Non-smoker Action Steps, etc.

Wendi Thomas properly grouses about the harm to us all from smokers in public places. But if the state legislature won't deal with the problem, there are other steps possible. Employees in restaurants which allow smoking could file civil suits claiming they are harmed by second hand smoke. Folks upset by smoking places could picket outside them and at the homes of the owners and otherwise boycott such establishments. Smart merchants could build their business by being smoke-free, as some are already doing.

Individual bloggers can go to the website for the Institute on Money in State Politics and learn just which tobacco boosters gave money to which state legislators and blow the whistle on them -- loudly and often.

I was told "Visitors to the Institute web site can look up contributions given to state-level candidates by industry by using the search function on the right-hand site of the site. Just select a state, election cycle and a special interest (in this case probably tobacco companies and tobacco product sales) and click 'submit search' to find this data. The search will return a list of contributors in that industry. If you click on the contributor name, you can see details of the contributions."

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Here's an idea for tv or radio broadcasters: Put "broadcast bloggers" on the air by establishing a recording hotline so listeners who will prepare serious, well-written commentaries can submit them 24/7. Stations could set a 30 or 60 second time limit, to discipline the bloggers so they don't just ramble on forever. This could add gravitas to a station's efforts to let the public's views have expression.

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Speaking of commentaries, ever notice the piece of rolled up paper Channel 3's Norm Brewer holds as he delivers his commentary? Ever wonder what's in that rolled up paper? I'd love to know. If it's purely a prop to give him something to do with his hands, I'd say it's time to let it go. One more point: Brewer's thoughts are diminished each time when he's required to end with the station slogan, something like "News Channel 3 is the station on your side!" They ought to let that go too -- and let him end with some dignity, rather than as a shill.

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Questions for political writers to explore:
Who is raising the money for Harold Ford JR's senate campaign? Is Harold Ford SR? In what way? To what extent? What resources, like past contributor lists of Ford SR, are being used? How are they generating funds outside Tennessee? From whence cometh the bucks? From whom? What percent are outastate for JR, vs. his GOP opponents? Is that a legitimate concern? Why/whynot?

About Wendi Thomas & other stuff

I notice that Commercial Appeal columnist Wendi Thomas is departing Memphis around the Ides of March. As Shakespeare’s soothsayer warned: “Beware the Ides of March.” He was warning Julius Caesar that danger was waiting for him in the legislative body where senators stood ready to stab him to death. A curious parallel exists with our Caesar, Mayor Willie Herenton, who is facing a recall effort which could result in striking him down.
Ms. Thomas will find that Baltimore has its troubles, just as does Memphis. Sixty years ago (1943-47) Theodore R. McKeldin was Mayor and a Republican. Wikipedia says “Baltimore saw hard times during this period following the Second World War, with the inner city decaying, ghettos forming, and racial prejudice still present in government policy-making. ‘ McKeldin, the last Republican to win city office, bucked the national GOP and supported integration. But some observers blame him for the festering racial discord that continues in Maryland’s largest city to this day.
It will be interesting to see what she learns about that city as she begins this next stage of her journalistic career. I hope she will study McKeldin’s history carefully and see if it has lessons for us to consider here in the Bluff City.

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Men need some say over whether their children may or should be aborted. This is an issue that would appear to have been resolved some years ago when women were deemed the only ones who would decide whether to abort a child in their womb. Now we have a new twist, with a “Roe vs. Wade Suit for men” in which the National Center for Men says a man should have the consttitutional freedom under the equal protection clause to choose not to be a father. And then there’s this variation: “Should a man have a right to insist on his wife having a child, rather than the abortion which only she favors?” And so it goes.

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And did you read Charles Krauthammer’s column on Polygamy in the March 18 Commercial Appeal? Google Krauthammer and Polygamy to learn more. It’s too sophisticated an argument for me to summarize in a sentence, but is worth your time. Well, in a nutshell it’s: “Polygamy rights is the next civil-rights battle” hitchhiking on the gay-rights issue. He’s the best thinker we have. I think.

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And speaking of polygamy, how does the husband react when one of his wives finds him an inadequate (read: tired) lover? When she has an affair outside the marriage is he glad to have a surrogate taking on the job? And has the pharmaceutical industry done a study yet on how many wives can be serviced by one husband without serious consequences from using one of those erectile disfunction medications?

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Oh, I hope this March Madness wears off. This NCAA Tournament fanaticism is costing the nation nearly $4 billion in lost productivity, according to one of those employment measuring outfits. I’m working out at the Y and see fellow fitness buffs stare transfixed at the TV screen, instead of doing the exercises they came to the Y to accomplish. Employers shrug their shoulders over all the hoops hysteria and say things like “Well, my employees will have a boost in morale if I let them goof off and watch the games instead of doing the work I pay them to do.” Of course, they might as well submit. The fans will sneak it, if the boss doesn’t let them do it anyway.

Beware the Ides of March!

I spent all day yesterday (Saturday, 3-11-06) at the Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis TN. I was attending the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, where the straw poll for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination showed Sen. Bill Frist with 36% of the vote, Mitt Romney with 14%, George Allen and George W. Bush tied for 10% and John McCain and Mike Huckabee bringing up th rear with less than 5% each.
Earlier in the day I did a “straw poll” of the straw poll voters, asking 20 waiting in line for their choice. 18 said Frist, one said GW and one said Geo. Allen. So much for straw polls.
McCain’s gambit urging his backers to vote for GW didn’t do much good. His goal ws clearly to minimise the hurt he would suffer from a smallish vote. Well, he got what he wished for. And might have done almost as poorly without throwing GW into the mix.
A bunch of prominent Repubs spoke through the day. I was mightily impressed with their command of the issues and their leadership qualities in advocating GOP viewpoints. There’s going to be lots of competition for the 2008 nod, but they all say “Let’s focus on 2006...“ which -- of course is the right thing to do.
Attending a reception for Frist in the afternoon, I got to pose this question to him: “Has there been any movement toward permitting the sale of organs as a way to solve the organ shortage?” His reply was “The organ shortage is terrible, but the problem with allowing the sale of organs is we have to find a mechanism to prevent a black market from developing.”
I reminded him I had written him several rears ago as the head of Citizens for Organ Procurement Rights and that I had such a mechanism. I promised to send it to him. He asked me to do just that.
I’ll send you a copy if you want one.
Whoever gets to seek the Frist Senate seat for the Repubs may well face Memphis’ own Harold Ford Jr. Young Ford is impressive at first glance. But, he’s still got miles to go. I think his latest stumble is the sereies of TV spots he has been running, at least through yesterday, barking at the president for the Dubai Ports deal. He or his people are apparently too lazy, or insensitive to realize that that was “yesterday’s news” -- actually 4 or 5 days ago when the issue was mooted, the UAE folks having thrown in the towel. Ford should have pulled that spot several days sooner! In fact, I’ve been pretty well persuaded that Mr. Bush had good reasons to go along with the deal, and I agree that killing it by the anti-terror knee-jerk reaction of some in Congress may well do us a lot of harm in the Arab world. Your thoughts? I’m in the phone book.