In the rush to help new voters register this year, it seems that the McCain and Obama campaigns, as well as at least one other group aimed at young voters -- Rock the Vote -- have been giving out the wrong voter registration information.

What's more, the bad instructions came from the United States Election Commission website -- and voters in 37 states could be affected.

Liz Scott Monaghan at the Huffington Post reports:

Barack Obama's and John McCain's Web sites, as well as Rock the Vote, help users fill out forms which can be printed out and mailed.

They are conveniently addressed to the potential voter's secretary of state, or an equivalent state office. All the potential voter has to do is add a stamp and mail it off.

Problem is, for at least 37 states, it's the wrong address.

In those states, potential voters are required to send their forms to different locations, usually county registrars.

But the US Election Commission website, on which the others are based, gives the state secretary of state's office or equivalent -- at odds with the proper instructions in 37 states.

According to the HuffPost, states with the wrong information include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia. Voter registration has ended in 19 of those states.

For an example of what could happen, there's Louisiana:

In Louisiana, the Secretary of State's Web site and literature specifically warns against sending the forms there, in underlined letters. It directs that they be sent to the parish (county) registrar.

A Louisiana Secretary of State employee said the forms addressed there would be forwarded to the proper registrar, but there was no guarantee they would get there in time to be processed for the presidential election.

But Obama campaign representatives in Louisiana, who realized the error this week, said they planned to contact the office, hoping to assure that incorrectly addressed forms were released to the proper registrar's offices in time.

As the HuffPost also notes, this error will disproportionately affect young, first-time voters -- who heavily favor Obama.

What to do? Check the status of your registration.

Labels: Alabama, louisiana, mississippi, north carolina, Tennessee, texas, virginia, voter registration, voting rights, west virginia

Wall Street may be getting a bailout -- but not state unemployment relief funds, which according to Stateline.org are running dry across the country:

Laid off from your job in Tennessee? Good luck getting unemployment checks right away. So many people have been calling the state lately to apply for benefits that callers often can’t get through. “We’re sorry. We’re unable to take your call at the present time due to extremely high call volume,” says a recording.

In North Carolina, where more people are out of jobs than ever, state employees are working overtime and on weekends to reduce a backlog of requests to verify unemployment benefits that has been as high as 17,000, compared to only a few cases a day a year ago.

Unemployment is shooting up across the country, and Mississippi, South Carolina and North Carolina are among the 10 states with the highest number of workers who can't find a job.

But state unemployment insurance funds -- which are collected from employers through payroll taxes -- are running out:

South Carolina has only enough money in its unemployment fund to pay benefits through the middle of January. The state has been hit by a wave of layoffs in manufacturing and construction.

The problem isn't going away -- there is a structural recession underway, which has so far been neglected thanks to the focus on the finance sector. As one expert notes:

“I can’t see the bailout short-circuiting processes that were already under way,” said Michael Bordo, a Rutgers University economist. “To the extent we’re already going into a recession, unemployment will probably keep rising.”

Labels: bailout, economy, north carolina, recession, South Carolina, Tennessee, unemployment

Record numbers of voters have registered for the 2008 elections. But that will soon come to a close as registration deadlines loom across the South and the country.

Most Southern voters must register in the next week or sooner; 10 out of 13 Southern states have registration deadlines on or before Monday, October 6.

Here are the registration deadlines for Southern states, with the earliest cut-off dates first:

STATES WITH SATURDAY, OCT. 4 VOTER REGISTRATION CUT-OFF DATE

* South Carolina

STATES WITH MONDAY, OCT. 6 VOTER REGISTRATION CUT-OFF DATE

* Arkansas
* Florida
* Georgia
* Kentucky
* Louisiana
* Mississippi
* Tennessee
* Texas
* Virginia

STATES WITH OTHER REGISTRATION CUT-OFF DATES

* West Virginia: Wednesday, Oct. 15
* Alabama: Friday, Oct. 24
* North Carolina: Registration ends Friday, Oct. 10. However, voters can register and vote at the same time at One-Stop Voting Sites across the state between Oct. 16 and Nov. 1.

Labels: Alabama, arkansas, Election 2008, elections, Florida, Georgia, kentucky, louisiana, mississippi, north carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, texas, virginia, voter registration, voting, west virginia

Who watched yesterday's presidential debate held in Mississippi? According to Nielson TV ratings, lots of people in battleground states like Colorado, Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia.

Another interesting finding: Half of the 10 biggest markets for the debate were in the South.

Here are Nielson's ratings for cities where the most people watched the event:

1. St. Louis -- 52.1%, 649,000 households
2. Memphis -- 49.5%, 330,000 households
3. Baltimore -- 47.1%, 515,000 households
4. Washington, DC -- 44.6%, 1,030,000 households
5. Nashville -- 44%, 424,000 households
6. Greensboro-H.Point-W.Salem -- 42.2%, 285,000 households
7. Columbus, OH -- 41.5%, 377,000 households
8. Norfolk-Portsmth-Newpt News -- 41.4%, 298,000 households
9. Richmond-Petersburg -- 40.3%, 211,000 households
10. Denver -- 39.7%, 586,000 households

The numbers in Greensboro, North Carolina were likely boosted in anticipation of Sen. Obama and Sen. Biden's visit to the area for a rally today, which drew a crowd of 20,000 people and cemented NC's status as a key swing state.

