Author
Prague Points the Way to Museum of Racist Rebellion
Last summer I was in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, and visited the Museum of Communism. The museum had compelling exhibits on secret police interrogation, censorship, show trials, state propaganda, political labor camps, and the valiant but crushed 1968 uprising known as Prague Spring. The statues of Lenin and Stalin are by the toilets. […]
Commentary: Vocabulary words work as political drugs
Sometimes it takes a sharp mind and large vocabulary to distinguish between actual obscure and erudite words (useful for Scrabble and standardized tests) and the invented brand names for new pharmaceuticals being flogged in television advertising. That’s when I stumbled on several good political words that work better as drug names. Drug Ad #1, Problem/Solution? […]
Column: Fact-Checking Tennessee Congressmen
As the election heats up, we should remember three good fact-checking sites: factcheck.org, politifact.com, and snopes.com. Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Pulitzer-Prize-winning Politifact started in 2007 with a Florida newspaper and now is operated by the Poynter Institute. Snopes began in 1994 by investigating urban legends, hoaxes, and folklore; […]
Commentary: Green and Van Huss Unmasked as Disinformation Purveyors
As June drew to a close two Tennessee Republicans, one congressman and one state legislator, unmasked themselves as purveyors of pandemic misinformation mixed with unhealthy doses of blather. On Friday, June 26, Congressman Mark Green led a Republican refuse-to-wear-masks revolt at an in-person oversight subcommittee hearing. Green represents Tennessee’s 7th District. He formerly served in the […]
Commentary: State legislature fails us
Now that our state legislature has finished its session, it’s time to tally the damage—not only from what Tennessee legislators did in our name, but also from what they failed to do. Let’s start with the COVID-19 pandemic. Both the legislature and Governor Bill Lee were hell bent on ignoring expert-crafted health safety precautions, despite […]
Commentary: Gun Obsession Muddies Legislative Agenda
Our state is struggling with a public health crisis, racial injustice issues, inadequate rural health care, record unemployment, and slumping tax revenues to sustain public schools. So, what is a big focus of our state and local government? Yup, guns. As May came to a close, Knox County Commission (a body on which I once […]
Commentary: Marsha’s madcap newsletter needs corrections
Roughly every two weeks Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn puts out her online and email newsletter, the Blackburn Report. It has the usual array of public service and federal information links that any good congressional staff can produce. Interspersed, however, are moments when Marsha lets her freak fly. Politifact as of mid-May had a scorecard […]
Knox County’s Mayor Grapples with Nonsense, and Loses
Knox County’s mayor is Glenn Jacobs. It’s his first elective office. He is better known as the wrestler Kane, and before his election the only clues to his political inclinations were his anti-government online rants. Unfortunately, those inclinations are causing trouble during a pandemic that requires not only faith in government abilities to take action, […]