Day: February 9, 2017

As Gas Tax Sinks and Casada Bolts, Haslam Schedules Emergency Call to WWTN’s Ralph Bristol for Thursday Morning

Tennessee Star Staff

Stung by Majority Leader Glen Casada’s (R-Franklin) embrace of the Hawk Plan to fund road construction through the reallocation of 0.25 percent of the current 7 percent state sales tax rather than his own gas tax increase proposal, Gov. Haslam scheduled an emergency call in to 99.7 FM WWTN’s Nashville Morning News with Ralph Bristol radio program for Thursday morning. Casada went public in a big way earlier this week. On Tuesday, he outlined his support for the Hawk Plan in an interview that was published, along with an accompanying YouTube video, early Wednesday morning at The Tennessee Star. Then later on Wednesday morning, Casada appeared on 99.7 FM WWTN’s Nashville Morning News with host Ralph Bristol. “The governor has a good idea, but I think Rep. Hawk has a great idea,” Casada told Bristol. It was polite and respectful language, but the political impact of the message signaled a revolt by conservatives against Gov. Haslam’s gas tax increase proposal, very similar to the grassroots revolt back in 1999 when Gov. Sundquist’s proposal to impose a state income tax was crushed in a populist uprising. Playing Devil’s Advocate, a role at which he excels, Bristol challenged Casada to take Gov.…

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Some Evangelicals Object to Refugee Restrictions

Wendy Wilson

A group of 100 evangelical leaders and pastors published a full-page ad in The Washington Post on Wednesday objecting to President Trump’s executive order on refugees. The ad featured an open letter to President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence and criticized the moratorium placed on the national refugee program and reduction in the number of refugees to be allowed into the U.S. this year. Parts of the order, which also temporarily blocks visas from seven Muslim-majority countries, are held up in court, but the yearly cap on refugees is not affected. World Relief, a national Christian refugee resettlement agency with a large presence in  Nashville, coordinated the letter. Signatories included nationally known writers and ministers such as Tim and Kathy Keller, Bill and Lynne Hybels, Ed Stetzer, Ann Voskamp and Max Lucado. Scott Sauls, pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, also signed the ad. Sauls previously served under Tim Keller at a church in New York City. Christ Presbyterian is affiliated with the conservative Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). “As Christians, we have a historic call expressed over two thousand years, to serve the suffering,” the letter said. “We cannot abandon this call now. We live in a dangerous…

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Ralph Bristol Commentary: Nashville Sheriff Fumbles Unique White House Opportunity

Tennessee Star Staff

This is the transcript of the premeditated Ralph Rant delivered by Ralph Bristol, Host of Nashville’s Morning News, 99.7 WTN, at 6:35 am on Thursday, February 9, 2017. Davidson County, Tennessee Sheriff Daron Hall has skillfully, productively and reasonably navigated some pretty challenging immigration waters in the last 10 years, from the time he first enthusiastically embraced, and then dropped, the federal government’s 287(g) program to help local law enforcement aggressively pursue illegal immigrants for deportation. When Hall launched the 287(g) program in 2007, on the exact same day I started broadcasting on 99.7 WTN, George W. Bush was President and the political climate was decidedly against illegal immigrants, perhaps especially in middle Tennessee. Since then, Sheriff Hall has adjusted his department policies and maintained good ties with, first the (then) new Obama administration in 2009, and after that, an increasingly liberal Democrat city government that became more protective of illegal immigrants. He didn’t quit cooperating with the Feds, like sanctuary sheriffs in other liberal cities have done, but he backed off of the more aggressive posture of a decade ago. Fast forward to 2017 and the new Trump administration, whose policies renew some of the previous federal aggression against…

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Commentary: Steve Bannon Is Right

Tennessee Star Staff

by George Rasley, ConservativeHQ Editor February 7, 2017 Reprinted with permission from ConservativeHQ.com “I want you to quote this,” President Trump’s senior White House strategist Steve Bannon told The New York Times. “The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.” Mr. Bannon is right about the establishment media – in ways that range from minor to profound they don’t understand the country, particularly the parts of it that elected Donald Trump President of the United States. As our friend, Ralph Benko wrote for a recent article in The American Spectator: Steve Bannon has furnished an impromptu manifesto for the movement that, with the help of Bannon and others, propelled Donald Trump into the presidency. Those who wish for a framework to better understand what a Trump presidency portends — and the nature of the underlying movement — need look no further than Steve Bannon’s remarks to the Human Dignity Institute. In this proto-Manifesto — all the more authentic for being extemporaneous — Bannon displays breathtaking erudition. And he convincingly lays to rest the unfounded fears that he sympathizes with the “white…

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State Senator Mark Green Tells WWTN’s Dan Mandis ‘I’m Opposed to the Gas Tax Increase’

Tennessee Star Staff

“I’m opposed to the gas tax increase,” State Senator Mark Green (R-Clarksville) told WWTN 99.7 FM talk show host Dan Mandis on Wednesday in an exclusive interview. “Looking towards the future, you’ve formally filed paperwork to run for governor. You went on a 34-stop listening tour across Tennessee. Tell me what you found out,” Mandis asked Green. “There’s just a stack of ideas that people have on how to make Tennessee better. It’s just awesome,” Green said. “One of the things they said they don’t want is a gas tax or a diesel tax increase. Tennesseans were pretty strong about that everywhere I went,” he added. “Now I’ve seen the polls, but I know what my anecdotal evidence is. Everywhere I went people were like ‘How dare you raise taxes in the face of a $1.8 billion surplus! You’ve overtaxed us $1.8 billion and you want more!’ And I’ve got to tend to agree with them,” the former Army doctor said. “It doesn’t make any sense that we would tax more in the face of such a large surplus,” he added. “So, I’m opposed to the gas tax increase,” the future candidate for governor declared: There were certain aspects of…

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Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall Refuses to Meet With President Trump, Prefers ‘Hanging With’ Nashville Musician

Tennessee Star Staff

Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall made headlines this week when he refused to meet with President Trump. Last week, however, he made time to meet with local musician Billy Dawson. It was unclear what important Davidson County law enforcement matter the two discussed. “@NashSheriff #daronhall and I doing our serious faces:) good hanging with mi amigo today,” Dawson tweeted on January 27. @NashSheriff #daronhall and I doing our serious faces 🙂 good hanging with mi amigo today pic.twitter.com/mBvLJhXEz7 — Billy Dawson (@billydawson1) January 28, 2017 Though not interested in meeting with the President of the United States the following week, Sheriff Hall found time in his busy schedule to tweet back the following to Dawson that same day: ” Wish I had your talent….you are gonna do great things… .” the sheriff tweeted back to Dawson. Wish I had your talent….you are gonna do great things… https://t.co/Zsco7zSxrB — Daron Hall (@DaronHall7) January 28, 2017 Sheriff Hall apparently does not believe President Trump is going to do great things, however, as WKRN reported on Tuesday: Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall declined an invitation to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House. The sheriff would have been one of about a…

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