Labels: barack obama, debates, Election 2008, joe biden, john mccain, mississippi, north carolina, swing states, Tennessee, virginia

Community organizers across Florida are working hard this election season to register former felons after Florida changed the rules last year to restore the voting rights of about 112,000 former convicts.

From the New York Times:
National rights groups such as the ACLU, Brennan Center for Justice, and the Sentencing Project and have been working to overturn felon disenfranchisement laws and to restore voting rights to former convicts for years. The changing laws in states such as Florida mean that thousands of formerly ineligible voters will be able to vote in the upcoming elections, yet many former felons are unaware and uninformed of the reinstatement of their right to vote. With this new surge of potential voters, grassroots organizers have their hands full just trying to get the word out.

“You’re talking about incredible numbers of people out there who now may have had their right to vote restored and don’t even know it,” Reggie Mitchell, a former voter-registration worker for People for the American Way, told the New York Times. In Florida, “we’re talking tens of thousands of people,” he added. “And in the 2000 election, in the state of Florida, 300 people made the difference.”

Even with the laws changed, there are still many hurdles to getting ex-felons back on the rolls in Florida. The NYT reports:

Despite the state’s liberalization of felony voter procedures, only 9,000 out of a potential 112,000 former convicts in Florida registered to vote in the last year, according to a report last month in The Orlando Sentinel. Part of the reason is that thousands of notifications sent by the state went to the wrong addresses because of poor data and former prisoners’ high mobility.

Fred Schuknecht, the director of administration for the Florida Clemency Board, acknowledged in an interview that there was a backlog of 60,000 former felons who could potentially have their rights restored, but must first be reviewed by the agency. Despite the fact that 3,500 newly released prisoners are added to the caseload every month, the Legislature cut 20 percent of the staff devoted to felony voter restoration cases, Mr. Schuknecht said.

According to the ACLU, this is current status of disenfranchisement laws:

Maine and Vermont are the only two states that allow prisoners, parolees and probationers to vote. Parolees and probationers can vote in 13 states, while eight states reinstate the voting rights of those on probation. Twenty states restore voting rights to those who have finished serving out their sentences, with varying degrees of limits and regulations. Virginia and Kentucky permanently strip away the rights of almost all felons.

Elsewhere across the nation, civil rights groups and community organizers are also hard at work trying to get the word out to ex-felons. Facing South previously reported on the surge in ex-offenders seeking a restoration of their voting rights in Tennessee. The Memphis Chapter of the NAACP is continuing to offer free assistance to Tennessee ex-felons who want to restore their voting rights.

Other states continue to see a resurgence of applications as well. In Virginia, the number of nonviolent felons who applied to have their voting rights restored, and were approved by the governor, have increased 33% leading up to this year’s presidential election compared to the 2004 election, reports the Virginia Daily Press. The Virginia Organizing Project is one of several organizations pushing to inform felons how to get their rights restored. While knocking on doors across Virginia, many people told canvassers they don't have the right to vote because they're felons. Now the organization is working to get people correctly informed about the law and to assist felons in applying to the governor to have their civil rights restored.

In other voting restoration news this week, the ACLU and ACLU of Mississippi filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the state’s denial of voting rights to citizens with felony convictions. Although the Mississippi Constitution permits people who have been convicted of a crime to vote for president and vice president, election administrators are denying that right in practice, according to an ACLU press release.

Labels: felon disenfranchisement, Florida, mississippi, Tennessee, virginia, voting rights

The 2008 elections are about more than the White House and Congress. With 13 states nationally facing new critical budget shortfalls -- including four in the South -- the battle for state legislatures will be intense this November.

The National Conference of State Legislatures released its list yesterday of the top 10 battleground statehouses in 2008. Making the cut is the Tennessee Senate, where Democrats and Republicans currently each hold 16 seats along with one independent. Five to six races could swing the chamber either way.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal notes one especially long-term consequence of this election, one that Facing South has reported on before -- redistricting:

[T]his year’s elections will also impact party control of both chambers through 2020: State senators elected to four-year terms in November will likely be in office and voting on the next round of legislative and congressional redistricting following the 2010 federal census.

Labels: Election 2008, national conference of state legislatures, state legislatures, state politics, Tennessee

It's now been over two months since Sen. Barack Obama officially clinched the Democratic Party nomination. In terms of sizing up the presidential race, that means we now have 10 weeks of poll data to figure out how McCain and Obama fare in a pure head-to-head match-up.

By taking the averages of these polls and seeing the trend lines over time, we get a sense -- better than any individual snap-shot poll -- of how each candidate's chances are shaping up. Call it that despised word of the primaries, "momentum."

