Two things of note today!

One, if you are in the Memphis area, go to the Germantown Democratic Club meeting tonight at Coletta's Restaurant, 2850 Appling Road; Dinner will begin at 6 P.M. and the speaker starts at 6:45.  Who's the speaker, you ask?  None other than our own VIBINC, Steve Ross, who will discuss the new County Commission districts.  Nobody is more prepared than he is, so it will be informative and fun.. I gotta work late tonight, so I can't be there, but you should go!

Next, stop what you are doing and go read NEWSCOMA right now.  Go ahead, I'll wait.

Again, she asks the right questions, but will the TNDP have the right answers?  I like this part right here:

A lot of folks I talk to discuss the wealth of Haslam and it is a fair discussion. He has a great deal of money and how much is something that no one truly knows. It’s hard to fathom what kind of money would be needed to set up a serious gubernatorial challenger. And it’s not just democrats raising eyebrows but moderate republicans as well.
And then I think about Wendy Davis from Texas. I think that what it really takes is someone opposing what is happening in this state right now just as she did. She stood up for something she believed in.

Bingo.  It's time for the TNDP to wake up and realize that GOP-lite will not work any more.  Until we find candidates that EXCITE and INSPIRE people, we are screwed.

Ok, that's all for the moment, I will try to get back here more often.

KnoxViews turns seven years old today

Before there was Newscoma, LeftWingCracker, or anyone else blogging in this state, there was SouthKnoxBubba, which eventually became KnoxViews.  It was SKB's writing that inspired me to start this blog after John Kerry's defeat in 2004, and I was crushed when the blog was taken down.

Then, I rejoiced when KnoxViews was started, and it is still going strong today.  Randy Neal (the TRUE Blogfather of Tennessee, in my opinion) is the founder of that blog and the original SKB, and you should be reading KnoxViews.  Go read it and thank him for being a true inspiration to all of us who write about progressive politics in this state.

Randy, if you hadn't started SKB, I doubt I ever would have started LWC.  Thank you.

Where has THIS been?

Helluva new blog called TENNESSEE LABOR COVERAGE, they are stirring things up, and apparently not a moment too soon.  They seem to be focusing on public sector labor for the moment.  Go check them out!.

We welcome Diatribes and Ovations to THE ENDLESS BLOGROLL

It's an interesting new blog, go check it out!

We Welcome Quips of Yellow to THE ENDLESS BLOGROLL

Heads up to the newest Tennessee blogger, Quips of Yellow, good posts being written over there, go check them out!

Thanks for the lovely comments, and some tweaks, additions and subtractions

Your comments on my Saturday post were wonderful, and much appreciated.

I was cleaning up THE ENDLESS BLOGROLL, moving some links higher, and some lower.  In the process, I discovered that one of my favorite blogs, 55-40, was no more, and has disappeared into the ether.  The forever-unknown Bob had some of the very best commentary ever written about this city, and it will be very much missed.

Some of the links were left on despite the fact that they had not updated in a while, like THE FREEDONIAN, which has not been updated since November 2007.  I always hold out hope that he will return to writing there, which I have mentioned to him personally.  I know, always a dreamer....

Hey, if you haven't signed up for OUT OF THE BLUE/DAILY BUZZ, you should do so post-haste, you are seriously missing out.  Ok, enough for now, and GO GRIZZLIES!

Come to the GDC Meeting Wednesday Night! Ross and I are speaking there!

Moved to the top..

  The Germantown Democratic Club

invites you to

A Night with the Bloggers

Wednesday, March 23

6:30 PM

Cordova Public Library

(8457 Trinity Road)

Join us for a light supper and a chance to hear from popular bloggers

Steve Steffens, “LeftWingCracker” and

Steve Ross, “vibinc”

The Club will provide sandwiches, chips and soft drinks.

 Visit Germantown Democratic Club online at www.gdctn.org

We Welcome Back An Old Friend With A New Blog

Our friend Blinders Off returns to blogging with a new blog about her home area called LIVING IN MILLINGTON.  Of course, it can be found down and to the right in THE ENDLESS BLOGROLL; We invite you to go there often, and put it in your RSS feed as well.

Welcome back!!

Welcome to the Blogosphere, Carol Chumney!

Carol can be found at CarolChumneyOnline.com; her opening post is a good take on the Election Commission problems, go check it out!

Way to go, KnoxViews!

Hat tip to Woods at Pith, great work from our friends in the east:

The political blogosphere takes a punch in the gut.

SouthComm Inc., owner of the Nashville Post, the Nashville CityPaper, and the Nashville Scene laid off seven employees today as a result of losing an account to The Westview, a Bellevue (Nashville) paper recently purchased by the Memphis Daily News.

As some of you may know by now, one of those seven was Adam Kleinheider, who built Post Politics from the ground up when he arrived there.  He had already done it once under the auspices of WKRN-TV with Volunteer Voters.  WKRN moved away from blogging, and let Kleinheider go three years ago.

I can say without any trace of understatement that he was, and is, because I am convinced he will turn up somewhere in this state, the most important political source in Tennessee.  No, he didn't do interviews, he linked to other stories (many of them from this fine blog, and vice versa) and he was a MUST-READ for anyone who wanted to know what was going on here.

