Sue here at Facing South reported on Wednesday about the sudden "glitch" that befell WHNT TV in Huntsville, Alabama last weekend -- precisely at the moment that a 60 Minutes expose was airing which argued that the prosecution of former Alabam Gov. Don Siegelman (D) was politically motivated.

As the New York Times reports today, WHNT officials are sticking to their story:

In an attempt to clear up questions about how an Alabama television station lost its signal at the start of Sunday’s edition of “60 Minutes” on CBS, the management of the station, WHNT-TV, issued a statement Thursday citing equipment failure.

The station, in Huntsville, said that after a review, it had concluded that the blackout was related to a similar interruption during a basketball game the day before.

WHNT has been furiously responding to an avalanche of questions about the eight-minute blackout (which we had reported as lasting 12 minutes); here's one such response from sent to a blogger at DailyKos from WHNT's news anchor Elise Morgan:

If you're at all interested in the details of what happened, I can tell you. At first we thought the problem was on CBS's end because we'd had some problems with their feed during basketball Saturday night. Even worse, it's the weekend and there's no engineer in the building to fix it. It took 8 minutes to figure out what in the world was going on... skeleton crew and all... and fix it. But the fact that it just so happened to occur during this story that is filled with allegations of a conspiracy, feeds the conspiracy theorists themselves that this is no accident at all. No it doesn't look good. That's why we call it a P.R. nightmare. But I can assure you it was nothing more than a problem with our receiver. That's why other stations across the country could get the program even if we couldn't.

CBS bent over backwards to allow to us re-air the story again on our 10 pm newscast that night and at 6:00 pm the next day, commercial-free, so everyone in our area could see it. The story actually got more attention and air time than if it had aired as scheduled.

Sounds like it could have been an honest glitch to me. And either way, the blackout probably brought more attention to the story than if they had aired as usual.

Labels: 60 minutes, Alabama, don siegelman, karl rove, whnt

This week, the Pew Center on the States released a bombshell study revealing that our country is locking up record numbers of people in jail and prison.

For the first time in history, the U.S. -- which, according to Pew, lock up more people than any other country, including China -- is now putting one out of every 100 people behind bars.

Beyond that shocking headline are some interesting details:

* The South leads: Thanks to its punitive justice policies, the South has led the country's incarceration boom over the last two decades -- and Pew finds 2007 was no exception:

The South led the way, with its population jumping from 623,563 to 641,024—a rise of 2.8 percent. Only three of the 16 states in the southern region reported a drop in inmates, while nine experienced growth exceeding 4 percent.

[Note: Pew's definition of the South is different than the Institute's, but that doesn't affect the numbers.]

* Race is a huge factor: Compared to the one-in-a-100 national average, one out of every 36 Hispanic males are incarcerated; for African-American men, that number jumps to one in 15.

* Florida tops the list: Pew offers Florida as a cautionary example in exploding incarceration rates, noting that the state's increase -- the highest in the country -- was not due to higher crime but "stemmed from a host of correctional policies and practices adopted by the state." For example:

One of the first came in 1995, when the legislature abolished “good time” credits and discretionary release by the parole board, and required that all prisoners—regardless of their crime, prior record, or risk to recidivate—serve 85 percent of their sentence. Next came a “zero tolerance” policy and other measures mandating that probation officers report every offender who violated any condition of supervision and increasing prison time for these “technical violations.” As a result, the number of violators in Florida prisons has jumped by anestimated 12,000.

Pew further notes that, while Florida's crime rate has gone down, it's not due to locking more people up -- other states that didn't incarcerate more people, or even locked up less people (like New York) also saw declines.

* Incarceration is costly: As Pew's analysis finds:

Total state spending on corrections—including bonds and federal contributions—topped $49 billion last year, up from $12 billion in 1987. By 2011, continued prison growth is expected to cost states an additional $25 billion.

The full report is available here. (pdf)

Labels: crime, criminal justice, Florida, incarceration, race and racism

This Valentine's Day, a black and white border collie arrived at Dulles Airport from Iraq, where he had been found months earlier by Sgt. Edward Watson during a patrol. Weak and malnourished, the shivering puppy looked near death, but Watson gave it water and a portion of his rations and wrapped it in a blanket. To his delight, the animal rallied back to health and bonded with Watson and his fellow soldiers, who named him Charlie after their company. The dog became their mascot and morale booster, a symbol of love and compassion in the midst of violence.

But when it came time for Watson's company to move to a different location, they couldn't take Charlie along. Eventually the crisis came to the attention of the SPCA International, which helped coordinate the dog's transport to the United States -- a complex and costly process involving veterinary exams, behavioral evaluations, vaccinations, quarantines and a flight that can cost as much as $1,200. Watson is scheduled to fly back to the United States next month, and after a three-month stay at Fort Bragg in North Carolina will return home to Phoenix and reunite with Charlie.

Meanwhile, the effort to save Charlie from a life as a homeless dog in a war zone has turned into an ongoing program called Operation Baghdad Pups, which aims to keep U.S. soldiers from being separated from the animals that have become their companions. Other dogs rescued by the program include Liberty, who was adopted by U.S. soldiers after a house raid in which the owner was detained, and K-Pot, who was found tangled in razor wire. The program is accepting donations to help rescue other soldiers' adopted dogs; for more information, visit www.baghdadpups.com.

