I’m not alone in saying it, but this is a problem.

From November 2009's Save Our State training in Davidson County.

(That’s seven months, and many “Chip Forrester is Outraged on a Friday” pressers ago.)

We know you know better. How about acting on it?

Is it too much to ask that a press release from the state party be relevant, well-timed, and inform me about what Tennessee Democrats are up to?

Chairman Forrester, you seem to be a nice guy, but what has two thumbs and doesn’t care what you think, feel, or want to know? The average Tennessean.

In short, can you stop sending this out?

As you might be able to tell, this was made during Session.

Here’s the breakdown of how your state Democrats voted.

And a handy map, for your further edification:

Blue denotes Democrats voting against the resolution, pink denotes Democrats voting in favor, dark gray denotes Democrats who abstained from voting, and the rest of the map is Republicans voting yes.

Also, I didn’t hear what Rep. Odom said. I was too busy politely squabbling with the LeftWingCracker over who should take the last remaining seat. He said, “You’re a lady,” and I said, “You’re older than I am,” and then there was a kind of “Oooooo” noise out of the peanut gallery, as if facts were fighting words. The Cracker acquiesced and took the seat, which must have been when Rep. Odom said that bloggers appeared to be as hard on each other as we are on politicians.

Sir, I beg to differ. In the last six weeks alone I’ve called politicians “jackasses,” and accused them of being lazy and cowardly and out of touch.

And I photoshopped Rep. Casada’s face onto a painting of Marie Antoinette.

Just because I always crack up at this.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say I’m tougher on politicians than I am on the Cracker.

So many legislators took time out of their day – moments between meetings or before session – to come by and say hello to us. Bloggers are strange creatures: not quite media, louder and more persistent than the average constituent, usually writing as a labor of love from varied backgrounds. Meanwhile, print and broadcast journalism are evolving and, for the most part, reporters don’t have beats anymore. What filters out of the Capitol does so in new and different ways, through new and different people, and it would be easy to be defensive toward and distrustful of political bloggers. Instead, I walked away with the impression that, as B. said, at least the Democratic legislators we met with “now have a sense of the online world as more than just a place where kooks gather to complain about them.”

Although, it is sort of still that, too.

Here are some photos I took while we rested between truckloads of sandbags.

Liberadio co-host Freddie O'Connell talking with Sean Braisted

Jeff Yarbro

Mike McWherter

Unphotographed people I knew included my and LadyLib’s college buddy Jeremy Elrod, @walrusoct9, @missbethd, @polerin, @kateo and @morganplex.

Anyone else I forgot – it was hardly intentional, so let me know!

Senate Bill 2686, HB 2681‘s companion bill, passed 27-3 this evening.

You saw that right: 27-3. One Democrat, Sen. Andy Berke, and two Republicans were absent. Three Democrats – Sen. Beverly Marrero and Sen. Ophelia Ford of Memphis, and Sen. Thelma Harper of Nashville – voted no.

Beginning of life and end of life issues are thorny and intensely personal, and I’m willing to cede a lot more ground than many progressives. If the vast majority of residents of a given state or country are opposed to their tax dollars even touching the money that pays for abortions, I’m fine with that.

What I am not fine with is redundant legislation. What I am not fine with is funding campaign talking points on the taxpayer dime.

Most of all, what I am not fine with is overly-broad language that may rob men and women of the means to avoid unintended pregnancies – and ten Democrats afraid to be Democrats and at the very least, before voting for this bill, demand clarification on the language defining “abortion services” to ensure that they do not include contraceptives.

To borrow Aunt B’s apt phrasing, here’s tonight’s Democratic jackasses:

Sen. Tim Barnes
Sen. Charlotte Burks
Sen. Lowe Finney
Sen. Joe Haynes
Sen. Doug Henry
Sen. Roy Herron
Sen. Doug Jackson
Sen. Jim Kyle
Sen. Eric Stewart
Sen. Reginald Tate

Of the ten Democrats voting yes, only one woman voted yes. The Democrats listed above are, on average, 57.3 years old. I suppose it’s easy to vote that way when the consequences, intended or unintended, are unlikely to touch your life personally.