So which way are Southern states moving? Using the polling averages used over at Pollster.com, some clear categories emerge:

SOUTHERN STATES MOVING IN OBAMA'S FAVOR

The best example of this is Virginia. Most polls show the VA race as tight, but the trend lines show the state is moving in Obama's direction:

The other big one in this category is Florida. McCain remains slightly ahead, but what's more interesting is how much Obama has gained on him over the last few months:

Obama's poll numbers have also been on the rise in Alabama, Arkansas and even Kentucky -- but he's likely starting in too deep of a hole in those states to close the gap by election time.

SOUTHERN STATES MOVING IN MCCAIN'S FAVOR

McCain leads in most Southern states, but there are few where his lead is actually expanding/. The one notable exception: South Carolina, where a couple early polls had shown a potentially close race. Not many polls have been done in SC since, but those available show McCain's lead growing -- more from a drop in Obama's support than from any gains on McCain's part:


WHAT ABOUT THE REST?

There isn't much movement in other Southern states, where McCain largely has a comfortable lead. What's interesting is that in no Southern state except North Carolina have McCain's numbers been going up -- he leads in the other 12 Southern states because he started out with a huge advantage, or because Obama's ratings have also fallen or leveled off (for example, Georgia).

So what about North Carolina? The Tar Heel state is unique to Southern states in that, while Obama has actually gained some ground, McCain has kept the state in the GOP column because he has also boosted his numbers:

Also: Gallup has a new round of numbers out, broken down by region. Interestingly, the only take-away in terms of trends is that the race is about where it was in June in the South and West. In the East, McCain's slightly gained; in the Midwest, Obama.

Labels: Alabama, arkansas, barack obama, Election 2008, Florida, Georgia, john mccain, louisiana, mississippi, north carolina, polls, South Carolina, Tennessee, texas, virginia

A man with a shotgun entered a church Sunday and opened fire on congregants during a children's play at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tenn. The assailant killed 2 adult parishioners and wounded at least eight others before he was subdued by church members, the New York Times News Service reported.

Jim Adkisson, a 58-year-old unemployed engineer, targeted the congregation because of its outspoken socially liberal and gay-friendly beliefs, police said. According to a four-page manifesto, Adkisson believed the church to be a bastion of liberalism in an otherwise socially conservative area of eastern Tennessee. He had a “stated hatred for the liberal movement” as well as his hatred for gays.

“We’re certainly investigating it as a hate crime,” Knoxville, Tennessee, police chief Sterling Owen said.

Unitarian Universalist congregations are known for their deep commitment to social justice, supporting the ordination of women, as well as civil rights and gay rights. The Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church hosts social events for gay and lesbian teens, and has received support from local gay rights groups.

While hate crimes directly against churches have been on the decline for several years, the LGBTQ community continues to be a target for hate groups. According to the FBI, in 2006, 1,472 victims reported being targeted due to a sexual-orientation bias. The Guardian UK also reported:

The FBI logged 7,722 hate crimes in 2006, the most recent year for which complete statistics are available. That is down slightly from 2000. Hate crime attacks at churches are rare, according to FBI statistics. Only 4% in 2006 occurred at places of worship.

Labels: hate crimes, Tennessee

About 50 residents of Appalachian coal communities gathered yesterday on eastern Tennessee's Zeb Mountain, where they marched in nonviolent protest against National Coal Corp.'s mountaintop removal mining operations. Four marchers were arrested after they intentionally stepped onto the company's property.

Having already destroyed more than 1,300 acres of Zeb Mountain, Knoxville-based National Coal has set its sights on other peaks across the state. Among the places it wants to mine is land in Sundquist Wildlife Management Area, a public game preserve that drains into Nashville's drinking water supply.

One of those arrested yesterday was Eric Blevins of Oak Ridge, Tenn. "I crossed an artificial line today because Appalachia is my homeland, and its life is being destroyed far faster than it can regenerate," he said. "I wanted to open people's minds to how insane it is that we allow corporations to own land without loving it and keeping life sustainable."

The march began with a prayer led by Christians for the Mountains and included political theater, giant puppets, speeches, and renditions of "Rocky Top," one of Tennessee's state songs. It was organized by United Mountain Defense, Mountain Justice and Three Rivers Earth First.

Labels: coal, mountaintop removal, Tennessee, Zeb Mountain

Tennessee is seeing a surge in ex-offenders seeking a restoration of their voting rights. Tennessee’s WBIR reported this year the state could double the number of felons who may see their voting rights restored.

The numbers could skyrocket even further if the lawsuit brought by the ACLU Voting Rights Project last February succeeds. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of Tennessee's felon voting rights law, which does not automatically restore rights after individuals complete their sentence. Ex-offenders are also banned from voting if they owe child support or court-ordered restitution.

“Reports show that, nationally, over 50 percent of criminal defendants are indigent at the time of sentencing. Therefore, requiring a person with a criminal conviction to pay a fee before restoring their right to vote is nothing more than a modern day poll tax,” said Nancy Abudu, staff counsel with the ACLU Voting Rights Project, in a February press release.

WBIR reported that Tennessee is one of 11 states that does not automatically restore those rights when an individual completes his or her sentence and any probation and parole. Approximately 90,000 citizens are barred from voting in Tennessee. More than 5.3 million are barred nationwide, according to the ACLU Voting Rights Project.

