Month: May 2017

Beacon Center Sues Metro Nashville Government Over Affordable Housing Law

Wendy Wilson

  The Beacon Center of Tennessee is taking Metro Nashville government to court, claiming that a new affordable housing law is illegal and unconstitutional. The Nashville-based think tank, which promotes free markets, filed a lawsuit last week in Davidson County Chancery Court. The suit was filed on behalf of the Home Builders Association of Middle Tennessee. The suit challenges an inclusionary zoning ordinance passed by the Metro Council in September 2016. With limited exceptions, the law requires homebuilders to set aside part of their developments for affordable or workforce housing or pay a fee. Megan Barry, Nashville’s Democratic mayor, has made affordable housing one of her signature issues. “As anyone who has been paying attention knows, a government program that begins with the term affordable is typically anything but,” the Beacon Center said in a blog post. “Look no further than the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. That redistribution of wealth scheme has left working-class Americans with astronomically higher prices and fewer health insurance options, all in exchange for a worthless guarantee that it will be more ‘affordable.’ ‘Affordable’ housing is essentially the Obamacare of housing.” Developers will pass on the costs of creating affordable housing to buyers and renters, according…

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Historian: Give Trump Credit for Dispelling Myth of ‘Inevitable’ Civil War and Suggesting Andrew Jackson May Have Been Able to Stop It

Tennessee Star Staff

President Trump sparked outrage on Monday after making comments regarding President Andrew Jackson and the Civil War during an interview broadcast on satellite radio. Trump’s remarks, while not exactly polished, suggested Jackson may have been able to stop the Civil War and that the seventh President foresaw the nation’s imminent sundering. He also implied the great…

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Incumbents Retain Seats On Brentwood City Commission

Wendy Wilson

The three incumbents in Tuesday’s race will keep their seats on the Brentwood City Commission, according to unofficial election results released by the city Tuesday night. The three incumbents are Mayor Regina Smithson, Mark Gorman and Rhea Little. John Byers was not successful in his role as the sole challenger. Little was the top vote getter in the nonpartisan race, with 2,782 votes or 29 percent of the total. Mark Gorman received 2,673 votes (28 percent), Smithson 2,606 votes (27 percent) and Byers 1,516 votes (16 percent). Byers ran on a platform of reaching out to younger Brentwood residents and encouraging greater collaboration with mayors of surrounding cities on traffic and transit plans. The incumbents defended their records at a debate last month where they presented themselves as experienced leaders who can move the city forward. Growth and traffic are major issues for the wealthy Nashville suburb, which in addition to its own traffic sees a lot of drivers passing through to other areas. Other issues facing Brentwood are housing for seniors and ensuring that Brentwood students aren’t rezoned to schools in other parts of the county because of growth. The city commission has a total of seven members elected at-large…

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OFF THE RECORD

Chris Alto

Has Senator Corker even read the Tennessee lawsuit? TN GOP’s Deputy Communications director confirmed today that Sen. Bob Corker will “be giving some remarks at the SEC meeting on Saturday.” No word yet whether Bob will share pictures from the Easter trip he took with Democrat Chris Coons, to the Bidi Bidi refugee camp in Uganda to look specifically at issues related to food shortages and the impact of the President’s proposed budget. Upon his return, Bob was asked if he had any recommendations for President Trump regarding dealing with the refugee issue. Forgetting(?) perhaps that Tennessee has sued the federal government over its refugee resettlement program, Bob said that he hopes to “move back to the regular process that we’ve been in for some time” and “normalize what we have been doing in this regard for many years.” Bob will be treating all the State Executive Committee members to lunch. We’ve been told that he will also feed any county party Chairmen that show up so that no one goes hungry. Lunch will be served at the 5-star Hermitage Hotel. Beth hired who??? This message almost set The Tennessee Star tipline on fire – Speaker Beth Harwell, a Republican of some sort,…

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Williamson County Commission Budget Committee Approves Plan To Expand Schools To Prevent Rezoning