(Photo from www.baghdadpups.com)

Labels: friday dogblogging, iraq, military, soldiers' mental health, spca

In an effort to de-escalate the growing tensions between Georgia and Tennessee regarding water rights and the boundary between the states, Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield issued a proclamation:

WHEREAS, it has come to pass that the heavens are shut up and a drought of Biblical proportions has been visited upon the Southern United States, and

WHEREAS, the parched and dry conditions have weighed heavily upon the State of Georgia and sorely afflicted those who inhabit the Great City of Atlanta, and

WHEREAS, the leaders of Georgia have assembled like the Children of Israel in the desert, grumbled among themselves and have begun to cast longing eyes toward the north, coveting their neighbor’s assets, and

WHEREAS, the lack of water has led some misguided souls to seek more potent refreshment or for other reasons has resulted in irrational and outrageous actions seeking to move a long established and peaceful boundary, and

WHEREAS, it is deemed better to light a candle than curse the darkness, and better to offer a cool, wet kiss of friendship rather than face a hot and angry legislator gone mad from thirst, and

Whereas, it is feared that if today they come for our river, tomorrow they might come for our Jack Daniels or George Dickel,

NOW THEREFORE, In the interest of brotherly love, peace, friendship, mutual prosperity, citywide self promotion, political grandstanding and all that

I Ron Littlefield, Mayor of the City of Chattanooga, Tennessee, do hereby Proclaim that Wednesday, February 27, 2008 shall be known as “Give Our Georgia Friends a Drink Day.”

To make good on his proclamation, Littlefield yesterday ordered 2000 bottles of water delivered to the Georgia capitol building in Atlanta. The plan backfired, however, when Georgia took the first prisoners of war in the great Georgia v. Tennessee Border War of 2008:

[Mayor's aide Matt] Lea - accompanied by Georgia state Sen. Jeff Mullis, a north Georgia Republican who has pushed for the border change - were both handcuffed on charges of bringing moonshine into the state. The state trooper who slapped the cuffs on them was in on the gag.

"Kind and friendly negotiations will continue with the levity you see today," Mullis said after the state trooper took off the cuffs, adding: "They weren't sure if that substance was water or some high octane liquid."

Lea came dressed as Tennessee frontiersman Davy Crockett, donning a buckskin outfit, a powderhorn and a coonskin cap - with a hint of a modern touch. A Blackberry fit neatly into one of his pockets.

"I didn't want to bring a musket or a knife," he quipped. "I didn't want to offend the Georgia Legislature."

Gov. Bredesen's office could not be reached for comment on whether troops had yet been dispatched to Lynchburg and Tullahoma to defend Tennessee's supply of Jack Daniels and George Dickel.

Labels: Georgia, humor, Tennessee, water rights

The same day South Florida was paralyzed by a massive and still-mysterious power outage following a fire in an electrical substation, Texas narrowly avoided rolling blackouts after a sudden drop in wind in the western part of the state, where wind turbines are concentrated.

It's interesting to compare the immediate news coverage of the two events. The South Florida outage occurred in the service area of Florida Power & Light, which generates most of its power via fossil fuels (natural gas, coal and oil) and the rest via nuclear, and it led to the emergency shutdown of the Turkey Point nuclear power plant. So unusual is it for such a minor event to cause a blackout affecting as many as 2.5 million people that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is considering conducting its own investigation. Yet nowhere in the initial news coverage did we read that the blackout indicates the precarious nature of a traditional centralized power system dependent on fossil fuel-burning and nuclear plants.

Compare that with the report about the Texas near-incident that appeared in the Forth Worth Star-Telegram, which included this comment:

"This is a warning to all those who think that renewable energy is the sole answer [to the state's power needs]," said Geoffrey Gay, an attorney representing Fort Worth and other North Texas municipalities in utility issues. "We can't put all our eggs in one basket when it comes to any form of generation. We need to consider the cost and the reliability issues, in addition to the environmental impact."

In the same story, a spokesperson for the American Wind Energy Association pointed out that the solution is to locate turbines in different places, since the wind is generally blowing somewhere. But we find it interesting that news coverage of an averted blackout triggered by temporary problems with wind generation would raise questions about the reliability of all renewable energy, whereas coverage of an actual blackout in a system based on fossil fuel and nuclear energy didn't immediately raise similar reliability concerns.

Labels: blackouts, energy policy, Florida, texas, turkey point, wind energy

In case you have somehow missed it, earlier in the week the Tennessee Republican Party put out an official press release referring to Barack "Hussein" Obama's "anti-Semite" positions, featuring the Drudge photo of Obama in Somali traditional garb.

From the Knoxville News Sentinel yesterday:

Tenn. GOP stands by "Anti-Semites for Obama" piece

The state GOP on Monday issued a press release under the headline "Anti-Semites for Obama" that begins:

"The Tennessee Republican Party today joins a growing chorus of Americans concerned about the future of the nation of Israel, the only stable democracy in the Middle East, if Sen. Barack Hussein Obama is elected president of the United States."

The release cites Obama's support from Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan and other controversial figures.

The story spread quickly, appearing in news reports and on blogs such as Talking Points Memo and Daily KOS.

The Tennessee Democratic Party issued an immediate response:

"The tone and the accuracy of this release unfortunately is what we have come to expect from the Tennessee Republican Party in recent times, and this release is the worst of the bunch," said Tennessee Democratic Party chairman Gray Sasser. "It amplifies misinformation, discredited tall tales, and internet innuendo to appeal to the worst in people.

"This kind of fear mongering has no place in the public discourse. Senator John McCain has forcefully come out and rejected these types of gutter politics. Now, it is time that Republican leaders in Tennessee like Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey and U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander join their Republican nominee and disapprove of these tactics."

The offices of both Sen. John McCain and Sen. Lamar Alexander denounced the press release, and Sen. Alexander reportedly told TN GOP chair Robin Smith to retract it. As of this morning, however, the TN GOP had only removed the photo and references to Obama's middle name and was standing by the press release.

The Republican National Committee has reportedly put the TN GOP on notice. According to Politico:

RNC warns Tenn. GOP on "Hussein"

"The RNC has notified the Tennessee GOP that they do not support or agree with their approach," said this source, requesting anonymity to discuss the private conversation between a staffer in the national committee's political department and a top aide at the state party. "If they don't refrain from doing so again, they will be publicly repudiated by the Republican National Committee."

