Day: June 17, 2018

Bill Lee Wins GOP Gubernatorial Straw Poll in Robertson County

Tennessee Star Staff
Bill Lee

Williamson County businessman Bill Lee won the gubernatorial straw poll at the Robertson County Republican Party’s annual Reagan Ranch dinner on Friday. Rep. Diane Black (R-TN-06) finished in second place, followed by Knoxville businessman Randy Boyd in third place and Tennessee Speaker of the House Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) in fourth place. Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill served as master of ceremonies for the evening, which had about 200 people in attendance. Though straw polls at official Republican Party functions are not necessarily a predictor of voting behavior in primaries, they are a good indication of the local organizational skills of the contending candidates. The Lee campaign considered the straw poll win significant, coming as it does less than two months before the August 2 Republican primary in a county that Black represents in Congress. Robertson County Republican Party officials announced only the order of finish of the candidates in the straw poll, not their actual vote totals. One source who attended the event who was not affiliated with the Robertson County Republican Party or on the official program provided The Tennessee Star with they claimed was the unofficial but accurate vote tally from the gubernatorial straw poll. Those results…

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Daniel Hannan Explains Why the EU is a Hive of Corruption

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Daniel Hannan

by Rev. Ben Johnson   Two paths confront someone faced with an unwanted reality: reform or denial. With a report set to expose persistently high levels of corruption among its member states, the EU chose the latter option, its critics say. EU member states, programs, practices, institutions, and leaders stand accused of everything from bribery to larceny, from rigging the bidding process to influence peddling. Years ago, the EU committed to report on, and reform, such practices. Instead, the EU chose to scupper the report. “In 2014 the European Commission committed itself to take action against corruption by publishing the first EU Anti-Corruption report. However, only two years later the Commission scrapped the report,” the anti-corruption NGO Transparency International has noted. The Commission began issuing its own recommendations member states; however, Transparency International warns their focus is “narrow” and their reforms “do not show any additional ambition on anti-corruption.” “As the current draft recommendations for 2018 show, the European Commission has again not live up to its promises on making anti-corruption a high priority issue,” the group stated. The hypocrisy was not lost on some within the supranational structure itself. “The fact that the Commission discontinued its own anti-corruption report on itself shows how seriously they take…

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The Shrinking of the Administrative State

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Washington DC

by Joseph Sunde   In just the last year, the regulatory apparatus of the federal government has endured a range of healthy threats and corrections. Approximately 1,579 regulatory actions have been withdrawn or delayed, according to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and that wave is set to continue. “Agencies plan to finalize three deregulatory actions for every new regulatory action” this fiscal year, a recent report noted. “We’re here today for one single reason,” said President Trump said last December, holding a pair of scissors aside a symbolic mountain of papers: “to cut the red tape of regulation.” It’s a welcome development for many businesses, who have struggled amid a growing string of onerous and arbitrary rules and measures. But it’s also a movement that could help restore a bit of hope for republican democracy—taking power away from an unelected, unaccountable regulatory regime and shifting it back to Congress and its constitutions. As the Hoover Institution’s Adam J. White explains in a recent PolicyEd video, the administrative state has, up until now, largely shielded itself from the eyes and ears of the people it’s supposed to serve: As we regulate more economic activity, these federal agencies take an ever larger role in day-to-day governance. The…

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Tennessee GOP Slams ‘Duplicitous Doug’ Jones of Alabama, Who Raised Money for Phil Bredesen in Lebanon Yesterday

Tennessee Star Staff
Duplicitous Doug

The Tennessee Republican Party slammed Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL), who was in Lebanon, Tennessee yesterday raising money for Phil Bredesen’s Senate campaign at the Tennessee Democratic Party’s annual Three Star Dinner. In a statement released on Saturday, the Tennessee GOP said Jones’ fundraising activities for Bredesen should not “be surprising to anyone.” “Doug Jones has been trying to hide his true liberal colors for months now. But actions speak louder than words. And Jones’ actions in Washington should be a warning to Tennesseeans listening to Bredesen’s phony bipartisan campaign pitch,” the statement continued, adding: While Tennesseans are enjoying an economic boom, Doug Jones stood with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi in criticizing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Just like Jones, Bredesen has also criticized the middle-class tax cuts that have delivered the following benefits to Tennesseans calling its benefits “crumbs” – • $3.2 billion in wage increases at FedEx in Memphis • a $15 minimum wage at Unum in Chattanooga • $1,000 bonuses for employees at McKee foods “Under Republican leadership, Tennessee’s economy is roaring — thanks in large part to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” Tennessee Republican Party chairman Scott Golden said. “Phil Bredesen, just like Doug…