Some observers link the increased pursuit of voting rights to a presidential election that is already seeing historic turnouts among African Americans, citing that African Americans are, disproportionately arrested, charged and convicted of crimes, and thus are a major part of the surge to get their rights restored.

WBIR reported that many other states are seeing similar activity:

Anecdotal evidence shows similar surges in other states. Rhode Island, Maryland and Florida all recently loosened restrictions on ex-offender voting, prompting increased public attention and targeted registration drives, said Marc Mauer, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Sentencing Project.

Labels: felon disenfranchisement, Tennessee, voting rights

People from across Tennessee will gather on Zeb Mountain next month and call on coal companies to stop destroying the state's peaks.

Situated in Campbell County on Tennessee's northern border with Kentucky, Zeb Mountain is home to the state's biggest cross-ridge mining operation, where miners drill into a mountainside to find a coal seam and then pack the hole with explosives to blast away the surrounding earth. National Coal, the Knoxville-based corporation mining Zeb Mountain's three peaks, has racked up more than 50 violations there -- including one for illegally mining through two streams.

The company has already done serious harm to the watershed of Zeb Mountain, where streams run orange and murky with mining pollution. It now plans to move its operations into the New River watershed, which provides drinking water for Nashville and is thought to be one of the oldest watersheds on the planet.

But people who love the state's mountains want to keep that from happening.

So on July 20 at 1 p.m., they will join in prayer on Zeb Mountain before marching to the entrance of National Coal. Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, the organizers are calling on participants to adhere strictly to the principles of nonviolence, to dress up in their Sunday best as civil rights marchers did, to wear orange in honor of Tennessee, and to respect the diversity of those who come to defend the mountains -- animal rights activists and hunters, Christians and atheists, peace activists and war vets alike.

The organizers also invite participants to bring musical instruments and learn how to play "Rocky Top," Tennessee's state song -- though they're working on new lyrics.

Among the groups organizing the action are United Mountain Defense, Mountain Justice and Three Rivers Earth First!. For details about the event, e-mail unitedmountaindefense [at] yahoo [dot] com or call (865) 689-2778. Organizers ask participants to let them know they're coming so they can plan appropriately.

The action on Zeb Mountain comes as destructive mining practices are under growing scrutiny across the South:

* In West Virginia last week, delegates to the Democratic State Convention narrowly rejected a resolution to ban mountaintop removal.

* In North Carolina, state Rep. Pricey Harrison has introduced legislation that would prevent the state's power plants from burning coal mined through mountaintop removal.

* The Appalachia-based Stop Mountaintop Removal Coalition is planning a National Day of Action for Oct. 11. In the meantime, it invites people to post pictures of their beloved mountains to create the world's largest virtual mountain range.

Labels: coal, mountaintop removal, National Coal, nonviolence, Tennessee, Zeb Mountain

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

That's the question being considered in today's hearing of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which is considering Gus Puryear's nomination to a federal judgeship for U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Tennessee. This happens to be the same jurisdiction as the headquarters of Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest for-profit prison company where Puryear has served as general counsel since 2001.

Tennesseans Against Gus Puryear, one of the groups opposing the nomination, points out that Puryear would have a conflict of interest in regard to all litigation involving CCA:

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 (most recently, 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 employees have been filed in federal court for the Middle District of Tennessee. 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.

The group also raises concerns about Puryear's strong partisan work history (he previously worked under Republican Senators Bill Frist and Fred Thompson, served as Vice President Cheney's advisor during the 2000 debates, and has donated generously to GOP political causes), his lack of trial experience, and his publicly stated disdain for lawsuits brought by prisoners. The nonprofit Alliance for Justice has also submitted a letter [PDF] opposing Puryear's nomination, noting that his public comments "indicate hostility towards civil rights lawsuits in general and to those brought by prisoners in particular."

Labels: criminal justice, Tennessee

In recent weeks the world has witnessed images of enormous heaps of household trash piled up on the streets of Naples, Italy after the city ran out of places to put it.

Apparently that's not the Italians' only waste disposal problem.

Italy also lacks a place to dispose of its radioactive waste -- and it's looking for answers in the U.S. South. The (Columbia, S.C.) State reports that Energy Solutions of Utah is seeking federal permission to import up to 20,000 tons -- that's a million cubic feet -- of so-called "low-level" radioactive waste from Italy through the ports of Charleston and New Orleans for disposal in the United States. The plan involves recycling most of the waste in Tennessee, with the rest to be buried in Utah.

But some environmentalists in South Carolina worry that the toxic stuff could end up in the state's Barnwell County nuclear waste dump run by Energy Solutions. However, the company says it won't bury the waste at that site, which is scheduled to close this summer. The Barnwell landfill -- the only facility in the nation that takes the most toxic kinds of low-level waste – has leaked and is contaminating local groundwater supplies.

South Carolina State Sen. Joel Lourie (D-Richland) thinks Italy should keep its nuclear waste:

"Do we want to promote that kind of industry in America, where we accept everyone else's nuclear waste, or should we encourage other countries to deal with it on their own soil?" Lourie said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is currently considering Energy Solutions' request, but critics of the disposal plan say Congress should take up the matter of importing other countries' nuclear waste.

