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Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

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The times they are a-changin’

In Law, Legislature, Media, Politics, Public Policy, Tennessee on February 17, 2012 at 1:34 pm

The Commercial Appeal in Memphis has this update on SB 2207: LINK HERE.

Lt. Governor Ramsey deserves a tip of the cap for supporting the anticipated changes.

Bob Dylan said it best:

Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don’t stand in the doorway

Don’t block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who is stalled

There’s a battle outside and its ragin’

It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your halls

For the times the are a-changin’

Thank you Lt. Gov. Ramsey. Now, about those Open Meetings laws….

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There’s no rage, Mr. Dylan

In Community, Law, Legislature, Media, Politics, Public Policy, Root striker, Twitter on February 16, 2012 at 10:25 am

UPDATE: Senate rolled until next Thursday’s calendar. Also known as Thursday next.
SB 2207/HB 2345 is what’s known as an Administration (Governor Haslam) bill. I’ve written about briefly before. Even though it is a priority of the administration, there’s one person who can stop it could’ve stopped it. It will be on the floor of the Senate this morning, so you can expect it will be passed this morning. There has been no opposition in the House.

Yesterday, the Memphis Commercial Appeal had this. Today, the Knoxville News Sentinel had this editorial in opposition.

As much as this concerns me, it doesn’t come as a surprise. News flash: government is not a business. You cannot run the government like a business. Government takes on policy initiatives that do not produce positive income streams—like protecting the public. If this happened in business, this policy would be stopped. In business you’re operating with your money or the money of your investors who want a profit. In government, you’re operating on our money–taxpayer money we’d rather keep. In the history of our state, I don’t remember us getting a dividend at the end of the year.

However, secrecy appeals to the heartstrings of business. Thus, you find, as Rep. Craig Fitzhugh stated yesterday in the House Education Committee, “a solution looking for a problem.” Government works best when the sun shines in. It’s a disinfectant. When government business is conducted in secret it exponentially increases the likelihood of corruption.

Back to the individual who can stop it: Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey. He is a craftsman with no peer in the legislature. He doesn’t seem so inclined. At least he hasn’t been to this point. Instead, yesterday, he tweeted this:

I want to believe him, but I simply don’t. The acts of state government in our legislature couldn’t be more opaque and closed when it comes to these matters. [Aside: the website is great and so is the streaming]. And SB 2207/HB 2345 only makes it darker. In the age of the Internet, we should be moving the other direction, which it seems Lt. Gov. Ramsey wants to go. At least according to his words. Just like Congress, the Tennessee General Assembly is not bound by laws that apply to others. Slippery? You bet.

I will believe this protestation of supporting transparent and open government when the legislature passes rules in each chamber at the outset of each organizational session mandating open meetings. It would necessitate a rule initiative because the well worn argument against same is one general assembly cannot bind a future general assembly. True indeed, so just make it a part of the rules to start.

Our apologies Mr. Dylan, there was no rage against the dying of the light in Tennessee. When the light dies, this is what happens:

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Pigs get fat. Hogs get slaughtered.

In Legislature, Media, Politics, Public Policy, Tennessee on February 8, 2012 at 5:25 pm

Nationally, Republicans staked this campaign for the Office of President on the economy. In economic terms, they’ve been shorting President Obama—and America’s economy. If things keep up—notwithstanding the Santorum flurry last night—they will be getting a margin call in November liquidating all their political collateral. Shorting America is a flawed policy.

Gov. Mitt Romney has tried to appeal to the most of us in the political middle. Yet, conservatives across the nation since their 2010 rise to power have governed to the right of Genghis Khan. Across the nation—Wisconsin and Ohio for example—Republicans haven’t legislated policies to improve the economic conditions of their respective states. Instead, they’ve waged war on political enemies—labor unions most notably—and prevailed. Why they did this we can’t be sure. I don’t remember the campaign promising to punish political enemies in order to cement their positions of power. Being more concerned with accumulation of power than in governing responsibly was what got the “bums thrown out.”

The folks in Wisconsin will have a recall election for their Governor. In Ohio, the voters overturned their governor’s policies. The personhood amendment in Mississippi failed. Many would call those occasions the telltale signs the governing policies of Republicans don’t match the rhetoric or promises of the 2010 campaign. Here in Tennessee, it’s much the same. I suspect many will realize the teacher’s union didn’t have much political power anyway—at least they didn’t before this legislative session. So, for us at least, it was a demonstration of running over a gnat with a bulldozer.