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The Head Of The United States Digital Service Isn’t A Fan Of Trump, According To His Tweets

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Matt Cutts

by Eric Daley   The head of a subdivision within the Executive Office of the President used social media to criticize and deride President Donald Trump, according to posts recently unearthed by The Daily Caller News Foundation. Matt Cutts worked at Google for 17 years as a distinguished engineer and now leads the United States Digital Service (USDS), which among many other goals tries to help federal agencies improve their information technology infrastructure. He referred to Trump when he was a Republican candidate for president as a “troll” in one tweet. Much like the department he leads, Cutts had been very quiet since taking his position in the government during the Obama administration until recent weeks where he’s been championing the work of his team — many of which come from Google like himself. He and his efforts have been featured in prominent tech publications like Ars Technica and Wired, which discusses the differences of working within the Obama administration and the current one. The work of USDS for the most part appears to be non-partisan — although as Wired noted, Cutts worked on the Department of Homeland Security systems under former President Barack Obama to assist in bringing in more displaced refugees — meaning past criticisms and attempts at…

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Trump Taps Kraninger for Consumer Protection Post

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Kathy Kraninger

President Donald Trump plans to nominate Kathy Kraninger, associate director of the Office of Management and Budget, to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which seeks to prevent financial abuses to consumers. In a statement Saturday, the White House said Kraninger would continue the efforts of the current CFPB chief, Mick Mulvaney, to scale back the agency’s regulatory ambitions while continuing efforts to keep financial fraud in check. Mulvaney, who is the president’s budget director, had filled the role in an actingcapacity, replacing Richard Cordray, an appointee of former President Barack Obama who had led the agency from 2012 until his retirement last year. The CFPB was formed in the wake of the U.S. financial crisis of 2007-08, authorized by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Its duties are to protect consumers from fraud by banks, credit unions, securities firms, payday lenders, foreclosure relief servicesand other financial companies. Kraninger is currently associate director for general government programs with the Office of Management and Budget, which oversees government spending.           VOA News

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DOJ Inspector General: Strzok and Page Texts Implied Willingness To Influence Presidential Election

Tennessee Star Staff
Page Comey

by Andrew Follett   Text messages sent by FBI agent Peter Strzok prior to the 2016 election implied a willingness to take official actions to impact the presidential election, according to a report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. “We were deeply troubled by text messages sent by Strzok and Page that potentially indicated or created the appearance that investigative decisions were impacted by bias or improper considerations,” states Horowitz’s in his highly anticipated report on the FBI’s handling of the probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server while she was secretary of state. “It is not only indicative of a bias state of mind but, even more seriously, it implies a willingness to take official action to impact the presidential candidate’s electoral prospects. This is antithetical to the core values of the FBI and the Department of Justice,” the report continues. The report details exchanges between Strzok and his mistress and FBI colleague Lisa Page that they would “stop” Donald Trump from becoming president. “(Trump’s) not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” Page wrote in a text message to Strzok. “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it,” Strzok replied, according to the report. “Several…

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Phil Bredesen Used Accounting Sleight of Hand to Lure NFL’s Houston Oilers at the Expense of Nashville’s Middle Class

John Bryant
Phil Bredesen

Former Gov. Phil Bredesen, the presumptive Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee, wants voters to believe that he is a pragmatic problem-solver with a track record of getting things done. But a closer look at that track record reveals that Bredesen “gets things done” through the use of accounting sleight of hand that shifts taxes paid by one group to benefits received by another. A case in point is the accounting sleight of hand Bredesen used to lure the NFL’s Houston Oilers to Nashville in the 1990s. A white paper entitled ““Horse Trading” and Consensus Building: Nashville, Tennessee and the Relocation of the Houston Oilers” lays out the case that then Nashville Mayor Bredesen basically misled voters and used an exorbitant tax increase to put a notch on his belt for luring the NFL’s Oilers to Nashville back in 1996. That may be all well and good for some, but a deep dive raises serious questions as  to whether or not it was a prudent investment of taxpayer dollars received by what some might call misleading tactics. In a special referendum on May 7, 1996, voters in Metropolitan Nashville/Davidson County voted to approve partial funding of the proposed stadium. The vote, which…

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