Labels: environment, louisiana, radioactive waste, South Carolina, Tennessee

The Nobel Foundation has awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to former Vice President and U.S. Sen. Al Gore of Tennessee and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

Said Gore in a statement:

I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- the world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis -- a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years. We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.

My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.

Gore becomes the fourth Southerner to win the prestigious award, joining former President and human rights advocate Jimmy Carter (2002), civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (1964), and fellow Tennessean Cordell Hull (1945), an ex-Secretary of State who played a key role in the formation of the United Nations.

Though some cynics have questioned Gore's Southern credentials because he was born in Washington, D.C., Gore has undeniably deep roots in the South as the son of two native Tennesseans -- Al Gore Sr., who also served as a U.S. representative and senator from Tennessee, and Pauline LaFon Gore, one of the first women to graduate from Vanderbilt University Law School. Growing up, Gore Jr. split his time between Washington and the family farm in rural Carthage, Tenn., where he developed a love of nature that would shape his environmentalism. After graduating from Harvard and serving with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, he returned home to Tennessee where he attended Divinity School at Vanderbilt University and later worked as a reporter for The Tennessean, where his investigation into corruption on Nashville's city council resulted in the arrest and prosecution of two members.

Gore went on to attend law school at Vanderbilt but quit in 1976 to run successfully for a seat in the U.S. Congress as a Democrat. He was re-elected three times before running successfully for the U.S. Senate in 1984. He served there until 1993, when he became Vice President under President Bill Clinton.

In Washington, Gore was a leader on environmental issues, holding hearings on toxic waste in Toone, Tenn. in the late 1970s and on global warming in the 1980s, long before those became issues of broad public concern. In the early 1990s he wrote Earth in the Balance, an ecological treatise that became the first New York Times bestseller written by a sitting senator since John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage. On Earth Day 1994, Gore launched the GLOBE program, which used the then-nascent Internet to increase students' environmental awareness. He also pushed for the passage of the Kyoto Treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions, though he was rebuffed by the Senate.

After serving two terms as Vice President, Gore ran for president in 2000 with Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut as his running mate. Though he and Lieberman won the popular contest by more than a half-million votes, they lost the electoral college vote in a controversial election that was eventually decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark case Bush v. Gore.

Following that loss, Gore focused his energy traveling the world and speaking on climate change. His popular talks became the subject of the 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth, which earned glowing reviews from climate scientists as well as Academy Awards for best documentary and best song.

Gore currently chairs Generation Investment Management, a firm he founded in 2004 that focuses on companies making a proactive effort to address climate change and other pressing global issues. Gore also takes personal steps to protect the climate: He and his family drive hybrid vehicles, and he also buys carbon offsets when traveling by plane.

There has been chatter that Gore's Nobel win might inspire him to enter the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. But at least one reporter who has followed him closely over the past year says he so strongly doubts that will happen that, if it does, "I'll eat my copy of An Inconvenient Truth. (The paperback, not the DVD.)"

We would note that Gore's Nobel is not a milestone only for the South but also for the environmental movement. The Peace Prize was awarded to an environmental leader for the first time in 2004, when Wangari Maathai of Kenya was honored for founding the Green Belt Movement, which has helped women plant over 30 million trees in Africa. Environmental leaders are hailing Gore's win for helping focus attention on the connection between human needs, security and the environment.

"Climate change is the greatest long-term threat to peace and security the world has ever known," said Worldwatch Institute President Christopher Flavin. "This prize marks another turning point for the climate issue -- the question now is whether law makers around the world will rise to the challenge of implementing new treaties and laws that reduce the world's dangerous addiction to fossil fuels."

(Photo by Scanpix/Tom Hevezi courtesy of the Nobel Foundation)

Labels: environment, global warming, southern history, Tennessee

Danielle Super, a student at Smyrna High in suburban Nashville, Tenn., is suing her school district for denying her the right to wear to class a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Free the Jena Six," the Associated Press reports.

Assistant Principal Jolene Watson reportedly told Super she couldn't wear the shirt -- which refers to a controversial case involving six black teens arrested on trumped up charges following a series of racially charged incidents in a small Louisiana town -- because it could "cause a problem."

James Evans, a spokesperson for Rutherford County Schools, told the AP that district officials "don’t believe the school is in the wrong, and we are confident this will play out in our favor."

According to the district's dress code, students are prohibited from wearing in school anything associated with criminal gangs or bearing slogans "that are about or suggestive of drugs, alcohol, sex, obscenities or prove to be a disturbing influence."

Super is seeking an injunction allowing her to wear the shirt as well as unspecified damages.

Labels: civil rights, jena six, schools, Tennessee

UPDATE: In a major new development, the Associated Press reports that the U.S. Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of execution by lethal injection in the case of two Kentucky inmates.

A Federal judge has ruled that the state of Tennessee's lethal injection method of execution is unconstitutional:

U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger's ruling on Wednesday said Tennessee's newly revised execution protocol left open the possibility that the lethal three-drug cocktail could present "a substantial risk of unnecessary pain," and was therefore unconstitutional.