Tennessee Republican Chair Robin Smith is so far standing by Bill Hobbs, the TN GOP Communications Director who put out the press release. Hobbs, a controversial conservative blogger, was previously employed by the Belmont University's marketing and communications department before assuming the post of TN GOP Communications Director. He resigned from Belmont amid controversy surrounding a cartoon that he had drawn and posted on the internet. The cartoon depicted the Prophet Muhammad throwing a bomb.

Labels: Election 2008, Southern Politics

Conservative icon William F. Buckley was found dead today in his Connecticut study at the age of 82. The magazine he founded is in mourning, with tributes on the National Review's Web site from political heavyweights like Sen. John McCain, who deems Buckley a "Great American."

Also weighing in is Charles Murray, the author whose controversial theories link race and IQ. In a piece is titled "WFB the Sweetheart," Murray writes that Buckley "had the kind of manners that are so good that they cease being manners and become a warming aura. Yes, I know he changed the world, and I'm glad about that. But what so often occurred to me in his presence was that I was talking with an extraordinarily good man."

Really? Are the following truly the words of a "Great American" -- of an "extraordinarily good man" with a "warming aura"? They appeared in an unsigned National Review editorial, probably penned and undoubtedly published by Buckley, that ran on Aug. 24, 1957, titled "Why the South Must Prevail":

"The central question that emerges . . . is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not prevail numerically? The sobering answer is Yes–the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race. It is not easy, and it is unpleasant, to adduce statistics evidencing the cultural superiority of White over Negro: but it is a fact that obtrudes, one that cannot be hidden by ever-so-busy egalitarians and anthropologists.

"National Review believes that the South's premises are correct. . . . It is more important for the community, anywhere in the world, to affirm and live by civilized standards, than to bow to the demands of the numerical majority."

Buckley undoubtedly had a way with words, and is remembered fondly by friends and family. But a warming aura?

Feels pretty chilling from here.

Labels: segregation, william f. buckley

At the same time public housing complexes in New Orleans are being torn down and redeveloped into mixed-income communities with less space for the poorest families, Mayor Ray Nagin has announced his intent to push the homeless people who've been living under Interstate 10 near the French Quarter into a tarp-covered barrack.

The 120-foot-long, 30-foot-wide structure stands on the grounds of the New Orleans Mission in the city's Central Business District. The barrack was built by nearly two dozen volunteers from churches around the country and funded largely by First Baptist New Orleans and the Louisiana Baptist Convention. New Orleans' homeless population is estimated to have doubled since Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005.

The homeless relocation program is not voluntarily, according to a report from the Associated Press:

The city's public advocacy unit, unarmed officers with the New Orleans Police Department Homeless Assistance Collaborative, city housing department workers, and mission staff will usher people into the barrack as early as Thursday, [Nagin spokesperson Ceeon] Quiett said. Those who do not go elsewhere will face citations, and arrests could take place if drugs are found, city officials said.

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, homelessness, housing, Hurricane Katrina, new orleans, public housing, ray nagin

Because utilities in the South operate under a traditional rate regulatory structure that encourages investment in new plants and limits competition, companies seeking to develop nuclear power facilities in order to take advantage of federal tax incentives are drawn to the region -- even though it already has a surplus of idle generation.

That's the finding of a new analysis by the Reuters news agency. Titled "Nuclear industry eyes oversupplied U.S. South," the story notes that of the 21 reactor sites identified in NRC filings, 15 are in the South: four in Texas, three in South Carolina, two each in North Carolina and Florida, and one each in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. But at the same time, the Southeast has more than enough existing gas-fired generation to meet power needs for at least another decade.

The push for new nukes comes as Southerners are still paying for the expensive plants built during the nuclear boom of the 1980s, Reuters notes:

Frank Spencer, a former Mississippi assistant attorney general, has not forgotten the years-long legal battle over Entergy Corp's Grand Gulf station that pitted elected officials in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi against the utility and state and federal regulators. The fight over who would pay went to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Spencer battled unsuccessfully to keep Mississippi residents from paying more than their share of Grand Gulf's price tag which ballooned to more than $3.4 billion from $900 million.

"It was a huge burden, with the increase in rates," said Spencer, now a minister who runs a soup kitchen and shelter in Jackson. "It was the most costly plant at the time and Mississippi had to pay for one-third of it."

Today, a typical Entergy Mississippi customer still pays $12 a month for overruns at the 23-year-old nuclear plant, according to state regulatory filings.

And it's not just ratepayers who will be bearing the financial burden: A number of states including Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida are considering handing out their own taxpayer-funded incentives to politically powerful nuclear companies.

Labels: economics, energy policy, nuclear power, tax subsidies

A top executive at WHNT in Huntsville, Ala. denies that his TV station intentionally blacked out the CBS "60 Minutes" report about the politically motivated prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman -- even though the 12-minute blackout came just as the report started, and ended just as the report drew to a close. The New York Times reported yesterday:

"We know what our license means to us," said Stan Pylant, the chief executive at the station. "There were no political motives in this."

Pylant blamed the mysterious blackout on a signal receiver, which strangely enough had no problems receiving CBS's feed up until the report started or after it ended. Somehow it managed to malfunction only during the report on Siegelman.

As we previously noted, WHNT is owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners, an investment company managed by prominent supporters of President Bush, whose former advisor Karl Rove was implicated in the "60 Minutes" Siegelman investigation. But as the New York Times notes, the station is managed by a separate company, Local TV -- whose chief executive, Robert "Bobby" Lawrence, is a former Clear Channel Communications executive and also a major Bush contributor.