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

The Williamson County Commission Budget Committee has approved plans to expand Page and Brentwood middle and high schools to keep students from being rezoned to other parts of the county. The committee voted 5-0 on Monday to approve the plan, which will go before the full commission next Monday, May 8, according to the Williamson Herald. Funds from a builders education impact fee that went into effect March 1 would be used toward debt service for the projects. The committee approved $4.9 million for the first phase of the Page expansion and $17.2 million for the Brentwood project, the Williamson Herald said. The total cost of the three phases of the Page expansion would be about $43 million. Parents have pressed for more funding, even starting a movement called Fund Our Schools, which has created a Facebook page and launched a petition drive. In Brentwood, there has been talk of pulling out of Williamson County Schools and forming a city school system to ensure Brentwood students stay in Brentwood schools. Candidates running in Tuesday’s city commission race addressed the topic at a debate last month, saying such a move now would be premature but might be something to consider in the future.…

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United Methodist Church Top Court Rules Against Gay Bishop But Future Unclear

Wendy Wilson

  The top court of the United Methodist Church has ruled that the consecration of an openly gay bishop violates church law but the bishop for now still has her job. In a somewhat convoluted decision, the judicial council, convening in Newark, New Jersey, said that Karen Oliveto “remains in good standing” pending the completion of another administrative or judicial process, according to a UMC news story. The decision, made public on Friday, said, “It is not lawful for the college of bishops of any jurisdictional or central conference to consecrate a self-avowed practicing homosexual bishop.” Oliveto was consecrated in July 2016 by officials in the Western Jurisdiction. She is the episcopal leader for an area covering Colorado, Montana, Utah, Wyoming and one church in Idaho. A church lay member from Kansas in the South Central Jurisdiction formally challenged Oliveto’s elevation to bishop. The denomination’s high court rejected an argument from the Western Jurisdiction counsel made during an oral hearing last week that Oliveto’s same-sex marriage in 2014 to another woman was not a public statement about her sexual practices. “A same-sex marriage license issued by competent civil authorities together with the clergy person’s status in a same-sex relationship is a public…

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Nashville Refugee Service Provider Siloam Health Uses Culturally Sensitive But Problematic Term ‘Female Circumcision’

Chris Alto

  Dr. Jim Henderson, medical director for Siloam Health Care Services, Inc., uses the terms “female circumcision” and female genital mutilation (FGM) interchangeably, responding to questions from The Tennessee Star about the state’s female FGM reporting law. Except, “female circumcision” has been rejected as an accurate description of the barbaric FGM practice by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the National Organization for Women, human rights organizations and perhaps most importantly, by anti-FGM activists  who were mutilated in their home countries like Jaha Dukureh, founder of Safe Hands For Girls: As an infant growing up in Gambia, I experienced Female Genital Mutilation. It took away a part of my femininity, my ownership to my body. Some girls, including my half-sister who died from complications from being cut, even lose their lives. Siloam Health serves as the Statewide Refugee Screening Coordinator for Tennessee and a primary care provider for refugees: As you may know, every refugee that’s resettled in Nashville passes through the doors of Siloam Health for his or her initial medical screening exams. Many of these refugees eventually become our primary care patients, and it is our privilege to get to know them over time as they become a vital part of…

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Commentary: What Happens to Christians There Will Come Here

Tennessee Star Staff

George Rasley, ConservativeHQ.com Editor The establishment Republicans like Speaker Paul Ryan and the Far-Left Soros-backed open borders crowd would like Americans to believe that unlimited unvetted immigration from Muslim countries has no negative consequences. Indeed, when confronted with the opportunity to support President Trump’s efforts to limit immigration from Syria and other Muslim terrorist hotspots Speaker Ryan said, “That’s not who were are.” But maintaining the constitutional liberties that are “who we are” is exactly what limiting immigration from anti-constitutional cultures is all about. As Giulio Meotti writing for the Gatestone Institute pointed out recently, in ancient times, Algeria and Tunisia, entirely Christian, gave us great thinkers such as Tertullian and Augustine. Two centuries later, Christianity disappeared, replaced by Arab-Islamic civilization. Is Europe now meeting the same fate? In the Middle East, “Christianity is over in Iraq” due to Islamic extremism says Meotti; in Europe, Christianity is committing suicide. Within 20 years, more babies will be born to Muslim women than to Christian women world-wide; it is just the latest sign of the rapid growth that seems to be making Islam the world’s largest religion by the end of the century, according to Meotti’s analysis of a new study released…

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Former State Rep. Jeremy Durham Responds to Registry of Election Finance

