Day: June 15, 2018

Blackburn Likens Bredesen to Obama, Suggests He’ll ‘Vote With Crying Chuck Schumer’ in Washington

John Bryant
ChuckBredesen

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) is starting to take the gloves off in her attacks on liberal Democrat opponent Phil Bredesen, comparing him to Obama as far as policy, and suggesting he’d “vote with crying Chuck Schumer” in opposition to President Trump if he gets to Washington as a US Senator from Tennessee. Blackburn used the recent Tennessee Republican Party’s annual fundraiser held in Nashville last Friday to go after former Gov. Phil Bredesen as the  two compete to replace outgoing Senator Bob Corker. Blackburn elaborated on a theme first introduced by President Trump at a rally held in Nashville on May 29 to support Blackburn’s Senate campaign, at which the president memorably called Bredesen “an absolute total tool . . . of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.” “She does Tennessee proud, but she does our party proud,” Keynote speaker Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), said of Blackburn at last Friday’s fundraising event. “We need more great spokespeople for the conservative values of this country. We need Marsha Blackburn on TV, talking as a United States Senator about how conservative principles are so much better than liberal principles,” Scalise added. You can see him make these remarks at the 52 second mark of…

Read the full story

Sloppy Bookkeeping, Significant Financial Abuse in Philadelphia, Key City in Battleground State of Pennsylvania?

John Bryant
Rebecca Rhynhart

With  Pennsylvania shaping up as a key battleground state in 2018 and 2020, as well, financial disarray and the significant potential for fraud and abuse in one of it’s major cities could give Republicans something to target in the Fall. Philadelphia’s government has the worst accounting practices among the nation’s 10 largest cities, with $924 million in bookkeeping errors alone last year, according to an audit released Tuesday by City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart. That’s on top of the now-infamous missing $33 million, the discrepancy between what the city’s records say it has and what is in the bank — the result of a failure to reconcile the city’s cash account over several years, Rhynhart said at a news conference. In total, the controller’s auditors found two “material weaknesses” and eight “significant deficiencies” in the fiscal 2017 books. The accounting terms refer to serious issues with the city’s internal financial controls. “This is a major problem and needs to be treated that way by the mayor and the finance director on down,” Rhynhart told the Inquirer and Daily News. “If the City of Philadelphia is talking about tax increases, let’s get our house in order.” By comparison, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago,…

Read the full story

DOJ Report Says Journalists Gave FBI Agents Freebies For Leaks in Clinton Email Case

Jason M. Reynolds
Hillary Clinton

The Department of Justice inspector general identified a number of times where FBI employees allegedly spoke with members of the media and received freebies, The Daily Caller and Breitbart say. On page XII in the report, the IG says the department “identified numerous FBI employees, at all levels of the organization and with no official reason to be in contact with the media, who were nevertheless in frequent contact with reporters,” The Daily Caller writes. The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General made the discovery as it tried to identify “possible FBI agents improperly transmitting to reporters, according to its report released Thursday on the agency’s handling of the 2016 probe into Hillary Clinton’s unsecured, private email server,” Breitbart writes. The IG expressed “profound concerns about the volume and extent of unauthorized media contacts by FBI personnel that we have uncovered our review.” The IG report says, “In addition to the significant number of communications between FBI employees and journalists, we identified social interactions between FBI employees and journalists that were, at a minimum, inconsistent with FBI policy and Department ethics rules. For example, we identified instances where FBI employees received tickets to sporting events from journalists, went on golfing outings…