In an editorial in today's paper, the New York Times sounds skeptical about WHNT's explanation. The paper points out that in 1955, when Mississippi NBC affiliate WLBT didn't want to run a network report about desegregation, it hung up a sign that said, "Sorry, Cable Trouble." The editorial concludes:

In 1969, the F.C.C. revoked the license of WLBT in Jackson after the commission established a systematic effort by the broadcaster to suppress information about the civil rights movement. Today, broadcast rules have changed, giving stations more leeway to decide what to air. Dropping a single report is unlikely to set the regulators in motion. Still, it would be deeply troubling if a partisan broadcaster could suppress information on the public airwaves and hide behind a technical fig leaf.

In this case, if the blackout was intentional, it may also have been counterproductive. Rather than take attention away from allegations that Mr. Siegelman was the victim of a partisan campaign, WHNT’s technical glitch seems to lend support to the charge.

Labels: Alabama, don siegelman, karl rove, media, politics

A major power outage across South Florida today brought normal life screeching to a halt, as traffic signals, schools, homes, and workplaces went dark around 1 p.m. At the peak of the outage, about 700,000 customers were left without power.

Throughout much of the afternoon, Florida Power & Light had a statement on the main page of its Web site saying it did not know the cause of the outage. But a company spokesperson assured the Miami Herald that the "failure is in no way a safety issue."

The problem reportedly began in an FPL substation in West Miami-Dade County and then spread through the transmission system, leading to an automatic shutdown of both nuclear reactors at FPL's Turkey Point power plant as well as three fossil-fuel-burning units. But that explanation raised questions for some, according to the paper:

Many experts ... remained puzzled. Normally, a problem at a single substation should not cause an outage of the magnitude that dominoed through the state Tuesday.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission released a statement this afternoon saying the Turkey Point reactors shut down in response to an "undervoltage" caused when two power distribution lines failed following the substation malfunction. The reactor shutdown -- a safety measure to protect plant equipment from abnormal power line voltages -- is expected to last from 12 to 24 hours.

The NRC says it's monitoring the situation.

Labels: blackouts, Florida, miami, NRC, nuclear power, turkey point

A former inmate of a CCA run prison is protesting a former CCA executive's nomination to a federal judge post:

President Bush in June nominated Gustavus A. Puryear IV, chief lawyer with Corrections Corporation of America, to become a U.S. district judge in Nashville.

That led Alex Friedmann, who spent six years at the company's prison in Clifton, Tenn., to investigate Puryear's qualifications.

According to the article, Friedmann contends that Puryear isn't qualified, having handled only two federal cases in his career as a lawyer, which Friedmann says is only one more than he has tried himself. As a former CCA executive, Puryear also has a conflict of interest presiding over numerous outstanding federal lawsuits against the company according to Friedmann.

According to the article, Puryear is politically connected, having worked for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Sen. Fred Thompson, and Dick Cheney in various capacities.

Friedmann has a website, where he lists several concerns regarding Puryear's nomination. In addition to his lack of litigation experience and his political connections, Friedmann details Puryear's conflict of interest:

Mr. Puryear would have a conflict of interest in regard to all litigation involving CCA, his former employer. This is the strongest argument against his appointment. Puryear's 2006 compensation from CCA included a salary of $237,308 plus $602,957 in "other long term compensation," according to forbes.com. Since Nov. 2006 he has sold shares of CCA stock valued at over $3 million (in January 2008, Puryear reported that he sold 31,100 shares of CCA stock for about $400,000 in profit). In short, CCA has made Puryear a multi-millionaire. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 455, "Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned." Under this statute, Mr. Puryear presumably would have to disqualify himself from any case involving CCA as a party.

This is significant because according to a federal docket search, over 400 cases naming CCA or CCA executives or staff have been filed in federal court for the Middle District of Tennessee. Since 2000, 260 such cases have been filed. This number includes not only cases involving CCA corporate, but also CCA wardens and company officials such as CEO John Ferguson. At his nomination hearing Mr. Puryear disagreed with the number of cases in which he would have had conflicts of interest; however, he apparently only counted those cases that named CCA as a corporation. He would, of course, equally have conflicts of interest with cases naming CCA executives, wardens and other staff. Having to assign such cases to other judges would be a burden on the federal court system, and would not be an effective use of judicial resources.

At his nomination hearing, Mr. Puryear stated there were only six active cases pending in the Middle District that would require his recusal if he were appointed. Actually, as of Feb. 12, 2008 there were 12 cases in the Middle District pending against CCA or CCA employees. Either Mr. Puryear provided incorrect information to the Senate Judiciary Committee, or he does not know how many cases may require his recusal -- which is his responsibility as CCA's general counsel.

Puryear was introduced at his Senate confirmation hearing by Tennessee's Republican Senators, who gave him glowing recommendations:

U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Bob Corker (R-TN) today introduced Nashville attorney Gus Puryear at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Puryear's nomination to be U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Tennessee.

“Gus Puryear possesses a strong record of achievement in both the public and private sectors,” Alexander said. “He’s tried cases in both federal and state courts, he’s worked on committees and offices in the U.S. Senate and he’s worked on issues in the private sector. I support the president’s nomination of this outstanding Tennessean, and I hope the Senate will confirm this well-qualified nominee as quickly as possible.”

“I have known Gus Puryear for a number of years, I believe he has great integrity, and I was very pleased to join Sen. Alexander in introducing him today,” said Corker. “Gus has experience in many facets of the law, and he is a tremendous asset to his community. He is an accomplished lawyer who would serve the citizens of our state very well as a U.S. district judge, and I hope the Judiciary Committee will bring his confirmation to the Senate floor as soon as possible.”

As Mother Jones reports, the confirmation hearings did not proceed as planned:

Puryear was in Washington last week for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Senators Arlen Specter (R.-Pa,) and Dianne Feinstein (D.-Ca.) both put his resume under a microscope, noting his conspicuous lack of trial experience. At one point Specter asked him point blank, "How many cases have you actually tried?" To which Puryear answered: Two. Indeed, according to his written questionnaire for the committee, of the two cases he has tried in the entirety of his legal career, he was lead counsel on one of them. The last time he litigated a case in federal court was more than a decade ago.