Tennessee Star Staff

  Former State Rep. Jeremy Durham issued a statement through his attorney Peter Strianse late Tuesday outlining his response to a Show Cause letter from the Registry of Election Finance. “Frankly, I am surprised that the Registry would publicly disclose Mr. Durham’s audit response before conducting a fair and honest review of its contents. Despite obvious violations of Mr. Durham’s constitutional rights, Tennessee law, as well as the Registry’s own policies and procedures, Mr. Durham has responded in exhaustive detail to every question raised,” Strianse said in his statement. “The selective inquisition of Mr. Durham and his records appears to be driven by an agenda rather than a good faith effort to police legislative fundraising, expenditures and the reporting process,” Strianse added. “The Tennessean, by simply reviewing one year of certain legislators’ public records, has uncovered far more egregious examples of financial abuse than the allegations made against Mr. Durham after an audit of four years. If the Registry is serious about policing the legislature, then it should follow up on this paper’s reporting and pursue audits of the legislative abuses identified in recent stories. The failure of the Registry to take such action speaks loudly to its real intent…

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Commentary: Lawsuits In Lethal School Bus Crash Reveal Secret About Liberty Of Travel

David Tulis
Tennessee Star

By David Tulis / Noogaradio 1240 AM 92.7 FM CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A secret is being revealed by lawyers filing lawsuits on behalf of victims of the yellow school bus crash in Chattanooga that killed six children. So eager are lawyers to unveil this mystery in courtroom filings that Attorney General Herbert Slatery last week filed suit against the Witherspoon law firm in Dallas on accusations that it hounded bus crash victims’ survivors for work and even threatened one family by saying the funeral home would not bury a dead child unless the grieving parent signed a contract for legal services. Even in the most boilerplate pages among the civil case courtroom filings (that from the Fried law firm in Atlanta) is this secret sauce revealed: That driving is a commercial act, and that driving is subject to regulation, to state ownership and consent. OK, OK, you say, so what does that mean? Let’s pull back, adjust focus and perspective so that these observations are more than just the modern administrative hieroglyph that they appear to be. Move the lamp, alter the light, understand the claim the lawyers are putting forth — these are actually true. It’s worth knowing. Newcomers to…

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TVA To Eliminate Handguns For Security Officers, Raising Concerns About Safety

Wendy Wilson

Tennessee Valley Authority security officers will no longer be able to carry handguns, a change in policy that has prompted one employee to speak out about the danger he thinks it poses. Paul Tackett told WRCB Channel 3 in Chattanooga that nuclear power plants are considered high value targets to terrorists. “Radiological release, that’s what they’re after. Terrorists are after to kill as many as they can in the quickest way,” he said. Tackett, who has worked as a senior nuclear security officer at TVA’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant for seven years, is currently required to carry a handgun and pepper stray. He recalled an incident four years ago in which someone fired at an officer at the East Tennessee plant. The officer wasn’t hurt, but the incident shows that anything can happen at any time and that officers need to be able to protect themselves, Tackett said. “Everyone I talk to over there says the same thing, I mean, they’re just like me, saying what are we going to do if something happens?” Tackett said. Tackett said he won’t be able to carry a handgun after August 15. The TVA told WRCB the changes will be complete by the end…

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Former Democratic State Senator Joe Haynes Charged With Sexual Battery

Wendy Wilson

Joe Haynes, a Nashville area attorney and former Democratic state legislator who served in the Senate for many years, has been charged with sexual battery. Haynes, 80, was indicted by a grand jury and surrendered for booking early Monday afternoon, reports WKRN News 2 . In July 2016, a then 49-year-old woman met with Metro Nashville police and told them that Haynes grabbed her buttocks and tried to French kiss her. The woman said she had hired Haynes to help her with legal matters regarding the estate of her recently deceased mother, according to WKRN. Haynes was released later Monday after posting a $2,500 bond. He served in the state Senate from 1985 to 2012. He represented the 20th district, which includes part of Davidson County. He chaired the Senate Democratic Caucus and served on several committees, including Ethics and Finance, Ways and Means. A Sumner County native and University of Tennessee graduate, Haynes has been involved in numerous community organizations and served for years on the Goodlettsville City Commission including in the role of vice mayor. He is married to Barbara Haynes, a retired Davidson County General Sessions and Circuit Court judge. They have three children.