If anesthesia were not properly administered it could "result in a terrifying, excruciating death," she ruled.

The ruling halted the scheduled Wednesday morning execution of a man convicted of beating a woman to death during a burglary.

The ruling could have a wider impact. It also puts in jeopardy the three-drug "cocktail" currently used in 37 states.

A federal judge's ruling Wednesday that Tennessee's lethal injection procedure could cause excruciating pain is another blow to the three-drug cocktail used by every state that executes by lethal injection.

Federal judges reached similar conclusions in Missouri and California last year, and now states have to decide whether to defend the three-drug method or find a new way to put inmates to death by injection.

Tennessee Gov. Bredesen, a Democrat who supports the death penalty, has said he disagrees with the ruling but has not decided whether to appeal. According to the Knoxville News Sentinel

The state would have a difficult time meeting the criteria to make the state’s lethal injections constitutional under U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger’s ruling, Bredesen told The Associated Press.

"She’s kind of created a Catch-22 for us," Bredesen said Friday. "She decries the lack of medically trained personnel involved in the execution, and, of course ... it’s very hard to get trained medical personnel to participate in any fashion."

According to the article, the Federal judge said the state had not given enough consideration to an alternative one-drug injection. Gov. Bredesen said she is trying to push the state into "uncharted territory" with respect to an untested method of execution, and that he would have to "think carefully about it," and that in the mean time the ruling makes it "very difficult to fix a three-drug protocol."

In related news, Gov. Bredesen had, just one week before, commuted the death sentence of Michael Joe Boyd (also known as Mika'eel Abdullah Abdus-Samad). From the Nashville Post:

Gov. Bredesen's statement read, in part, "this appears to me an extraordinary death penalty case where the grossly inadequate legal representation received by the defendant at his post-conviction hearing, combined with procedural limitations, has prevented the judicial system from ever comprehensively reviewing his legitimate claims of having received ineffective assistance of counsel at the sentencing phase of his trial..."

The Governor continued, "...this combination of inadequate representation and procedural limitations within the judicial system raises in my mind a substantial and unresolved doubt that the trial jury would have imposed the death penalty had the defendant received competent legal representation..."

That same week, the State of Tennessee carried out the gruesome execution of a convicted killer who requested death by the electric chair.

Before that, the Governor declared a 90 day moratorium on executions after problems with lethal injection procedures were found. Among other things, the instructions mentioned steps to prepare for execution by electric chair mixed in with the step by step procedures for administering the lethal injection.

The ABA recommended at that time that the moratorium be extended until numerous problems with Tennessee's death penalty were resolved. In addition to problems with lethal injection procedures, the ABA found problems ranging from "excessive caseloads and inadequate standards for defense counsel to racial disparities and inadequate review of death row inmates’ claims of actual innocence."

Labels: criminal justice, death penalty, Tennessee

Daryl Holton, a 47 year old Gulf War veteran said to possibly be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, was executed by the State of Tennessee early this morning at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

An executioner threw a switch that sent 1750 volts of electricity through Holton's body for 20 seconds, paused for 15 seconds, and then shocked the condemned inmate again for 15 more seconds. Holton was pronounced dead at 1:25 AM. He requested no special last meal, and his final words were "I do."

Holton confessed to murdering his three young sons and a step-daughter with an assault rifle in 1997. According to the Tennessee Coalition Against State Killing, Holton had a long history of mental illness, dating back to his time in the military when they say he spent a month in a psychiatric hospital. They also say he had inadequate representation at his trial, and later refused to participate in any appeals.

All of which is no comfort to his ex-wife and the mother of the children he killed, who he had also planned to kill until he turned himself in and confessed to the crimes.

More recently he notified the state of his request to die by electrocution instead of lethal injection. State law provides the option for anyone convicted of a capital crime prior to 1999. Holton reasoned that the electric chair was the penalty in effect at the time of his crimes in 1997, so that's what he chose. The last electrocution by the state of Tennessee was in 1960.

There were concerns that the electric chair would not work correctly. According to the Nashville Tennesseean:

...Fred Leuchter, the man who built the chair in 1989, has asked Gov. Phil Bredesen not to use it, saying it's been modified in such a way that it will be "tantamount to torture."

"It's going to be the most horrible way to die possible," said Leuchter, of Malden, Mass. He worries the modified chair will take far too long to kill Holton.

The engineer who modified the electric chair disagreed:

Leuchter's electric chair was modified in the 1990s by Jay Wiechert, an electrical engineer from Fort Smith, Ark., who has worked on electric chairs for many states.

Tennessee's chair will work as intended, said Wiechert, who modified the controls, increased the voltage and changed the protective devices so it would stay on and provide adequate current.

"I have confidence in the equipment," he said. "The technique has been around. We've been using the same technique since over a century ago, 110 years or so. It's a very well-known science. We're not doing anything new."

The electric chair was tested on Monday, by "running currents through a test load box that is designed to simulate a human body," according to a Tennessee Department of Corrections spokesperson.

Apparently it worked.

Labels: criminal justice, death penalty, Tennessee

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that West TN businessman Mike McWherter, the son of wildly popular former TN Governor Ned Ray McWherter, is still the front runner among unannounced candidates to challenge Sen. Lamar Alexander for U.S. Senate.