Puryear has spent the bulk of his legal career at the Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest private prison company. As its general counsel since 2001, Puryear has made millions of dollars working for a company that profits from the country's incarceration boom, particularly through his recent sale of more than $3 million worth of the company's stock. (His financial disclosure form shows a net worth of more than $13 million.) His employer creates enormous conflicts for Puryear as a potential federal judge, as the CCA gets sued all the time, often in the very district where he hopes to preside as judge. Since 2000, roughly 260 cases have been filed in that court against the CCA, its officers, and subsidiaries.

According to Mother Jones, questions were also raised about the suspicious death of a female inmate at a CCA facility in Nashville. A medical examiner ruled the death a homicide and four CCA guards were indicted although charges were later dropped because a time of death could not be established. Pruyear said in the hearing that the injuries were a result of CPR and resuscitation attempts. Sen. Feinstein was not satisfied with this explanation and asked for more details in a written response.

The full Senate Judiciary Committee has not yet voted on Pruyear's confirmation. According to the Nashville Tennessean, there were too many "red flags" and there will be more questions:

And his answers at his confirmation hearing earlier this month are raising questions among some senators and the state's top medical examiner. What appeared to be a routine confirmation process has suddenly become complicated.

"During that hearing, a lot of red flags were raised," said Erica Chabot, spokeswoman for Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "You can bet there are some follow-ups."

Senators on the committee were given two weeks to submit additional questions that will be sent to Puryear for written responses.

Republicans complain that Congress is holding up judicial nominations. Perhaps the Bush administration should send them better nominees.

Stateline.org reports that 20 state governors -- 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans -- have yet to endorse a 2008 presidential candidate.

Southern governors make up the bulk of those taking their sweet old time; out of the 20, nine are from Southern states:

SOUTHERN GOVERNORS WHO HAVE YET TO
ENDORSE '08 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

Democratic Governors

Gov. Steve Beshear (KY)
Gov. Mike Easley (NC)
Gov. Phil Bredesen (TN)
Gov. Joe Manchin (WV)

Republican Governors

Gov. Bob Riley (AL)
Gov. Sonny Perdue (GA)
Gov. Bobby Jindal (LA)
Gov. Haley Barbour (MS)
Gov. Mark Sanford (SC)

Take your time, guys (and they are all men). It's just one of the biggest presidential elections in history.

Labels: Election 2008, Southern Politics

Over at Politico, Martin Kady II and Victoria McGrane echo a theme that columnist David Sirota has been hammering at for months (years, actually): the revival of populist politics.

It's not unusual for Democrats to try on a little populism in an election year (think Gore in 2000), but Kady and McGrane note that the populist themes being put forward by Sens. Clinton and Obama -- and even Mike Huckabee -- are spilling over into the broader political debate:

Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton have for months touted an unabashed message of economic populism, and now Democratic leaders in Congress have begun to fall in line with an economic agenda that leaves behind the centrist principles of the Clinton years.

The Democrats’ newfound comfort level with stronger government intervention in the economy will be on full display this week in both chambers of Congress. In the House, Democrats will force votes on an energy bill that raises taxes on big oil by rolling back $18 billion in subsidies and tax breaks pushed through by the last Republican Congress. In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has called votes on a sweeping housing bill that includes a provision — vehemently opposed by the mortgage industry — to allow judges to unilaterally restructure certain mortgages to create friendlier terms for homeowners facing foreclosure.

Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) sees what, for him, is a terrifying new economic agenda on the horizon:

"Democrats are trying to establish a second New Deal — more regulations, progressive taxation ..."

To which progressives likely respond, "if only."

But it is clear there are new openings to talk about populist themes. The trend is especially important for Southern politics; populist themes resonate well in the South.

Is the populist revival just a fad? The business types quoted in Kady and McGrane's piece blame election-year pandering, a more likely explanation is the fact that two-thirds of the U.S. public thinks we're already in a recession, with no end in sight.

Labels: barack obama, Election 2008, hillary clinton, michael huckabee, populism, Southern Politics

The Coal Moratorium NOW! conference kicks off this Wednesday in Houston. The two-day event will bring together activists from across the country who are working to stop the building of new coal-fired power plants in their communities.

The event coincides with "America's Energy Future: Houston's Presidential Summit," a Feb. 28 conference sponsored by energy suppliers that will feature a speech by presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Meanwhile, the movement to halt the construction of new coal plants has gotten a boost from the federal government itself. A new report [PDF] from the National Energy Technology Laboratory, a division of the Department of Energy devoted to fossil-fuel research, questions the need for all the new coal-fired power plants now being planned. Titled "Tracking New Coal-Fired Power Plants," the report states:

Coal-fired power plant development activity significantly exceeds the current estimate of need by [the Energy Information Administration].

The report goes on to suggest that efforts to promote energy conservation and efficiency may be having an effect:

Low forecasts of demand growth add an element of "demand uncertainty" to the problems of regulatory uncertainty and rapidly escalating costs for coal-fired power plant development.

Labels: coal, coal moratorium, department of energy, energy policy, national energy technology laboratory

WHNT -- the CBS affiliate for northern Alabama where the "60 Minutes" report on former Gov. Don Siegelman's controversial prosecution was blacked out last night -- is owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners. The investment firm was founded by billionaire Texan Robert Bass, the son of oilman Perry Richardson Bass. Robert's brother Ed was a Yale classmate and personal friend of George W. Bush, and along with brother Lee they put up $25 million to finance Harken Oil in the late 1980s while George W. Bush was serving on the board of directors.

The Bass brothers' political action committees donated more than $200,000 to Bush's gubernatorial campaigns, while their personal donations topped $270,000, according to UTWatch.org. Lee Bass was also among the Bush Pioneers in 2000 and 2004, raising at least $100,000 for the presidential campaign in each election cycle, according to Texans for Public Justice.

