Newscoma

One of those pesky bills that didn’t, but might have, gotten through.

Case in point:

A bill legalizing the release of more selenium into Tennessee streams fell one vote short of passage Wednesday amid claims that approval would mean poisoning the waters to help a coal company win a lawsuit.

The 49-41 vote, just shy of the 50 needed for approval, came after more than two hours of debate.

What is selenium you ask? Well, here is an explanation.

How could anyone could think that this was a good idea perplexes me.

H/T RoaneViews

Well, it was Monday mania in the Tennessee GOP and Democratic Parties yesterday. A spiraling and dizzying display in the battle between Robin Smith and Kent Williams with a war of words. Reports of Gary Odom and Williams eating. Eating, you know, FOOD!! I tell you at a fancy Italian restaurant. Stop the presses. Apparently they have broken bread together before, nudge, nudge, hint, hint. Then, Phil Bredesen DIDN’T address the state’s budget crisis in his State of Delirium address last night.

In Tennessee politics (and with the stimulus) we go back into history to when then Pres. Harry Truman said “If you can’t convince them, confuse them.” If you have had enough political speech, here is a picture of something that made me laugh out loud yesterday about cats.

Jobs are being lost but we are watching Robin Smith. If she runs for office as been speculated, she got another day of free commercials. Williams, whom I don’t know other than what I’ve read since the latest episode of As The World Turns started in Nashville later this month, seems so over his head it’s almost sad. I said almost. Jimmy Naifeh, who has some where around 1,239 years in office (that’s if you measure it in dog years) is still running the show and if you don’t believe that, I have some oceanfront property for you on Hoots Sound.

Ahh, Tennessee politics, you wear me out.

Here’s the deal:

Tennesseans are losing jobs by the day. We are out of money in this state and our friends/neighbors are looking at layoffs. Education is a priority and always will be. Economic partnerships need to be cultivated to ensure jobs in the future. We have a TVA spill that is going to impact the financial pocketbooks of all Tennesseans not to mention that Harriman is a cesspool right now where people are losing their livelihoods.

But nnnooooo, I learned yesterday that Williams is a minion of the devil and had lunch with whom I assume was the devil according to Smith.

The highlight, for me at least, was the Chip Forrester talked about rural inclusion in the party with guidance and training around the state. If he reads this blog, which I doubt he does, I refer him to my Gray Sasser rant and what happened to the good folks in northwest Tennessee before the presidential election. This isn’t criticism of Mr. Forrester but the former administration of the TNDP, just a reminder that we’ve been talking about this for a long time.

And, I’ve been getting emails from the party. This is of the good.I do recommend that the TNDP twitter join it’s followers so it’s less of just updating the thread that those of us who are listening are allowed to respond.

So, what’s today in Tennessee politics? Goat sacrifice? Lunch at Rose Pepper? An anatomy of Thelma Harper’s love of hats?

Let’s start talking issues campers. Too much is at stake for all of these games.

More commentary regarding the Chip In fundraiser from Dork Nation and WLPN.

From Southern Beale …

When you’re done watching, go here for the Coal Ash Spill Map.

H/T Sadcox

I’m going to play pundit for a moment and talk about the TVA Sludge Spill.

Citizen journalists have kept this story from going away and I’m very impressed. One of the reasons I started blogging three years ago was Hurricane Katrina. I don’t know why it was so significant to me, but it was. I had seen over time Mainstream Media drop the ball (or at least I thought so) time and time again.

White House press briefings where no questions of value were asked, astronauts in diapers, nonstop coverage of the death of Anna Nicole Smith used to dominate the news just a couple of years ago.

And it’s changed. It’s not perfect but it has evolved somehow and I think a lot of it has to do with the voices of citizen journalists. Folks like Cathy.

If the area is safe, why aren’t people allowed to take photographs? Why are they refusing to allow scientific experts to sample and test the water? If the area is too dangerous for anyone except HazMat cleanup crews, why isn’t the mess being cleaned up with any kind of expediency? What damage can an ecoterrorist do to a toxic waste spill? Are they afraid someone might, I don’t know, clean it up?

Or this from S-Town Mike on TVA (Mike has been busting the joint apart):

It sounds more like a shadow state, and I keep seeing these videos recorded over the past weekend of Kingston law enforcement telling activists that they cannot go on the Emory or Clinch Rivers because TVA owns them. That seems like an odd arrangement in a republican democracy. Does the U.S. Coast Guard patrolling those rivers serve at the pleasure of the TVA CEO?

Finally, Southern Beale:

Currently “officials” are saying the municipal water supply is safe. If it were me, I wouldn’t be using it for anything other than flushing the toilet.

TVA must be held accountable. And there are people out there holding their feet to the fire.

I’m encouraged that this isn’t been swept under the rug. Voices are being heard but from the pictures I’ve seen at Harriman, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that there is a mess. TVA says they are going to clean it up. They shouldn’t even have to assure that, they should just do it.

Words are nice but actions are so much better.

I will end this Teal Deer post with this from Popular Mechanics on how toxic this sludge is in a worst case scenario:

Coal fly ash is nasty stuff. According an Environmental Protection Agency report, coal plants produce 160 pounds of fly ash for ever ton of coal that they burn. This ash contains traces of heavy metals like arsenic and uranium, and other toxic chemicals, like mercury. The mean mercury level, according to the EPA is 0.33 parts per million, more than the other remnants of coal burning such as bottom ash or boiler slag. At 0.33 parts per million, a billion-gallon ash spill would contain 330 gallons of mercury. However, because the plants mix the ash with water and make it into a sludgy paste before sending it to storage ponds, that number would be smaller.

Mercury exposure is especially dangerous for developing babies, who are susceptible to neurological damage if their mothers have a buildup of mercury in their bloodstream, most often caused by eating seafood with elevated mercury levels. Though these small amounts of mercury exposure are less dangerous for adults, continued exposure to mercury can lead to health problems such as chronic tremors, and a variety of mood disorders. Besides the mercury, however, trace amounts of arsenic, uranium, nickel, cadmium and toxic chemicals makes this a nasty substance to get in the waterways—one that is difficult to test for and remove.