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Islamic Society of North America, Unindicted Co-Conspirator in Terror Financing , Holding Conferences in Tennessee

Chris Alto

On April 9, 2016, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) hosted a “Striving for Justice” conference in Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis cleric Yasir Qadhi, resident scholar at the Memphis Islamic Center, Dean of Academic Affairs of AlMaghrib Institute and an “expert” with the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA), along with Linda Sarsour, director of the Arab American Association of New York, were featured speakers. ISNA is a named unindicted co-conspirator in the federal 2008 Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial, the largest successful terrorism financing prosecution in the U.S. which resulted in five officials of the HLF being convicted for illegally funneling millions of dollars to HAMAS, a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization. In 2009, ISNA went to court asking to have their HLF unindicted co-conspirator status removed. However, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals federal judge Solis ruled that ISNA’s unindicted co-conspirator would stand since the government had “ample evidence” tying ISNA to HAMAS: [t]he Government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA and NAIT with HLF [Holy Land Foundation], the Islamic Association for Palestine (“IAP”), and with Hamas At the time, Obama’s political Department of Justice appointees blocked prosecutions of the HLF unindicted co-conspirators including ISNA.…

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Hamilton County Clerk Relents As Citizen Reporter Insists on Right to Make Video at Auto Tag Office

David Tulis

By David Tulis / Noogaradio 1240 AM 92.7 FM CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Staff at the county clerk’s office April 20 yielded to a citizen’s demand that he not be barred in making a Facebook video while standing among 35 other Hamilton County residents lined up to get auto tags. Clerk Monica Brown and sheriff’s deputy Terry Fowler had forbidden this reporter from making a video post for his Noogaradio and Nooganomics.com media outlets. The citizen insisted that under the state and federal constitutions he cannot be molested by officials. “There should not be any effort to block me, stop me, prohibit me, bar me or retard my labors, sir,” he insisted in a 10-minute phone call with Jim Lawrence, the operations manager of the clerk’s office. “I want to be unobstructed in the use of my equipment in this place where no one has an expectation of privacy.” “No, we’re not going to allow you to interview anyone in the building,” Mr. Lawrence insisted. “Now, if you would like to be outside, and ask people before they come in or after they exit, that would be one thing. But to actually stand in the middle of the room, no, because that’s…

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Patriots Outnumber Antifa At Peaceful Nashville May Day Protest

Wendy Wilson

  NASHVILLE, Tennessee–A small band of Antifa protesters showed up for a May Day demonstration Monday at Nashville’s downtown Public Square Park, but they were far outnumbered by flag-waving American patriots. Antifa, which stands for anti-fascist, is a movement that has led in recent months to violent clashes and arrests in other cities across the country, especially in California. A far left socialist movement, Antifa rails against capitalism and broadly characterizes those with opposing views as fascist. Monday was a day of left-leaning and socialist protests across the nation on behalf of workers and immigrants. Officers with the Metro Nashville Police Department were out in force late Monday afternoon and efficiently managed the crowds at Public Square Park, preventing the demonstration from spinning out of control. There were only about a dozen Antifa protesters in addition to a handful of other left-leaning protesters. The Antifa protesters covered their faces with bandanas and some carried baseball bats. The patriots were the first to arrive and stood in military-like formation to greet the arriving Antifa protesters, who then took to the steps of the courthouse. Police on bicycles formed a barricade between the two groups and later police on motorcycles arrived. The…

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LGBT Group At Belmont University Upset By Campus Event Promoting Biblical Sexual Ethics

Wendy Wilson

  Members of an LGBT group at Belmont University were upset recently with a documentary shown on campus that promoted biblical sexual ethics, an event also criticized by the university provost. The documentary and a discussion that followed on April 6 were sponsored by University Catholic, another group at the Christian liberal arts college in Nashville. Called “Desire of the Everlasting Hills,”  the film relates the story of three people with same-sex attraction who used to be part of the LGBT world but now practice chastity because of their Christian faith. One member of Bridge Builders, the campus LGBT group, told the student newspaper Belmont Vision, that Belmont “has been very accepting as of late” but that this event made Belmont “look really bad.”Another said, “We were just appalled by the documentary.” Both told the student newspaper that they are Catholics themselves. Several students were also upset with comments made following the film by psychologist Stephen Hopkins who described circumstances in a child’s upbringing that could contribute to same-sex attraction and said homosexual relationships are inherently more unstable than heterosexual ones. Members of the LGBT group were angered that university leaders allowed the film to be shown without first consulting with LGBT…

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Inside the Beltway: Only 11% of Democratic Voters Say Opposition to White House a Success