Undoubtedly, two years are insufficient to implement a long-range strategy for Republicans to implement a change in policy. Yet, in politics and is in life, it’s enough to reveal who you are, not who you say you are. Republicans made a bet the economy would still be in the ditch. It’s not. Take it from the mouth of the candidate most likely to be the GOP nominee.

Here is a brief snippet of Mitt Romney talking to Laura Ingraham on her radio show on Jan. 20:

No wonder the New Yorker had this as their recent cover: 

These governing policies of Republicans across the country and in the state of Tennessee the past two years will indeed lead them to slaughter—political slaughter that is. Especially when the presumptive GOP nominee thinks it’s not a good idea to build an economy on debt when that’s exactly the method Bain Capital parlayed to extraordinary success.

But, Jon Stewart does it the best, as usual:

Losing faith while gaining insight

In Community, Media, Politics, Poverty, Public Policy on January 23, 2012 at 12:31 pm

I love reading. Especially real, in-your-hand hardcover books purchased from locally-owned bookstores.

Here are some books I’ve read recently: The Big Short by Michael Lewis, Confidence Men by Ron Suskind, Boomerang by Michael Lewis, The Black Banners by Ali Soufan, Seal Target Geronimo by Chuck Pfarrer, Capitol Punishment by Jack Abramoff and Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer. I am currently reading Republic, Lost by Lawrence Lessig, while taking too many notes along the way.

Then, on A1 of Sunday’s New York Times, Charles Duhigg and Keith Brasher write How U.S. Lost  Out on iPhone Work. The Jobs biography is on deck after Republic, Lost. The article was actually available online Saturday night when I read it on the heels of Newt Gingrich prevailaing–big–in South Carolina.

I was drawn to reading Lessig after reading his work in a post-Citizen United political economy. He really got my attention with Democracy After Citizens United in the Boston Review back in late 2010. This snippet was really eye opening:

[t]he framers intended Congress to be “dependent upon the People alone.” But the private funding of public campaigns has bred within Congress a second, and conflicting, dependency. As with an alcoholic mother trying to care for her children, that conflicting dependency does not change the good intentions of members of Congress—they still want to serve the public interest they thought themselves elected to serve. But as with an alcoholic mother trying to care for her children, that conflicting dependency distracts members from their good intentions, directing their focus more and more toward the challenge of raising money.

We are now so far afield from a Congress dependent on the people alone it is now absurd to believe otherwise. I, for one, am losing faith in our ability to recapture control over our republic. Yet, we must be willing to start turning the tide while still able. If we wait much longer, it might become irrevocable. Maybe I’m just an alarmist, but it seems all too real. Buddy Roemer can’t even get on stage in a debate for the Republican nomination, yet Perry was on every stage until he dropped out–even if he didn’t meet the CNN qualifications.

Call me corny, but I love, love our city, state and country. I will begin again using this space to embark on a path of engagement with others—you, if you will–in order to reclaim a government our Founders envisioned (minus slavery, among others). This will be laboriuos, perhaps even aggravating. If you’re interested too, please share your comments here, but not anonymously, start your own blog, post a note on facebook (I gave up on the book of faces), sign-up for twitter (I’m at @jrhollin), become engaged in local government and your neigborhood. Feel free to attack the words of others, just not personal attacks. Words matter.

Before we can really reclaim our Congress, we will need to start small and at the local level. And what’s going on in local government may surprise you. There are some similarities and some stark contrasts bewteen local government and Congress. Sadly, there are more people than you care to think that group all in the same bucket. Moreover, voter participation in local elections compared to federal or state elections is abysmally low. Pre-SOPA, when have you contacted Congressman Cooper? Prior to redistricting (maybe), when was last time you contacted your state House or Senate member? The Governor? The Mayor? Your Council Member? Even then, did they respond?

The theme of my next entry will be: what you learn about local government from serving on the Metro Council. Things that can’t be learned from the media and certainly not by watching or attending Council meetings. In the interim, be sure to check out your local bookstore or library and get a copy of some of the titles above. If you’ve read them already, I’d love to hear your perspective after reading. Use the space here to comment or send an email, or better still, meet me for coffee to discuss. I will respond and indeed love coffee.

UPDATE: I was wrong–again. The theme of a coming entry will be: what you learn about local government from serving on the Metro Council. It wasn’t my next as I hoped, but will be forthcoming.

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