Meanwhile, Harper's Scott Horton -- who has been following the Siegelman story closely -- reports that the station's general manager initially gave an incorrect explanation for the broadcast failure, blaming it on "network problems." He also notes that the station "was noteworthy for its hostility to Siegelman and support for his Republican adversary."

Labels: Alabama, don siegelman, karl rove, media, politics

With the March 4 Democratic primaries looming in Texas, much has been made of the Latino vote -- a significant 25% of the Democratic primary electorate there.

But in a close race, the key block may turn out to be a relatively new demographic in the Texas political landscape: Katrina evacuees.

In the wake of the 2005 storms, over a quarter million people -- largely African-American, almost all from Louisiana -- were displaced to Texas. One of the biggest destinations was Houston -- the place where Barbara Bush, while touring the city's hurricane relief centers, famously said of those who had been uprooted, "This is working very well for them."

How big of a factor will Katrina evacuees be? As we note in our recent report on human rights and Katrina, the government isn't keeping good data on how many of Katrina's displaced are still in Texas.

The Washington Post comes to the same conclusion in a piece today, but noted that the number seems to be significant -- and could have a decisive impact on the primary's outcome:

No one knows how many evacuees have registered to vote in Texas or how many will show up at the state's odd mix of primary and caucuses next week, but in interviews across this sprawling city almost everyone indicated an enormous desire to participate -- adding an unknown and potentially pivotal element in a race that polls show is deadlocked between Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.).

Overwhelmingly African American, the evacuees are likely to bolster Obama's already strong support among blacks, who by some estimates could make up as much as 30 percent of the Democratic primary turnout in Texas, which is expected to top 1.5 million. In some urban precincts, evacuees could account for 5 to 10 percent of voters. [emphasis added]

All the more reason for the Democratic contenders to put the Gulf Coast recovery on the 2008 election agenda.

Labels: barack obama, Election 2008, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, hillary clinton, Hurricane Katrina, Southern Politics, texas

Last night the CBS show "60 minutes" aired a powerful report on what appears to be the politically motivated prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. Unfortunately, viewers in northern Alabama who tuned in to watch the show found a black screen during most of the Siegelman piece. Reports Facing South reader mooncat:

Strange coincidence, but WHNT, the local CBS affiliate in Huntsville AL which covers the northern part of the state, had "technical problems" during the Siegelman segment of 60 Minutes tonight. They showed a black screen for the first 12 to 13 minutes of the show, including most of the Siegelman story.

They caught a lot of flack from viewers and did rebroadcast that segment in its entirety at about 10:20 pm.

The station said the problem was at its end and blamed it on a failed satellite receiver.

Labels: Alabama, don siegelman, karl rove, media, politics

This Sunday, the CBS news show "60 Minutes" will report on an alleged five-year secret campaign spearheaded by former White House advisor Karl Rove to bring down Don Siegelman, who served as Alabama's governor from 1999 to 2003 after previous stints as Secretary of State, Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor.

Rep. Bob Riley defeated Siegelman for re-election in November 2002 by about 3,000 votes. A voting machine glitch in a single county put Riley over the top, with votes in no other races affected. Coincidentally, all of the elections officials in that county were Republicans, and they conducted the recount after midnight when the Democratic Party observers had gone home. Democrats' requests to repeat the recount were rejected by Alabama courts and then-Attorney General William H. Pryor Jr., who were all Republicans or appointed by Republicans.

In 1999, Alabama's U.S. Attorneys began a criminal investigation into controversial accusations of corruption involving Siegelman. He was indicted in 2004, convicted in 2005, and is now serving a seven-year federal prison sentence. Click here for more details on the case from TPMMuckraker.com.

But last year, Dana Jill Simpson -- a Republican attorney and political activist from Rainsville, Ala. -- signed a sworn statement that she had been on a Republican campaign conference call in which she heard GOP operative Bill Canary say not to worry about Siegelman because his "girls" and "Karl" would make sure the Justice Department took care of him. His "girls" allegedly included his wife, Leura Canary -- the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama. Simpson has said that she spoke out because Siegelman's prosecution and imprisonment bothers her conscience.

For more on the upcoming "60 Minutes" story -- including a clip of Simpson talking to reporter Scott Pelley, as well as Pelley's discussion of his report -- click here.

Labels: Alabama, don siegelman, karl rove, voting integrity

The Alabama Conservation Advisory Board this month heard the pleas of fox hunters who are seeking a change in state rules to preserve a version of their sport that uses packs of scent hounds to track foxes or sometimes coyotes inside large enclosures.

It's currently against Alabama law and wildlife regulations to import, trap, transport, possess or sell a live fox or coyote due to concerns about the spread of disease. The restrictions came about after a 1993 incident in which coyotes imported into the state from Texas were linked to the introduction of the Texas strain of rabies into Covington County. The following year, the same strain was found in Alachua County, Fla. The incidents wiped out the coyotes and foxes inside two enclosures and led to 24 people in Florida having to receive rabies treatments. Other diseases of concern include distemper and a tapework -- Echinococcus multilocularis -- that can infect foxes and coyotes and is sometimes fatal in humans.

While the idea of fox hunting typically evokes the image of red-coated gentry pursuing animals on horseback, fox hunting in the rural South was part of a more informal tradition where local hunters gathered at a good vantage point primarily to listen to their dogs on the chase. As fox hunter Kyle Blakeley told the Conservation Board: "It’s all about the sounds of the hounds." When fox hunting is done in the open, there's less chance of the dogs having direct encounters with the quarry. Alabama currently permits hunting dog field trials under the condition that the dogs not come in contact with live animals.

