? Really?) But I also understand the libertarian argument and think this story exemplifies the problems of applying that theory to other issues. Yes, I'm thinking primarily of health care reform.

Fire protection is usually compulsory. You pay for it with your taxes, just like you pay for police protection, a national defense, and Social Security. But in rural areas, apparently, some people who could pay for fire protection don't--in the same way that some people who could buy health insurance today don't. The trouble with this arrangement is that some people who decline protection will need it.

Foster (who, by the way, is a really interesting writer I just discovered a few weeks ago) says that the firefighters should have accepted the offer for payment, on the spot, and doused the flame. I'd go a bit farther than that. To me this is a classic case for requiring payment up front--that is, an individual mandate. People shouldn't have the option to decline fire protection if protection is available. If they refuse to pay the fees, assuming they are reasonable relative to their means, they should be subject to financial penalties. The same goes for health insurance. Don't let people go without basic coverage, but make them pay for it, to whatever extent their income allows.

Does that make me a little paternalistic? You bet. And I'm ok with that. We all make really poor decisions sometimes. And while I think suffering the consequences of those decisions is generally a good thing, or at least a necessary thing, some consequences strike me as too extreme.

Here's a question. How negligent is the Fire Department for not stepping in and stopping the first fire when it started, and preventing it from spreading to the next house which had paid the fee. If they had been allowed to do their job, the second house would not have burned.

I think the owner of the second house has a case against the state of Tennessee. He paid his fee, and the actions of Fire Department caused his house to catch fire.

This is why we don't do this in civilized societies. It's not about wagging a finger at the man who didn't pay a fee, this is supposed to be about making sure fire damages as few homes as possible, and the Tennessee law failed to do that.

You have a chance to do something about this November 2nd, because if the Tea Party wins, this philosophy will spread.

Crap. (VIDEO)

He's doin' it. Harold's gonna run, but in New York this time, not Tennessee.

After weeks of bashing hard-left Liberals, let me take a moment to bash ConservaDem Harold Ford. He comes from a rich family that owns most of Nashville, at least that's what I was told by a Nashville native back in the day. He must think the Senate is his birthright.

Whoever told him that going to a Playboy SuperBowl Party, no matter how innocent, despite the fact he's a single guy, was giving him bad advice. No matter how innocent it was, it allowed Bob Corker to take this racist cheap shot at him:



I'm no fan of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) either. She was an awful pick by Gov. Patterson, but don't want to lose this seat. Just as she's being pushed to the left (NYC apparently doesn't trust her), this happens. What the hell makes him think this is going to work?

TPM: There was also a gun at Rep. Steve Cohen's Town Hall event ...

Gabrielle Giffords, apparently, is not alone.

What's truly sad is that for me (and I think a majority of African-Americans) is we know who these people are. We always have. We know the true nature of the protests, and what sort of person is behind these threats, always escalating the rhetoric and the threat of violence...

...and it's not mainstream Republicans.

Mainstream Republicans merely don't like the bill.

Mainstream Republicans are not willing to kill over the bill.

But the real problem is that too many mainstream Republicans are willing to let this slide, to take advantage, to let others to push the envelope in order to score political points.

Following a tense town hall meeting by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) in Memphis over the weekend, local TV reported that one attendee was packing heat and had been escorted from the room -- which if true, would be a dramatic escalation in the increasingly confrontational health care debate. However, TPMDC has learned that there was not in fact any threat made, nor was it a cause for immediate alarm in its full context.

While one attendee did indeed possess a firearm, he did so in accordance with the state's conceal and carry laws, and was fully cooperative when asked to take it to his car due to a no-guns rule for the meeting.

"The gun issue was handled before the meeting," Shelby County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Shular told TPM. The audience was asked at the beginning whether anybody had a gun. One man replied that, yes, he was carrying a gun. He was told to leave it in his car for the meeting, and then did so. An officer followed him to his car, made sure that his permit was in order, and he was then allowed to re-enter the event.

Just so you know, Congressman Cohen...is a friggin' Doctor. I heard him on the Randi Rhodes show this (August 10, 2009) afternoon, and I gotta give him credit. He called this for what it is: racism, and the fear of some people that their world is changing.

Gore vs. Rep. Blackburn (VIDEO)

Vice President Al Gore, punching back.