British Prime Minister Theresa May seemed headed to re-election late Thursday but her Conservative Party was shaken to its core, losing seats in an election the party expected to dominate. Proving the British have not seen anything quite like the previous year in politics, the left-wing Labour Party picked up seats and was projected to win…
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Several times during his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, former director of the FBI James Comey described himself as afraid, weak and even cowardly in his dealings with the president – likely the first FBI director in American history to describe himself this way. “It was kind of a slightly cowardly way of…
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Former commissioner of the state Economic and Community Development turned gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd, who has publicly described himself as a “moderate,” is now appealing to conservatives for support through a recent direct mail campaign. “I’m probably the most hated, disrespected, untolerated political entity in existence,” Boyd said, continuing, “I’m a moderate,” according to an April 2015 interview with the Knoxville Mercury. Apparently, Boyd now considers himself a conservative, as he makes references to conservatives and conservative values in all four pages of his four-page letter as well as the sheet intended to be returned with a financial contribution or volunteer sign-up. The mailing was packaged in a standard letter-sized envelope, with about a quarter of the front conspicuously covered with a picture of Randy Boyd accompanied by the statement, “I’m not a professional politician. I’m a businessman. That alone won’t elect me as Tennessee’s next Governor. But it’s a darn good place to start.” The enclosed letter starts off with an appealing story about a young man who recognized Boyd at a gas station as “the dog guy” who made “community college free.” After addressing why he decided to run for governor – “to try and make a…
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The establishment media’s bias was on full display following James Comey’s congressional hearing Wednesday. Headlines focused on Comey’s testimony that President Donald Trump “lied,” concealing the more pertinent and shocking revelations exposed during the hearing. Comey’s testimony exonerated Trump from allegations of obstruction of justice, and vindicated his claims about Comey telling him three times that…
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Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), criticized Bernie Sanders this week for opposing President Trump’s budget nominee because of his Christian religious beliefs. The Vermont senator attacked Russell Vought on Wednesday in questioning him about his theological convictions. Vought is Trump’s nominee for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. Sanders accused Vought of being “Islamophobic” and “hateful” because of Vought’s 2016 blog post about a controversy at his alma mater Wheaton College regarding whether Christians and Muslims worship the same god. Vought wrote, “Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ his Son, and they stand condemned.” Sanders, who last year made an unsuccessful bid to be the Democratic nominee for president, said that he will vote against Vought’s nomination and that Vought “is not someone who is what this country is supposed to be about.” In an ERLC press release, Moore said: Senator Sanders’ comments are breathtakingly audacious and shockingly ignorant—both of the Constitution and of basic Christian doctrine. Even if one were to excuse Senator Sanders for not realizing that all Christians of every age have insisted that faith in…
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One day of huffing, another day of puffing, and we’re just about where we were. Half of us want Donald Trump’s presidency to succeed, whether we like everything about the Donald or not, and the other half regards him as the anti-Christ. James Comey’s big day before the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee was treated in Washington…
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Tom Humphrey, dean of the Tennessee political press corps, wrote an article Thursday at “Humphrey on the Hill” contrasting the results of the recent Tennessee Star Poll with the Vanderbilt Poll, in an article titled, “A clash of polling perspectives on in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants.” We reprint the article, in its entirety, below: A clash of polling perspectives on in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants The results of a Tennessee Star poll on support for granting in-state tuition rates to children of illegal immigrants living in Tennessee are strikingly different from results from a similar Vanderbilt University poll on the subject. Tennessee Star’s results, reported Thursday, are that 84 percent of the “likely Republican primary voters” surveyed are opposed while only 13 percent support the notion. The Vanderbilt poll, reported May 30, found 66 percent of registered voters favor the idea while just 30 percent oppose. One difference, of course, is the Star only asked declared Republicans while Vanderbilt covered all registered voters. But the Vandy poll found support for the proposal, which has failed on close votes in the General Assembly for the past two year, widespread despite party alignment. Among those identifying themselves as…
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COOKEVILLE, Tennessee–State Senator Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet), who announced she is a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination on Saturday, told the Tennessee District 6 Patriots meeting at the Southern Hills Golf and Country Club in Cookeville on Thursday that, unlike other candidates who label themselves as conservatives but don’t walk the walk, she is the real deal. Though she did not specifically name either of her two other announced opponents–Knoxville businessman Randy Boyd and Williamson County Bill Lee–Beavers noted that just saying you are a conservative does not make you a conservative if you do not have a track record to support that claim. Beavers said that the gas tax increase, which she has vowed to repeal if elected governor, is one key issue upon which a candidate’s true conservative credentials should be measured. “As for that gas tax increase, 6 cents gas tax and then ten cents on diesel, there was no way I was going to vote for that,” Beaver said. “There was a lot of opposition to it until Governor Haslam tried to make it palatable to the legislature by saying, ‘OK, we’re going to reduce the food tax by one cent, we’re going to reduce…
