Tennessee’s Republican Senate candidates are pulling out all of the stops this week, making a final push for campaign contributions before the 1st Quarter ends. Ed Bryant’s team is asking each supporter to give $125, one dollar for every day left between the end of this month and the primary. Bob Corker sent out an “urgent appeal” with a the goal of raising $23,000 via the internet. The Van Hilleary asks backers (and their five friends) to “take a stand” for a conservative takeover of the Senate by making a $100 gift.

According to Jonah Goldberg, “America doesn’t really have an immigration problem.”

Powerlineblog has an update from the Saddam doc dump — some interesting finds, including a note about Russian involvement. The Bush Administration’s take on Russia has been very weak. Condoleezza Rice was asked about it on Meet the Press last Sunday; the transcript will be available here soon, I imagine.

Grumpy pundit Bruce Bartlett takes a shot a the Laffer Curve argument (but doesn’t offer an alternative). This column is sure to make the rounds over the next few days.

Why is it that we call fluffy he-said, she-said articles news but consider actual facts trivia? Willisms has another good trivia tidbit today, this one on mandatory spending.

Do you read Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams’ very funny and thoughtful blog? You should. Here’s an interesting post where he offers his political views on a wide variety of topics.

By A.C. McCloud

Both ABC News and Time have sensationalistic articles out about global warming, essentially telling us to put our heads between our legs and kiss our posteriors goodbye. By the way, rarely does one see such an ominous headline about climate, unless it’s the infamous Newsweek piece from 1975 (which seems to have disappeared).

Is the warming really out of control? As any scientist would respond, “hard to say.” The evidence clearly suggests we’ve been warming, the issue is just how much can be attributed to the exhaust end of automobiles or smoke stacks.

Here in Memphis our average temperature was above normal eleven out of the twelve months of 2005, and January 2006 was nearly 10 degrees above normal. Statistically speaking, that is stunning.

But to understand just how widespread the warming might be we need to look to satellite data, since it’s less prone to data corruption compared to ground based sensors. The sky kodaks do show a rise, especially in the last ten years. Notice there was no visible trend in the late 80s as alluded to by the ABC coverage.

Here’s the bad news. Let’s say most of the warming is being caused by our “carbon footprint,” as James Hansen and the others assert. There’s simply nothing we can do to stop it. Nothing. It’s coming much too fast and furious. Ironically, efforts like Kyoto wouldn’t have stopped it either.

Conversely, if carbon is NOT the major contributor to our present warming, there is even less nothing we can do to stop it. We’re left to hope this is an aberation on the chart.

In the final analysis, whether we’re toasting ourselves to death or not is of secondary concern, since we’re going to run out of cheap fossil fuels anyway. The solution calls for innovative thinking rather than panicky socialism. For example, there are some cool things in ideaspace right now, like mining Helium-3 from the moon. It’s high time for some new-age Edisons, Bells and Whitneys to begin saving the day.

What a chaotic few days we’ve had in West Tennessee. First we heard about the preacher who was gunned down in Selmer. There was the defeat of the Memphis Tigers, while the Memphis Grizzlies were burning down the house (almost literally). One hundred of our brightest young professionals auditioned for the Apprentice, hoping to join the weeks-long televised interview with that guy with the funny hair (what’s his name again?). Then, of course, there was the politics.

Fresh off his time campaigning with anti-Bush protestors at the SRLC, the always-entertaining Tom Guleff (U.S. House District 9 candidate) sent out a press release this weekend to announce his upcoming gig on the Memphis Real Talk radio program. That same day, news came out that the show’s host, Jennings Bernard, was to be the center of a criminal investigation related to last year’s special election in TN Senate Dist. 29 between Terry Roland and Ophelia Ford. Bernard is one of 44 suspect voters who were to receive residence-verification letters from the State.

Speaking of Terry Roland, he was one of several local candidates who held campaign rallies over the weekend. Another was used car salesman and former Political Cesspool co-host Austin Farley (TN House Dist 97 candidate), who won novelty points for his “Pop-a-Cap” fundraiser just as he lost decency points for his ode to hatred. Also making news at the Farley fundraiser was local activist and frequent MSJ commenter Mickey White (no relation), who plans to run for U.S. House District 7 as an Independent.

Meanwhile, the Tennessee GOP voted to disavow U.S. House District 8 primary candidate James Hart, whose platform is racism disguised as science. Unsurprisingly, Hart was a featured guest on Friday of a local radio program recently added to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “hate watch” list. In related news, a post of ours was recently picked up (and picked apart) by the Memphis Flyer’s Chris Davis.

For those interested, LeftWingCracker has tracked down a list of websites for several District 9 Democratic candidates. In the land of sparse political web presence, the ugly blog is king.

By A.C. McCloud

Illegal aliens and their supporters hit the streets in several major cities Friday, chanting all kinds of slogans about freedom, God and the American Dream. The AP was there and offers us a glimpse of the mayhem (via CNN):

“They’re here for the American Dream,” said Malissa Greer, 29, who joined a crowd estimated by police to be at least 10,000 strong. “God created all of us. He’s not a God of the United States. He’s a God of the world.”

There go the liberals invoking God again. Don’t they know there is a separation of church and state? What next, a 100 foot tall Ten Commandments monument at the border?

Teodoro Maus, an organizer of the Georgia protest, estimated as many as 80,000 Hispanics did not show up for work. About 200 converged on the steps of the Georgia Capitol, some wrapped in Mexican flags and holding signs reading: “Don’t panic, we’re Hispanic” and “We have a dream, too.”

See, it’s not just right wing nutjobs that get too patriotic. But I think the organizer has it wrong–this sounds more like the Mexican Dream to me.

The protests weren’t without trouble. A fight broke out between marching Hispanics and Blacks in LA, put into perspective by this student:

“It’s ridiculous that a bunch of black students would jump on Latinos like that, knowing they’re trying to get their freedom.”

Illegal aliens “getting their freedom” by using Constitutional Rights of assembly to march in favor of breaking the law? Ya gotta love that. (more…)