But changes in the fabric of rural Southern communities have increasingly led to conflicts between landowners and hunters that inspired the use of enclosures -- plots of land anywhere from 100 to 1,000 acres in size surrounded by a wire fence usually at least 8 feet tall. A 1995 article in Mississippi Folklife titled "Going Inside: Transformation of Fox Hunting in Mississippi" documented the changes that led to this practice:

The specific time varied with each locality in Mississippi but sometime in the 1970s fox hunting in the open countryside became almost impossible. The fox hounds often disappeared while chasing deer, succumbed to cars while crossing highways, or followed their game onto lands posted against trespass where their masters could not retrieve them. Large numbers of fox hunters left the sport, some took up deer hunting or raccoon hunting, but others attempted a solution through the development of large fenced enclosures where they might run their hounds without fear of deer, cars, or irate property owners. Fenced enclosures or "fox pens" sprung up all over the South in response to the problems of hunting "outside." Leon Canoy, a Fred Pevey Association fox hunter and successful hound breeder, described the sometimes desperate situations that drove fox hunters "inside." "The pens, for now days, was the greatest thing that happened to fox hunters," Canoy explains. "It wasn't by choice. It was just that something had to be done, you know. And that's why fox pens was built. But it had gotten to the point you couldn't hardly run outside with any pleasure. Either somebody was threatening to shoot you or your dogs 'cause they was goin' across an acre of land or something, you know. Or either he's on a highway or somebody leased up a deer club for deer, and they didn't want your dogs on there... A lot of people in town moved out and bought nine acre lots or two acre lots, and they [these lots] became their 'Ponderosa.' And if anything walked across their place they wanted to kill it or call the law. And it put a damper on a lot of things because folks would shoot at you. They'd come out on the road and cuss you out. So the pen really was our salvation."

But what some see as salvation, others regard as a sporting sin. Because many traditional fox hunters embrace the concept of "fair chase," they regard running pens with disdain.

Hearkening back to the problems that led to enclosures in the first place, the current controversy in Alabama over fox pens is taking place in a broader context involving proposals to limit open deer hunting with dogs and to increase fines for violations in response to landowners' complaints that the sport as it's often practiced represents a nuisance. At its meeting next month, the state's Conservation Advisory Board is expected to consider a motion to limit deer hunting with dogs in Coffee, Butler and Pike counties, Outdoor Alabama reports.

Meanwhile, fans of enclosed fox hunting are fighting for the very survival of their controversial sport -- and some are even stepping outside the bounds of the law to pursue it. Last November, a two-year, multi-state investigation dubbed "Operation Foxote" [PDF] resulted in the arrest of 18 people from Alabama, North Carolina and Florida for the illegal trade, importation and possession of live foxes, coyotes and other wildlife. The animals seized had been slated for fox hunting enclosures.

(Foxhunters in front of Crystal Cafe in Crystal Springs, Miss. from Mississippi Folklife courtesy of Bill Pevey.)

Labels: Alabama, fox hunting, friday dogblogging, southern culture

Everyone says they're for the environment these days -- but among those who represent you in Washington, who votes like they talk?

The League of Conservation Voters, which has been rating lawmakers for years, now has a neat online tool for looking at the ratings of all members of Congress, both House and Senate. See how your elected officials rate here.

The map to the right shows the overall regional picture. Congress-folk in the coastal West and Northeast have the strongest environmental records; those in the South and Plains West have the worst.

Given that the regions with the worst environmental records are also the fastest-growing regions in the country -- and the regions with the fastest-growing political clout -- it would follow that these are the areas where national environmental groups should be targeting most of their political and organizing resources, if they want to be successful.

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Labels: environment, environmental health, leave of conservation voters, Southern Politics

Several Gulf Coast organizations have purchased two FEMA trailers that are now touring the country to raise awareness about the ongoing nature of the crisis in the region and the government's failure so far to rebuild in a manner that meets the needs of poor and minority residents. The trailers will be making a stop at tonight's CNN Democratic Presidential Debate from the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. At 7 p.m., the debate will be shown live on the side of one of the 32-foot trailers. For more details about the KatrinaRitaVille Express, visit the tour's Web site here.

Labels: Election 2008, FEMA, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, Hurricane Katrina

In our ongoing Southern drought coverage, you may recall us mentioning what at the time seemed like nothing more than a historical curiosity regarding the Tennessee border. It seems the team sent out in 1818 to survey the border missed the 35th parallel by about a mile because of substandard equipment and charts, putting a southern portion the Tennessee River that would have been in Georgia entirely in Tennessee.

Now, a genuine border dispute has erupted. Yesterday, the Georgia state legislature passed a resolution establishing a boundary commission to resurvey the border and move it one mile north so Georgia, which is running out of water in the Atlanta area, could tap the Tennessee River.

The bill was introduced in the Senate to the refrain of Senators singing "This land is my land, this land is your land," where it passed unanimously. The sponsor of the House bill said Georgia is prepared to go to court if Tennessee doesn't comply.

If the measure fails in court, Georgia could resort to drilling into the Tennessee River aquifer near the Georgia-Tennessee border. According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, customers for Tennessee River water are already being lined up in the metro Atlanta area.

State officials in Tennessee are not amused.

From the Chattanooga Times Free Press

"I think they're embarrassing themselves, and I think it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money to have them going into session and doing such silly things on taxpayers’ time," said Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, chairman of the Hamilton County legislative delegation.

He called "idiotic" and "crazy," the proposal that seeks to take a mile-wide strip of southern Tennessee, including a chunks of Chattanooga and East Ridge.

"I don't think we'll do anything but ignore them and laugh at them," Rep. McCormick said about a Tennessee response.

He is also quoted by WSMV Nashville:

Tennessee Rep. Gerald McCormick, a Chattanooga Republican, called the resolution "silliest thing I've ever seen any group of Republicans do."

"I'm embarrassed that they would embarrass the party like that," he said. "They're idiots."

The Associated Press quotes a spokesperson for Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen:

But trying to change the state lines now is "an absurd approach," said Will Pinkston, a senior adviser to Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen.