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ConservativeHQ.com Staff Fired FBI Director James Comey’s statement released yesterday was a devastating indictment of the central figure in the investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. And there was one line in that testimony that summed up everything you need to know about James Comey, why he was fired and why he was such a danger to constitutional government: the FBI’s traditionally independent status in the executive branch The last time we checked, according to the Constitution there is only one head of the Executive Branch – the President of the United States – and every Executive Branch official and agency is inferior to him and controlled by him. That makes the FBI not a “traditionally independent” part of the Executive Branch, but at best a sub-Cabinet division of the Department of Justice. And the statute that governs the appointment of the FBI Director makes it clear that the Director serves at the pleasure of the President, not (much as the Democrats and the media would like to think otherwise) independent of Presidential authority. See William Chesney’s concise explanation of the governing law through this link. What that one line in Comey’s statement says…
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State Rep. Andy Holt is considering running for Bob Corker’s U.S. Senate seat next year. Corker has not said yet whether he will seek a third term, but Holt believes that if Corker does run as expected, there should be “a more conservative option.” “Somebody’s got to do it,” Holt told The Tennessee Star on Thursday. And that somebody – or one of them – might be Holt, though he’s still in the early stages of deciding whether to enter the race. Corker is vulnerable, according to a new poll released by The Star and conducted by Triton Polling and Research. Only 41 percent of likely Tennessee Republican primary voters said Corker “deserves re-election.” Corker, who sometimes supports President Trump and is at other times critical, recently said Trump is “out of control” and the “White House is in a downward spiral.” The poll showed that only 20 percent of likely Republican primary voters agreed. Holt (R-Dresden) pointed to Corker’s key role in pushing former President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal through Congress as one reason why Corker must go. But he said a lot of the problems with Corker stem not from what he is doing, but what he’s not doing. Corker, along…
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has championed some of the strictest voting laws in the nation, announced a campaign for governor Thursday in Lenexa. Kobach, the architect of controversial election and immigration laws, advised President Donald Trump on immigration policy throughout the 2016 campaign and was appointed to serve as…
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Officials with the city of Murfreesboro and Middle Tennessee State University are working on ways to combat crime in areas around campus. Recent violent crimes at nearby apartments, including murder, have caused alarm. Drugs appear to be a factor, reports WKRN News 2. While the shootings and other crimes aren’t random, they have raised concerns about safety. More than a dozen apartment complex managers have met with officials to help work on solutions. “We are pleased with the level of cooperation and support from the apartment complex managers and owners,” said city manager Rob Lyons in a June 1 news release. “The city, MTSU, and privately-owned apartment complexes are united in implementing strategies, sharing data and increasing shared police-apartment approaches to ensure the safety of residents and students who live in off-campus housing.” Several complexes have already responded by investing in third-party security and establishing other safety measures, and city and university officials are developing a public awareness webpage to share data on police calls. Other strategies discussed include adopting a credentialing program to inform the public about safety practices at complexes, such as third-party security, gated access, monitored parking and visitor registration. Complexes that meet certain criteria would received…
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President Donald Trump submitted a new slate of judicial nominees to the Senate Wednesday, naming nine appointees to federal courts across the country. The list is the second such slate that the president has submitted to the Senate. The White House also indicated that Trump will officially nominate three more judicial candidates in the coming days.…
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FBI Director before the Senate Intelligence Committee vindicated President Donald Trump on the most important part of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the president’s private lawyer said Thursday. Appearing before reporters but not taking questions, attorney Marc Kasowitz noted that Comey confirmed that Trump never was a target of the investigation during…
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Mark this down as the week Donald Trump won re-election. The television split screen Wednesday captured it perfectly. On one side, U.S. senators – the same ones who have failed to fulfill key parts of the agenda that got Mr. Trump elected – were squabbling, interrupting, misleading and orating about Russian mirages around every corner. All…
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Despite being a Class D felony in Tennessee since 1996, and despite twenty-one cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the state being reported in 2011, there is no publicly available record of any prosecutions for this crime in Tennessee. This contrasts sharply with Michigan that has no state law criminalizing FGM but is where federal law is being used to aggressively prosecute three individuals alleged to have possibly mutilated up to 100 young girls. In 2012, Tennessee updated its FGM criminal law requiring healthcare providers to report cases of FGM to either a sheriff or chief of police “and shall also, in either event, report the same immediately to the district attorney general or a member of the district attorney general’s staff.” Sen. Bill Ketron who sponsored the 2012 bill explained that reporting to the district attorney (DA) was mandated in the statute because even though FGM was already illegal in Tennessee, “we had no mechanism for reporting under previous law which was a barrier to prosecution. So, that is what this bill was about – to stop this act from occurring in our state.” Shortly after The Tennessee Star’s first story about the Population Reference Bureau report…
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