The Mayor of Clarksville Tennessee, Johnny Piper

“This is great news for Clarksville. Our city continues to be a state and national leader in many economic respects,” said Mayor Johnny Piper. “More and more people are discovering what we’ve known all along, that our community not only offers a tremendous quality of life, but that our business and economic environment is one of the bright spots in our country’s economic climate.”

Clarksville, the fifth largest city in the state, was the only Tennessee city to appear on CNNMoney.com’s list of 50 best places for businesses. The list measures various small business indicators and is produced by CNN’s Fortune Small Business magazine.

An aeriel view of the Historic Downtown in Clarksville Tennessee (May take a few seconds to load)

Fortune reported that fast-growing small companies have historically led the U.S. economy out of recession. According to the article, only 42 percent of U.S. entrepreneurs believe that their current location is the best place for them to thrive, based on a Fortune/Zogby International poll.

Believing that number was much higher, Fortune partnered with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to identify the 50 most business-friendly communities in the nation.

Fortune rated cities based on per capita income, hourly wages, work force quality, crime rates, taxes, foreclosures and population size. It also reviewed factors such as why entrepreneurs choose locations based on proximity to major cities, smaller, close-knit community size and intellectual/cultural factors.

Clarksville also made CNN’s top 25 list of U.S. cities with the fastest local GDP (gross domestic product) for the five-year “boom” period from 2001 to 2006. GDP is a measure of economic health based on the total expenditure for final goods and services produced. Notably, Clarksville was ranked 22 on the list with a 57 percent increase in GDP during the period, even before Dow Corning/Hemlock Semiconductor Inc. announced its $2.5 billion investment to build a polysilicon manufacturing plant there.

Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division pass in review at the Fort Campbell Army Base

The article credited Fort Campbell Army base, Austin Peay State University and Hemlock, with its expected 800 initial manufacturing and 1,000 construction jobs, as major growth generators.

Clarksville was also recognized recently by Forbes, MSN Money, Fox News, Reuters, AOL Money News and many other media outlets for additional bullish indicators of recession recovery. Moody’s identified it as one of 23 cities of 381 nationally that has a moderating recession based on its Adversity Index.

A recent home pricing report revealed that the city’s median home price actually increased 2.9 percent in 2008 as opposed to the national slump of 18.7 percent. The same report, by Manier and Exton in Nashville, showed the average Clarksville home price was $147,137 (compared to $142,870 in 2007).

“These kinds of stats prove that Tennessee’s Top Spot is not just a slogan; it’s proof that Clarksville is a city on the right track for many reasons,” commented Piper.

For more news and information, contact the mayor’s office at 931-645-7444 or visit the city’s Web site at www.cityofclarksville.com.

NAACP protest of racist Post cartoon spreads to 55 cities resulting in News Corp agreement to meet with NAACP and coalition partners over demands. Murdoch apologizes.

Sparked by the Sean Delonas NY Post cartoon, NAACP Branches across the nation participated in a ‘Day of Action’ Feb. 26 protesting racially  insensitive coverage at FOX News and the NY Post and demanding greater diversity.

In 55 cities, from Jacksonville and Myrtle Beach to Boston and Detroit, NAACP members met with Fox TV station managers to demand they pressure Fox owner Rupert Murdoch to make concrete plans for putting an end to racially biased coverage and lack of diversity at his New York Post newspaper and Fox News. The NAACP has also demanded that those responsible for the cartoon being published be fired.

Many local stations stated they would hold a meeting with the NAACP to discuss the issue and related concerns while others agreed to send  letters supporting the NAACP position to News Corporation, the owner of both Fox News and the New York Post.

More than 625 new articles chronicled the actions of NAACP units during the day of action while more than 1,700 news articles have been published on the NAACP’s reaction to the cartoon overall.

In recent days, NAACP members and supporters have also sent more than 25,000 emails to Mr. Murdoch to express their outrage over the racist cartoon and call for racial diversity at NY Post and Fox News.

The successful protests since the cartoon led to a rare public apology  by News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch and an agreement by Fox News and NY Post executives to meet with the NAACP, National Urban League and National  Action Network. The meeting is being scheduled for next week.

Gregg Steinberg

Key “sports psychology” into the search field on YouTube.com, and Gregg Steinberg’s image is among the top video results.

Steinberg, an associate professor of health and human performance at Austin Peay State University, is a noted sports psychologist and frequent media personality on national television networks such as CNN and the Golf Channel to speak about the mindset of an athletic champion.

He will do the same Oct. 28 when he appears on ABC’s hit competition show, “Dancing With the Stars,” to analyze the mental toughness of the remaining contestants. Steinberg said the show’s producers contacted him two weeks ago after discovering him through a YouTube Web site search of sports psychology experts.

“I will be analyzing objectively by listening to what the contestants say, paying attention to body language and watching the performance,” he said. “I’ll be discussing why the dancers got kicked off the program and make recommendations for the dancers still in the contest.”Steinberg, a faculty member at APSU for the past 11 years, most recently provided analytical commentary for Fox News during the 2008 Summer Olympics, especially on the performance of U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps, who went a perfect 8-for-8 in Beijing to break Mark Spitz’s single-Olympic Games record for gold medals.

In addition to being a guest on several broadcast outlets, Steinberg, 45, is the author of two books, “Mental Rules for Golf” and “Flying Lessons.” His third book, “Full Throttle,” is scheduled for release in 2009. He also has written a newspaper column, “The Head Coach,” for The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville and continues to publish extensively in academic journals.

A sports psychology consultant for more than 10 years, Steinberg has worked with many professional and college athletes, including teams at Vanderbilt University, APSU, Belmont University, Tennessee State University and the University of Florida.

A native of Los Angeles, Steinberg earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California at Santa Barbara, master’s in education psychology from Florida State University and doctorate in human performance from the University of Florida.

For more information, contact Steinberg by telephone at (931) 221-6113 or by e-mail at .

We cannot approve the spot with it being Danny Glover’s opinion that the Bush Administration is destroying the Constitution. If you have documentation that it is indeed being destroyed, we can look at that. Sorry about that,

Click here to view the embedded video.

The media watchdog web site Media Matters points out that this isn’t the first time Fox News has declined to run ads on the basis of the content presented. In 2005 they also refused to run ad critical of then-Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito Jr.

* Fox News, the Fox News logo, and the Fox News Channel logo are trademarks of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and are used here without permission

Keith Olbermann, is a modern day Edward R. Murrow. A man of character and honor. A man who is not afraid to speak the truth both to those in power, and to a public often unwilling to listen themselves. MSNBC deserves our support and full credit for allowing Keith Olbermann to exercise his first amendment rights from their network, when so many other networks have just given up and surrendered.

Here is Keith Olbermann’s Commentary:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is the video that sparked Keith Olbermann’s commentary:

This is the first 20 minutes of Bill Clinton’s interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. In this clip, Wallace asks Clinton why he didn’t do more to capture or kill Osama bin Laden while he was in office. Clinton clearly feels like he has been set up and doesn’t hold back in telling Wallace just how he feels.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A full transcript can be found at Crooks and Liars.

Lastly but not the least lets bring back a important quote from our nations history…

“We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate his responsibility.” – Edward R. Murrow From the March 9, 1954, “See It Now” television broadcast on Senator Joe McCarthy.

A riveting speech given by David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow from the George Clooney film, ‘Good Night, And Good Luck’.

Click here to view the embedded video.