"It's unfortunate that Georgia didn't plan accordingly for growth over the past couple of decades, and now is trying to rewrite 200 years of history to address their mistakes," Pinkston said.

"Under no circumstances will Gov. Bredesen turn over Tennessee's water to Georgia," he said.

Tennessee State Senator Andy Berke is quoted as saying "Georgia needs to be looking at responsible solutions for how to deal with water and land-use planning, rather than irresponsible land grabs." The article notes that parts of Memphis, Tennessee's largest city, would also suddenly be in Mississippi, giving thousands of residents new addresses.

In a spirit of cooperation, however, Tennessee officials offered a couple of weeks ago to settle the matter by way of alternative dispute resolution, suggesting "a winner-take-all wrestling match or football game."

UPDATE: WPLN: Tennessee Legislature To Defend Border With Its Own Resolution

"The principle of adverse possession applies to these boundary disputes between states, not just private parties. In even starker laymans’ terms, if you fenced it, and thought it was yours, it doesn’t matter what the deed says, or what the act says, It’s yours."

Fincher said the issue of water rights – as opposed to the boundary lines – is different in the east than it is in the water-parched west.

"Since we’re east of the Mississippi, basic water rights are the classic English water rights, the riparian water rights, and what that means is, if you live next to the stream you can use it."

This might actually get interesting.

UPDATE: The New York Times takes notice:

WHEREAS, Georgia lawmakers on Wednesday passed a resolution to restore the boundary line to its appropriate latitude, notwithstanding skepticism all around and outright insults from their neighbors to the north.

And WHEREAS the concept of a war between states is not foreign to these parts,

BE IT OBSERVED that the Georgia legislature appears to be serious.

Labels: drought, environment, water rights

Today marks the start of public hearings on the U.S. Department of Energy's $150 billion plans to streamline the nation's current atomic arsenal of some 10,000 warheads -- and to build new nuclear weapons at various sites, including several in the South. The hearings will be held today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the North Augusta Community Center in North Augusta, S.C. Hearings are also scheduled for next week in Oak Ridge, Tenn. and Amarillo, Texas. For a complete schedule, click here [PDF].

Known by the government as "Nuclear Weapons Complex Transformation," the project aims to consolidate nuclear weapons materials at five sites and to develop the nation's plutonium bomb capability. To grasp the immediate damage a plutonium weapon can cause, see accompanying photo of Nagasaki by Yosuke Yamahata; click on it for more images of that city in the bombing's wake. The U.S. government currently operates eight major nuclear weapons facilities: Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and California, Pantex Plant in Texas, Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, Kansas City Plant in Missouri, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and the Nevada Test Site.

The proposed project has been dubbed "Bombplex" by its foes, which include Georgia-based Nuclear Watch South. The group is calling instead for atomic disarmament and a "De-Manhattan Project" to develop technologies to safeguard the environment from radioactive contamination, since the deadly effects of nuclear weapons are not always as dramatic as the images from Nagasaki. Groundwater around the Savannah River Site, for example, has been contaminated with tritium and other radioactive and toxic chemicals, and some of that pollution has made its way into the nearby Savannah River. (For more details on the contamination, read "Nuclear Dumps by the Riverside," [PDF] a report by the Maryland-based Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.)

The DOE is currently preparing a final environmental impact statement for the project. The draft EIS declined to consider disarmament as an option, but Nuclear Watch South wants to convince it to do so in the final version. The DOE will be accepting public comments through April 10; they can be submitted by e-mail to complextransformation@nnsa.doe.gov or by regular mail to Theodore A. Wyka, Complex 2030 SEIS Document Manager, U.S. Department of Energy, NA 10.1, 1000 Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20585.

(The photo of a victim and survivor of the plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki is by Yosuke Yamahata, from the Web site "Remembering Nagasaki," where more images of the bomb's damage are available.)

Labels: nuclear weapons, plutonium, savannah river, savannah river site, South Carolina, tritium

For year, British officials denied involvement in U.S. "extraordinary rendition" flights, like those that the Institute revealed last year started in North Carolina and led to torture of terror suspects.

But now, a senior official in the Blair administration has "discovered" evidence of U.K. involvement in two such operations, reports the BBC:

David Miliband has admitted two US 'extraordinary rendition' flights landed on UK territory in 2002.

The foreign secretary said in both cases US planes refuelled on the UK dependent territory of Diego Garcia.

He said he was "very sorry" to have to say that previous denials made in "good faith" were now having to be corrected. [...]

Former foreign secretary Jack Straw and former prime minister Tony Blair made statements in 2005, 2006 and 2007 saying there was no evidence that rendition flights had stopped on UK territory.

For its part, the CIA states that neither of the flights were "ever part of CIA's high-value terrorist interrogation program," and once again asserted the U.S. would never "transport detainees for the purpose of torture."

Labels: cia, extraordinary rendition, peace and security

Just when it looked like former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's stock was going up, the Wall Street Journal reports his legal troubles may be just beginning (sub req'd for full piece):

Federal agents are investigating whether former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott knowingly played a role in an alleged conspiracy in 2006 to influence a Mississippi judge presiding over a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against famed plaintiff attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, according to people familiar with the situation.

Mr. Scruggs and several associates are scheduled to stand trial March 31 on charges that they offered $40,000 in bribes to State Court Judge Henry L. Lackey in return for a favorable ruling in a lawsuit against Mr. Scruggs over $26.5 million in legal fees.

Facing South covered this case last November, as well as the possibility that this is the real reason Lott abruptly quit the Senate last fall.

Labels: mississippi, richard scruggs, trent lott

Amory Lovins is the visionary co-founder and chair of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Colorado-based "think-and-do" tank that helps businesses, communities, individuals and governments increase profits and competitive advantage through efficiency while building a more just and sustainable world. Lovins was in North Carolina recently