According to the article, the other two potential candidates, former TN Democratic Party Chairman Bob Tuke and Nashville attorney Kevin Doherty, say they will step aside if McWherter decides to run, and the three will unite to elect the Democratic nominee, whoever it is.

Soon-to-be-former Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell is another name being mentioned, but his office says he is "focused on finishing up his mayoral term" which ends Sept. 21st. McWherter had said he will make a decision after Labor Day.

Any of these candidates would be strong, but so will Alexander. Things could get especially interesting if Bill Purcell decides to test the waters. Read the article for more remarks from the other potential candidates.

(By way of Senate 2008 Guru)

Labels: Election 2008, Southern Politics, Tennessee

Here's an interesting rumor from a local newspaper blog and their man in Nashville regarding Tennessee Republican Senator Lamar Alexander and Vanderbilt University that could have huge implications for the 2008 Senate elections if true.

Alexander was recently in the news for being the latest GOP senator to break with President Bush over his Iraq policy, although it appears Sen. Alexander may be backing off from his original remarks.

Democrat Mike McWherter, son of wildly popular former Tennessee Governor Ned Ray McWherter, is said to be considering a run for Senate in 2008 against Alexander.

Labels: Election 2008, politics, Tennessee

With the McCain campaign circling the drain, there is speculation that Thompson's announcement, which earlier rumors said would happen on the 4th of July, may have been delayed to coincide with McCain's withdrawal.

In related news, Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Bob Davis stepped down last week, presumably to join the Thompson campaign.

The Thompson campaign is also said to be looking to hire some former McCain campaign workers who were laid off last week. Bloomberg says that both Thompson and Giuliani could benefit from picking up some of McCain's financial backers.

And speaking of fundraising, Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post's "The Fix" blog takes a look at Fred Thompson's campaign finances and offers up some interesting theories on why Tennessee is such a reliable GOP fundraising state.

Labels: Election 2008, politics, Tennessee

Poor Fred Thompson.

Last week we linked to a Boston Globe story that revealed the former U.S. senator from Tennessee acted as a mole for the Nixon White House during the Watergate investigation, in which Thompson served as minority counsel.

This weekend the Associated Press offered new revelations on Thompson's role as a partisan champion of the Nixon administration during Watergate -- and on Nixon's low regard for Thompson's intellectual abilities.

The AP reviewed audio tapes of White House conversations stored at the National Archives in College Park, Md. and transcripts of those discussions published in Abuse of Power: The New Watergate Tapes by historian Stanley Kutler. It reported:

Nixon was disappointed with the selection of Thompson, whom he called "dumb as hell." The president did not think Thompson was skilled enough to interrogate unfriendly witnesses and would be outsmarted by the committee's Democratic counsel. ...

"Oh s---, that kid," Nixon said when told by his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, of Thompson's appointment on Feb. 22, 1973.

"Well, we're stuck with him," Haldeman said.

The AP found that while Thompson publicly presented himself as a seeker of the truth -- an image he continues to promote today on his presidential exploratory Web site -- he actually worked cooperatively with the White House and accepted coaching from Nixon's attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt:

"We've got a pretty good rapport with Fred Thompson," Buzhardt told Nixon in an Oval Office meeting on June 6, 1973. The meeting included a discussion of former White House counsel John Dean's upcoming testimony before the committee.

Dean, the committee's star witness, had agreed to tell what he knew about the break-in and cover-up if he was granted immunity against anything incriminating he might say.

Nixon expressed concern that Thompson was not "very smart."

"Not extremely so," Buzhardt agreed.

"But he's friendly," Nixon said.

"But he's friendly," Buzhardt agreed. "We are hoping, though, to work with Thompson and prepare him, if Dean does appear next week, to do a very thorough cross-examination."

Five days later, Buzhardt reported to Nixon that he had primed Thompson for the Dean cross-examination.

"I found Thompson most cooperative, feeling more Republican every day," Buzhardt said. "Uh, perfectly prepared to assist in really doing a cross-examination."

Thompson has continued his role as a defender of Republican administrations involved in wrongdoing to the present day: He recently served as an advisor to the defense trust of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff who was convicted earlier this year of obstructing justice in an investigation into who leaked a CIA operative's identity.

Labels: Election 2008, politics, Tennessee

Located in North Carolina's Nantahala National Forest, the Tellico Off-Road Vehicle Area is one of the most heavily used ORV zones on public lands in the Southeast, with twice as many designated ORV trails as allowed by the U.S. Forest Service in addition to many illegal trails. Some of those trails lie with 100 feet of streams, which violates Forest Service rules. Many of those streams also flow into the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee.

Heavy use has turned some of the area's trails into ditches as deep as 7 feet, and when it rains they send muddy water into nearby creeks and streams in violation of state and federal water laws. The runoff is destroying one of the last strongholds for brook trout, a native species in decline.

Sportsmen and conservation groups have repeatedly asked the Forest Service to take steps to halt the damaging ORV traffic, to little avail. So now Trout Unlimited's North Carolina and Tennessee councils, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project have announced their intent to sue the agency to take action.