His stories had brilliant headlines, and could provoke arguments going for well over a hundred comments.  Yes, he occasionally went too far, but he was our linchpin.  And, for now, he's gone.

Considering that he drew 250,000 pageviews a year to Post Politics, I suspect he won't be gone for long, I certainly hope not, because he was a gold mine of information, and he will be missed.  He's too good to be gone for long.

We certainly wish him the best of luck, as we do the same for JR Lind, Jeff Woods and Ken Whitehouse, the three SouthComm reporters tasked with keeping Post Politics alive and well for all of Tennessee's political junkies (many of who are elected officials).

Other viewpoints:
Speak To Power here and here
Aunt B.
GoldnI
Grand Divisions
Southern Beale
Nashville Jefferson

Today, I threw away the chili

No, this is not the beginning of a really bad country song, this leads to what our beloved Newscoma calls an annoying autobiographical pause.

Today, it's been a month since Lauren died, and I am cleaning out the refrigerator because there were things that I couldn't get rid of that were starting to smell.

And then I got to the chili. It was the last thing she ever made for us, about three days before she went to the hospital. Today, there was mold on it, and I knew I had to do it, and I did. it seems really silly, but it was always wonderful chili, as those of you who have had it know very well. I couldn't eat it, but I couldn't let go of it, but today I did.

I am okay, surprisingly well, all things considered, and that is because of all 0f you. You who have been there for all of us ever since this happened, who sat with us in ICU and called or texted when you couldn't, who came to the wake and the funeral and who have checked on us constantly. You, who are the best friends any human could ever expect to have.

Because of all of you, I am here, and will be for the foreseeable future. Somewhere, Lauren is laughing and saying, "SEE! I TOLD you!" And she did, nearly every day.

The cats are a big part of this as well, giving me attention as well as demanding it, and it is always appreciated, they ground me very well, thank you.

So, I am going to get through this, with my faith and my family and friends, which includes you if you are a reader.

Enough of this, I want to tell you to watch this space on Monday morning, I have something wonderful to tell you about. It is a new project about which I am very excited and have been working on with two wise old hands. Be here at 8 AM Monday for the news!

No, LWC is not going away, this is in addition to the blog and I hope that you will love it. More good news, I hope, will come later this week, with the word of the return of a great blog which has lain dormant for a year or so, and we hope returns with a flourish, because we have missed it greatly.

All right, go enjoy your weekend and GO SAINTS!!!!!!!

We have a new blog for THE ENDLESS BLOGROLL

Please go check out a new leftie blog from Midstate (with Hoots roots, I am told) called Your Liberal Friends. It can always be found down and to the right on THE ENDLESS BLOGROLL.

Welcome back to River City Mud

On THE Endless Blogroll, and now found here, I hope that you will add River City Mud to your feeds and bookmarks as well. This is a terrific blog, and we are glad DMH is up and writing again!

It's not just Memphis, the whole STATE is on fire over this.

From Mike Byrd and Christian Grantham in Nashville, to Michael Silence of the Knoxville News-Sentinel, to our own Tom Jones at Smart City Memphis, EVERYONE is weighing in on the hosing of Steve Ross by Joe Brown.

Our beloved Newscoma has this down cold, however. Start at her blog by watching the video of Joe Brown go off on Shea Flinn, then follow as she talks about what bloggers DO for their areas, and then read on as she eviscerates Brown with a scalpel, not a bludgeon.

Go read it all now!

Stunning Gubernatorial news

The campaign manager for front-running candidate Mabel Sharp has been hired away by Mike McWherter, Aunt B. reports today.

Mabel, when asked for comment, merely snorted and was last seen heading for her campaign headquarters, also known as The Stable.

We are utterly delighted for Trace and hope, as always, that this means we may get to see more of her in Memphis!

We welcome THE MEMPHIS LIBERAL to THE ENDLESS BLOGROLL

Last night, I got to meet Kelly, the author of THE MEMPHIS LIBERAL at DL, and we welcome her to THE ENDLESS BLOGROLL. Interestingly, it turns out she knows Vibinc from events they had worked, so that was cool! Go check out her blog and enjoy!

The Hat is BLOGGING. and we are all the better for it!

We will add, as soon as we are done with this post, NO CHASER, to THE ENDLESS BLOGROLL.

Written by the man who knows where the bodies AREN'T buried, longtime Democratic activist and consultant Mark Brown, this is a MUST read, one that you will want to visit often and add to your feed readers.

Welcome, Mark!

We welcome RIPPA to THE ENDLESS BLOGROLL

I should have done this sooner, and I apologize to Rippa and to all of you, who could have been reading him sooner. He writes THE INTERSECTION OF MADNESS AND REALITY, and his latest piece concerns athletes who get too much money too fast, inevitably blowing it and going broke.

Many thanks to Autoegocrat who brought him to my attention.

We welcome OpenPen to THE ENDLESS BLOGROLL

I apologize to Janet Meek and her wonderful collection of writers at OpenPen, which includes Mark Naccarato and Liberadio's Mary Mancini, for not putting them up until now, they are awesome, and they are based in EAST TENNESSEE.

Mark has a great post up now about the cost of NOT fixing healthcare, go there now.