HB 2681 reads:

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE: SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 56, is amended by adding the following language as a new, appropriately designated section: No health care plan required to be established in this state through an exchange pursuant to federal health care reform legislation enacted by the 111th Congress shall offer coverage for abortion services. For purposes of this section, “abortion” has the same meaning as defined in § 39-15-201.

Sounds fairly innocuous and possibly redundant – a little more grandstanding, a little more red meat for the base – until you actually read TCA § 39-15-201.

You see, according to the Tennessee Code Annotated, the law governing this little slice of creation, “abortion” is defined as

the administration to any woman pregnant with child, whether the child be quick or not, of any medicine, drug, or substance whatever, or the use or employment of any instrument, or other means whatever, with the intent to destroy the child, thereby destroying the child before the child’s birth

As Rep. Richardson points out in this video, the language is ambiguous enough that this bill could eliminate health insurance coverage for contraceptives.

Maybe access to affordable contraception is irrelevant or unimportant to the folks in power – the forced-birthers on the other side of the aisle, or the increasingly gray and overwhelmingly male Democrats on the Hill – but to me and to my husband, twenty-somethings trying to build our careers and pay down student loan debt before we grow our family? To thousands of Tennessee mothers and fathers trying to weather this recession and provide for the children already here? It is important to us and to them.

I’m keeping my eye on the Democrats who were willing to vote for this bill in hopes of scoring a few cheap points with the sorts of people who don’t vote for anyone with a D after their names, anyway — and you can count on other young voters doing so too.

Our lives, our futures, and our families are not political capital to be spent wantonly.

(h/t to Speak to Power)

Democrats Who Voted for HB 2681*

Rep. Judy Barker
Rep. Eddie Bass
Rep. Ty Cobb
Rep. Charles Curtiss
Rep. John DeBerry
Rep. Dennis Ferguson
Rep. Henry Fincher
Rep. Craig Fitzhugh
Rep. George Fraley
Rep. Jim Hackworth
Rep. John Litz
Rep. Mark Maddox
Rep. Michael McDonald
Speaker Emeritus Jimmy Naifeh
Rep. Joe Pitts
Rep. David Shepard
Rep. Ben West
Rep. Les Winningham
Rep. Eddie Yokley

* Note that Rep. Judy Barker of Union City is the only woman, and Reps. Cobb, Ferguson, Fincher, and Litz are the only representatives voting yes who are under the age of 50.

Really? So you were okay with stripping the least of these of their established health care safety net when you drew up your revisionist-history health care resolution?

Between this and Rep. Casada’s callous display in the House Subcommittee for Employee Affairs, I’m starting to believe that all the Tennessee Republican Party is up to is slapping the downtrodden in the face. You’re certainly not fiscally conservative, if you’re willing to waste time and money on the Hill writing up redundant bills and redundantly litigating against the federal government to get earned media on the taxpayer dime.

What was that you said in subcommittee, Rep. Casada? That we shouldn’t take money from those who are struggling and “by force of government” give it to others? I guess that only applies when we’re talking about helping the poor – not when it’s being wasted by grandstanding.

What was that about moral compasses, Rep. Lynn?

The red words in that book you tote to church are not optional. They’re pretty important. Here are some you are apparently unfamiliar with:

³¹ When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,
³³ and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.
³⁴ Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
³⁶ I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?
³⁸ And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?
³⁹ And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?”
⁴⁰ And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

— Matthew 25:31-40

An abandoned car in front of a government building could never be cause for alarm! He was just running late! He wanted to vote, y’all.

For those who live outside the Nashville bubble, a visual guide to just how lazy this was:

Original photo by Eric Schelzig.

Source: Google Maps

Now that the filing deadline has passed, I suppose we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled for any anti-sidewalk caption bills.