Read the full story

AT&T to Close Time Warner Deal, But Government May Appeal

Admin
TimeWarner-ATT

Reuters   AT&T Inc may close its $85 billion deal to buy Time Warner Inc under an agreement reached on Thursday with the U.S. government, which might still appeal a case seen as a turning point for the media industry. AT&T said it could close the deal by Friday. The government has not ruled out an appeal and has 60 days to file. AT&T agreed to temporarily manage Time Warner’s Turner networks separately from DirecTV, including setting prices and managing personnel, as part of the deal approved by Judge Richard Leon late Thursday. The conditions agreed to by AT&T would remain in effect until Feb. 28, 2019, the conclusion of the case or an appeal. Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on Tuesday that the deal to marry AT&T’s wireless and satellite businesses with Time Warner’s movies and television shows was legal under antitrust law. The Justice Department had argued the deal would harm consumers. U.S. President Donald Trump, a frequent critic of Time Warner’s CNN coverage, denounced the deal when it was announced in October 2016. The fact that Turner, which includes CNN, will be run separately from DirecTV makes a stay unnecessary,…

Read the full story

Tennessee Pastors Network Issues Pro-Life Pledge for Candidates to Show Commitment to Defund Planned Parenthood

Admin
Dale Walker Pro-Life Pledge

The Tennessee Pastors Network issued a pro-life pledge on Thursday for candidates for all levels of offices in Tennessee designed to show their commitment to defund Planned Parenthood “Pastor Dale Walker, President of the Tennessee Pastors Network, is calling on Tennessee candidates for Governor, Congress, State House and State Senate to put their “pro-life” words into action. The Tennessee Pastors Network Pro-Life Pledge can be printed out by candidates from the Tennessee Pastors Network website and returned with their signatures and those of two witnesses. Tennessee Pastors Network will list those who have signed the Pro-Life Pledge on the website,” the Tennessee Pastors Network (TPN) said in a statement. “We’re in the midst of all this election season heading into the August 2 primaries on the Democrat and Republican sides. A lot of candidates, particularly on the Republican side, are talking about how pro life they are,” Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill said on Thursday’s edition of the Gill Report, broadcast live on WETR 92.3 FM in Knoxville. “Some of these folks who are talking about being so pro-life are the same ones that have voted to fund Planned Parenthood.It’s important to look at what they do, not what they…

Read the full story

Commentary: Should Congress Break Social Media’s Stranglehold on Free Speech?

Admin
US Capitol at night

by Jeffery Rendall   Strolling towards the capitol on one of our recent trips to Williamsburg, Virginia, a thought struck me as we neared the reconstructed building; so much went on inside those walls but the people in the street had nary a clue about what was happening at the time. Sure, there were three newspapers in town (in the late 18th century), but they were somewhat crude enterprises by today’s standards, receiving and reprinting tidbits of intelligence from townspeople, passers through, other newspapers and let’s face it – plain gossip and hearsay. Just steps away great men were debating and deciding everyone’s future yet few common folk understood what was taking place except for what the men – or the royal governor and his council – chose to divulge. Not even the town crier was much help in this regard. Fast forward to today when practically everything that’s “official” is a matter of public record. Granted the government and its agents still keep plenty of secrets – the fallout from the Mueller investigation certainly revealed it – but we know a lot more than the Virginians of the 1760’s and 70’s did. Heck, they were about to sever ties with the…

Read the full story

GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Randy Boyd’s Company Chose China Instead of Tennessee as Location for Manufacturing

Chris Alto
Randy Boyd

One aspect of his business career that GOP gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd has not highlighted in his campaign commercials is this: Products that have helped make Boyd’s company Radio Systems Corporation highly profitable are manufactured in China. Boyd still runs the company as CEO. The company, “the world’s leading dog and cat products supplier” including such brands as PetSafe and Invisible Fence, began manufacturing its products in China in 1993, two years after he launched his business, claiming that it was “a move that improved our product quality, prices, and reliability.” Three years later his company reported $24 million in sales. According to the offering memorandum associated with the company’s planned 2001 initial public offering, an offering that was subsequently withdrawn, “the  Company currently outsources virtually all of its manufacturing and assembly activities.” For the year ended December 31, 1997, approximately 80% of the Company’s products, including its standard Radio Fence pet containment products, were manufactured or assembled in China by two manufacturers. Other of the Company’s products are manufactured in Israel and France, and certain of the components of the Company’s Radio Fence products are manufactured in Taiwan. The microchips used in the Company’s products are manufactured by a supplier in…

Read the full story