"The Forest Service has come up short in taking decisive action to fix this problem," says attorney DJ Gerken of the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represents the groups. "We are letting them know that the law is unambiguous -- water quality and mountain trout come first."

The groups are calling on the Forest Service to permanently close the most environmentally damaging trails and to temporarily close the entire system during the wettest months. To read the groups' letter announcing their intent to sue and for other details on the case, click here.

(Photo by Barry Sulkin courtesy of SELC's Web site.)

Labels: environment, north carolina, regulatory oversight, Tennessee

Oh, wait. Wrong generation. This generation is more likely to be wearing ear buds for their iPods and toting a Blackberry or a text messaging cellphone to Bonnaroo, the South's premier music and arts festival that kicks off tonight in Manchester, Tennessee.

The brainchild of Knoxville's AC Entertainment and New Orleans based Superfly Productions, Bonnaroo is celebrating its sixth anniversary with an impressive lineup that includes headliners such as The Police, Tool, Widespread Panic, The White Stripes, Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals, Wilco, The Flaming Lips, MANU CHAO Radio Bemba Sound System, The String Cheese Incident, Franz Ferdinand, Ornette Coleman, Bob Weir & Ratdog, Damien Rice, Ween, Gov't Mule, Ziggy Marley, The Decemberists, The Roots, Kings of Leon, just to name a few.

Music is the main attraction, but there will also be comedy (Lewis Black, David Cross, others), a 24 hour per day film festival, interactive art exhibits, a brewer's festival, yoga lessons, art, theater, and dancing classes, environmental workshops, internet cafes and technology exhibits, and lots more at the four day event which concludes Sunday with a scheduled three hour jam by Widespread Panic.

Ashley Capps of AC Entertainment said yesterday afternoon that tickets are going fast and expected to sell out today, and that if you don't have a ticket don't come. Last year's event sold out, raking in $15 million in ticket sales.

The town of Manchester welcomes the annual event which generates $20 million in local economic impact each year. More than 80,000 festival-goers from around the world descend on the town of 8300, swelling its population to more than 90,000 and making it the sixth largest city in Tennessee during Bonnaroo weekend. The festival is held on a 700 acre farm, which the promoters purchased earlier this year to establish a permanent home for the event.

Weather has been a factor in past years, with rains creating a giant mudfest at the event site. This year's continuing droughts, however, are creating the opposite problem. Medical personnel are preparing for heat exhaustion, dehydration, and asthma attacks expected to result from the dry, dusty conditions. There will be 16 first aid stations and 12 roving golf carts manned by emergency medical personnel. Attendees can also opt in to a text messaging system for safety alerts.

Traffic control is a huge logistical problem, with 30,000 vehicles expected to arrive in the area starting today. The Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Tennessee Department of Transportation and event security staff have mobilized a massive 24 hour per day effort involving helicopters, patrol cars, motorcycles, and roadside assistance units.

Security will be tight. All vehicles will be searched and no large rental or "box type" trucks will be allowed. There will be security personnel and horseback mounted patrols throughout the venue for the duration of the event.

There are long lists of what to bring and what not to bring. There is a strict no-illegal-drugs policy, but festival-goers are allowed three cases of beer and two 1.75 liters of hard liquor per person (no glass bottles!). That's a lot of booze, but hey, it's a long, four-day weekend.

Accommodations consist mainly of camping areas assigned to vehicles in the parking lots and two additional campgrounds inside the venue. A limited number of RV passes are available, but there are no hookups and no fuel is available onsite.

There were also a limited number of VIP tickets that included shuttle service to hotels in nearby towns, priority access, air conditioned rest rooms, VIP viewing tents, catered meals, cocktail lounges, and more. These tickets, which appeal to an older, more affluent demographic, sold out in May.

Technology plays an increasingly prominent role at Bonnaroo each year. This year, free wi-fi and internet access for artists, staff, and attendees will be provided throughout the entire venue by D-Link. According to their press release, D-Link is setting up the latest wireless access point and switching gear to manage the backbone and create "one of the largest independent temporary wireless infrastructures in the country."

AT&T is providing live streaming webcasts throughout the weekend, and XM Radio will be broadcasting performances on XM 12. And speaking of iPods, there will be a Bonnaroo iTunes playlist and festival promoters say entire sets by selected artists will be available for download from iTunes next week after the festival.

Because of the Knoxville connection with AC Entertainment (and several local bands that will be playing), the Knoxville News Sentinel newspaper is sending a team of bloggers and photographers to cover the event.

News Sentinel photographer Saul Young has this portrait gallery from last year. This photo ran in a print edition of the paper last year, generating a lot of controversy among those with more delicate sensibilities. We're looking forward to what Saul sees through his viewfinder this year.

Even if you're like me and getting too old for camping out with a bunch of wild and crazy kids at a music festival (and too cheap to buy a VIP package), there are lots of other ways to experience a taste of Bonnaroo. For those of you headed to the festival, have fun and be careful out there!

UPDATE: The Knoxville Voice alt-weekly profiles Manchester and how the folks there welcome the event.

UPDATE: The New York times has a