Enough With CEO Pay Increases! That Includes TVA

TVA just passed on to customers the largest electric rate increase of 20%, which went into effect on October 1 of this year. This was the second rate increase this year. So, what is TVA doing with this money? Giving CEO Tom Kilgore a $500,000 raise!
The nation’s biggest public utility is raising its chief executive’s [...]

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Now That I Own a Stake in Banks, Let’s Get Away From the Culture of Greed

It’s time for taxpayers to flex their muscles. While Clyde Haberman is talking about banks in New York City, let me bring up a few points, in the same vein, for the banks down here in east TN that will be reaping the benefits of our taxpayer dollars. So, being one of the 140 million [...]

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Women Pay More for Health Insurance

Another reason for single-payer health coverage.
Striking new evidence has emerged of a widespread gap in the cost of health insurance, as women pay much more than men of the same age for individual insurance policies providing identical coverage, according to new data from insurance companies and online brokers.
Insurers are trying to hoodwink us, by saying [...]

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Flourishing Hatred in TN Once Again in the National Spotlight

Tennessee is front and center in the national news, once again, for hatred and racism.
Federal authorities said today they have charged two neo-Nazi skinheads and broken up the pair’s plot to shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree and to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., [...]

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Voter Suppression

I’ve voted early, and even though I’ve cast my ballot I have no idea if my vote was cast correctly as the machines used in east TN do not have a paper trail. But, at least some group did not try to intimidate me into not voting at all.
A phony State Board of Elections flier [...]

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Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!

Turns out Sen. Stevens’ best Ronald Reagan impersonation did not work for him, as a jury of his peers convicted him on all seven corruption charges.
Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted of seven corruption charges Monday in a trial that tainted the 40-year Senate career of Alaska’s political patriarch.
The verdict, coming just days before Election [...]

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The Next War(s)

The Bush administration appears to be pushing us into at least one more war, and possibly two more wars. The first is Syria, where over the border incursions have killed 8 people.
Families in this village near the Iraqi border buried loved ones Monday who they said were killed when the U.S. military launched a rare [...]

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KNS Endorses McCain: Are We Surprised?

Not surprisingly, the local paper came out with an endorsement for John McCain. But, you really have to read the whole thing, most of which is a teetering on the fence endorsement, in that in blaming one party for irresponsibility they also blame the other — part of the “fair and balanced” reportage, I guess.
The [...]

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Where Will We Find Our Next Job?

Layoffs are here. Companies are slashing their workforce and cutting production, and it’s just the beginning. It’s going to get far worse before it gets better.
As the financial crisis crimps demand for American goods and services, the workers who produce them are losing their jobs by the tens of thousands.
Layoffs have arrived in force, like [...]

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Farts for Health

Beans, beans,
their good for your heart.
Beans, beans
they make you fart.
The more you fart,
the better you feel.
So eat your beans
at every meal.
It seems that there is more to this saying than meets the eye, as it relates to farts, that is.
A smelly rotten-egg gas in farts controls blood pressure in mice, a new study finds.
The unpleasant [...]

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