Tennessee Star Staff

“Disliking Trump is getting very boring,” writes Kathleen Parker, a Washington Post columnist. “Disliking Trump, even for all the right reasons, is exhausting and unsustainable. It’s also boring.” Funny she should mention that. Weary Democratic voters may agree as they witness a strident new culture within their party which calls upon them to “resist” President Trump…

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Memphis Charter School Knew Of Interim Principal’s Felony Conviction When Hiring Him

Wendy Wilson

  A charter school in Memphis hired an interim principal knowing he had a felony conviction, reports WMC Action News 5 in Memphis. Koai Matthews of Lester Prep was convicted and sentenced to probation for conspiracy and counterfeiting in 2006, according to court documents from Missouri obtained by WMC. The school knew of the conviction, but didn’t report it to Tennessee’s Achievement School District, which they are not obligated to do under state law, according to WMC. The ASD, which learned of the felony conviction through an anonymous tip, is now reviewing its hiring policies for charter school operators. “We’re not disagreeing with the hiring of certain individuals, we just want to be informed on who those individuals are,” said Robert “Bobby” White, chief of external affairs for the ASD. Matthews is keeping his job and told WMC that he uses his past to teach students to make better choices than he did. The ASD was created by the state legislature in 2010 to turn around struggling schools as part of former President Obama’s Race to the Top program. After news broke of the interim principal with a felony conviction, state Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, wrote to state education commissioner Candice McQueen…

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Congress Funds Health Research For Balance of FY 2017 Far in Excess of President Trump’s Budget Request

Tennessee Star Staff

Congress expanded funding given to federal agencies President Donald Trump promised to gut by billions of dollars in the newly drafted bi-partisan legislation intended to keep the government from shutting down. The House Appropriations Committee released the 2017 fiscal Omnibus Appropriations bill Monday, a piece of legislation that keeps the government solvent through Sept. 30, 2017.…

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Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett: ‘I Would Expect Somebody To Have Some Guts and Enforce the Law’ on Reporting Female Genital Mutilation

Chris Alto

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett tells The Tennessee Star that female genital mutilation (FGM), which is illegal in Tennessee, is “something out of the dark ages” that must be reported when the barbaric practice is discovered in the Volunteer State. “I would expect somebody to have some guts and enforce the law. I can’t even imagine that. I’ve got a little girl, I mean I just can’t even imagine that. It sickens me to my core,” he says. “I can’t believe that in 2017 we’re having this discussion in this country,” Burchett tells The Star. The Star asked Burchett on Monday to comment on the lack of reporting requirements about FGM to either the Tennessee Department of Health or to the state’s Department of Children’s Services. Burchett is the first elected official in Tennessee to make the connection between reporting FGM to the Department of Health and medical licensure, noting that, “If anybody in the medical community is performing that, they need to lose their license.” The Health Professional Boards that oversee licensing for a long list of health care professionals, is a division within the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH).  These boards are also responsible for “investigation of alleged violations of the…

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GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Randy Boyd and Nashville Mayor Megan Barry Both Want Refugees But Remain Silent on Female Genital Mutilation Threat

Chris Alto
Tennessee Star

  GOP Gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd and Nashville Mayor Megan Barry have something in common. They both want refugees resettled in Tennessee, and they both remain silent on the threat of female genital mutilation (FGM) to women and girls in the Volunteer State. Reiterating her campaign theme, “it doesn’t matter where you started life or how you got here” progressive Mayor Megan Barry lauded Nashville for being a “warm and welcoming place” during her second state of Metro address, yet did not respond to the Tennessee Star’s questions about the threat of FGM to women and girls in Davidson County. Barry’s office was asked last week if based on the Mayor’s support for increased refugee resettlement and the high immigration from FGM prevalent countries to Nashville, whether the discovery of and prosecution for FGM in Michigan raises any concern for her administration about what might be happening in her city? No response was received from Mayor Barry’s office. Despite the Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin Metropolitan Statistical Area being ranked 20th in the country for the potential risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) as reported by the Population Reference Bureau, and despite Nashville being the city that receives the highest number of refugees annually including refugees from…

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Latinos For Tennessee A Conservative ‘Voice of Reason’

Wendy Wilson

  Raul Lopez quickly discovered when he began helping Republicans with Hispanic outreach that he wasn’t working on a level playing field. He was far outnumbered and outspent by Democrats trying to reach the same audience. Lopez tried to make inroads in the Hispanic community for former President George W. Bush and for Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell when she chaired the Tennessee Republican Party. The frustrations he experienced prompted him to start Latinos For Tennessee, a conservative political advocacy group. The group champions limited government and free markets, fiscal responsibility, immigration enforcement and traditional values. “We’re a counter voice,” Lopez told The Tennessee Star. Started four years ago, the group was organized as a political action committee with an outreach and educational wing. The group is based in Nashville and plans to expand its presence in other parts of the state. Lopez, a native of Cuba who came to the U.S. when he was five years old, is the executive director. In addition, there is an eight-member board of directors. The board chairman is Tommy Vallejos, a Clarksville pastor and Montgomery County commissioner who has announced his intention to run for state Sen. Mark Green’s vacated seat pending Green’s confirmation…

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Homeschool Girl, 13, Enters UT To Study Computer Coding

David Tulis

By David Tulis / Noogaradio 1240 AM 92.7 FM A 13 year old homeschool girl, Sofia Tomov, is entering studies at the University of Tennessee starting with a course in coding. She looks forward to furthering her passion with computers and problem-solving. “Computer science is a very interesting way to solve global scale problems,” Sophia tells the UT Daily Beacon newspaper. She has published a children’s book, has a patent pending for a drug disposal device to keep water supplies clean, excelled in the ACT, passed two AP courses by age 12 and in 2016 had enrolled in three more AP courses. The Knoxville resident enjoys fencing, playing David Bowie tunes on a guitar and spending time in nature. The girl who hopes to pursue a career in the energy field will be dual enrolled as both high school and university student. She is a recipient of the scholarship that is given to seventh graders who are the 97th percentile. Last fall she was a finalist in contest for young scientists in which she presented the project on an algorithm that examines genetic code for mutations to reduce the negative effects of prescription drugs. “So far they have not found…

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Constitution Series: How and Why the First Ten Amendments – the Bill of Rights – Were Proposed and Ratified in Less Than Three Years

Tennessee Star Staff

    This is the fifth of twenty-five weekly articles in The Tennessee Star’s Constitution Series. Students in grades 8 through 12 can sign up here to participate in The Tennessee Star’s Constitution Bee, which will be held on September 23. The first ten amendments to the Constitution – the Bill of Rights – were proposed in Congress and ratified by the necessary three-fourths of the states in less than three years, a speed of action that seems improbable, given the undeveloped state of travel and communications at the time and the lengthy process more recent amendments to the Constitution have undergone. But the urgency with which the new nation acted upon the Bill of Rights simply confirms this key point: the secular covenant by which the citizens of the United States agreed to be governed consists of both the Constitution document delivered to the country by the Constitutional Convention, and the Ten Amendments that comprise the Bill of Rights proposed by the Congress and ratified by the States. There were four distinct phases in the formation of this secular covenant, or “solemn agreement,” and had not all four phases been completed, the agreement might not have held. (1) The Constitutional…

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Agriculture Secretary Says Trump Won’t Focus On Deporting Illegal Farm Workers

Tennessee Star Staff

President Donald Trump will not focus on deporting farm workers, even if they are illegal, according to the new Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Agriculture groups have expressed concern that Trump’s immigration policies could cause food prices to rise and threaten the stability of farms. Perdue, who took office Tuesday, suggested that the president is open to…

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Commentary: Speaker Paul Ryan’s Implosion

Tennessee Star Staff

ConservativeHQ.com Staff For the better part of the past decade establishment Republicans have promoted the myth that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is the smartest guy in the room, and certainly the smartest guy in Washington, maybe even the smartest guy in the world – and if you question that, then his taxpayer-paid spin machine and his legion of DC establishment sycophants will soon straighten you out. However, since the election of President Donald Trump the myth of Paul Ryan’s genius has come crashing down to earth because for the first time in his life Ryan has actually had to produce measurable results. And when the results have been compared to the myth Ryan has failed. Spectacularly. Consider that a large part of the Ryan myth was built on the various plans to balance the budget and bring the deficit under control that the Speaker propounded when he was the top Republican on the House Budget Committee. Ryan’s various budget proposals, such as his 2011 “Path to Prosperity” showed that it is possible to balance the budget, preserve the Social Security and Medicare safety nets and in short do everything liberal Democrats and moderate Republicans claim is impossible without…

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