Day: June 27, 2018

State Senate Candidate Wade Munday Looking For Lawyers to Help Illegal Aliens Come and Stay in Tennessee

Chris Alto
Wade Munday

With the continuing crush at the border of illegal aliens traveling with children to whom they may or may not be related and children being sent with smugglers to cross the border alone, liberals and open border groups have found a new reason to oppose President Trump’s “zero tolerance” for illegal immigration. In Nashville, Wade Munday, Executive Director of the open borders organization TN Justice For Our Neighbors (TN-JFON) is looking for lawyers to volunteer and help illegal aliens come and stay in Tennessee. In addition to his $61,000+ job at TN-JFON, Munday is the Democrat candidate running against incumbent conservative Republican Kerry Roberts for the state Senate District 25 seat. TN-JFON provides free and low-cost legal services to legal immigrants like refugees as well as to asylum seekers and “unaccompanied alien children” (UAC) who have entered the country illegally. TN-JFON finds legal help by providing continuing legal education which is required for Tennessee lawyers, partnering with area law school legal clinics and using area media to carry their appeal. Not surprisingly, TN-JFON supports Obama’s unconstitutional DACA administrative amnesty program and “safe arrivals” for “unaccompanied minors,” their term in lieu of the statutorily correct unaccompanied alien children. Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC), by law are defined as…

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Justice Kennedy Announces Retirement

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SCOTUS Kennedy

by Kevin Daley   Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement Wednesday, precipitating a generational political fight over the future of the U.S. Supreme Court. Kennedy’s departure was announced Wednesday morning, after the justices released the final decisions of its current term. Few justices loom as large as Anthony Kennedy in the history of the high court. As the bench became an object of political competition and the tribunal itself began to reflect the country’s ideological entrenchment, Kennedy led narrow majorities to landmark decisions on gay rights, abortion, the First Amendment, and Guantanamo Bay detainees. Dignity and civility occupied the center of his jurisprudence, values he saw emanating from the deepest recesses of the Constitution which provide a single unity to its divergent threads. The justice revived these principles in Tuesday’s travel ban case, where he tacitly admonished the Trump administration in a short concurring opinion many saw as a valedictory message. “It is an urgent necessity that officials adhere to these constitutional guarantees and mandates in all their actions, even in the sphere of foreign affairs,” he wrote. “An anxious world must know that our government remains committed always to the liberties the Constitution seeks to preserve and protect, so…

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Professional Educators of Tennessee: SCOTUS Janus Decision a Victory for Workers’ First Amendment Rights

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Mark Janus

The U.S. Supreme Court announced a 5-4 decision on Wednesday in Janus v. American Federation of State, Country, and Municipal Employees, Council 31, that reaffirms the First Amendment, especially people’s freedom of association. The ruling today eliminates compulsory unionism, which requires individuals to join a union as a condition of employment.  It will influence the cycle where government unions collect compulsory fees from government workers and then use it to help elect pro-union politicians to achieve and maintain political power — who then empower and enrich the government employee unions. “No American worker should be forced to become or remain a union member,” JC Bowman, executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, told The Tennessee Star after the decision was announced. Bowman added: People should be free to join, or not join any organization or union they want, without losing their job or be forced to pay for political agendas with which they disagree based on political or ideological purposes.  The Janus Decision will not create drastic structural changes to unions.  It will simply make them more accountable to their own members.  And in the case of teacher unions, this greater accountability should focus on making the quality of education…

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Embattled Chief Operating Officer Rich Riebeling OUT of Metro Nashville Government

Laura Baigert
Rich Riebeling, Emily Passini

Newly elected Mayor David Briley announced Tuesday that Metro Nashville Government Chief Operating Officer, Rich Riebeling will be leaving his administration. As part of a reorganization of the Office of Mayor, Briley named Emily Passini as Chief of Staff, the administration’s senior official who will “organize the policy priorities of the office, manage staff and work with department heads to drive the Mayor’s agenda.” The appointment of Passini displaces Riebeling as well as current Chief of Staff Debby Dale Mason. Riebeling recently came under heavy fire for being the focal point of several financial scandals during his 11-year tenure in Metro Nashville Government which spanned three different mayors from gubernatorial candidate Karl Dean, to disgraced Megan Barry to a short stint with David Briley. Much of the attention to Riebeling’s improprieties was drawn by Carol Swain, Briley’s chief rival in the May 24 special mayoral election and The Tennessee Star’s Culture of Corruption series. Mayoral candidate Swain called for then Acting Mayor Briley to fire Riebeling when it became public in early May that Riebeling was involved with $7.4 million of federal relief funds for the 2010 flood being redirected away from victims to design the Ascend Amphitheater. Of that,…

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When Did Democrat Activist Behind Fear Mongering Billboard Resign From Board of Emerge Tennessee?

Laura Baigert
Carol Brown Andrews

Uncertainty surrounds the details of the departure of a Democratic activist behind the PAC that paid for the deceptive and fear mongering billboard that attacks conservative legislators from the board of directors of Emerge Tennessee, thanks to the evasiveness of the group’s executive director, Kristal Knight. Emerge Tennessee is the state affiliate of the national organization, Emerge America, that has the goal of increasing the number of Democratic women at all levels of public office. On Tuesday, Knight contacted The Tennessee Star by email, requesting the story remove a reference to Carol Brown Andrews, the Democratic activist behind the PAC that funded the deceptive billboard as having an affiliation with the Emerge Tennessee board of directors. The Star’s report on Tuesday stated: According to the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance website, officers of the Tennesseans for Common Sense PAC, formed on March 13, 2018, are long-time Democrat operative Carol Brown Andrews and Lebanon-based personal injury lawyer Neal Agee. In addition to her Democratic campaign research work as Vice President of Grindstone Research, LLP, with clientssuch as former Nashville mayor turned gubernatorial candidate Karl Dean, Andrews is on the board of directors of Emerge Tennessee, the state affiliate of a national organization with a goal of increasing…

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Commentary: The Left’s Next Step Is Open Violence Against Conservatives

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Attacking Trump supporters

by CHQ Staff   A number of conservative women have faced harassment because of their support of President Trump and because of what the Leftist media would like America to believe is a grassroots backlash toward the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy at the border. Over the course of the past week White House press secretary Sarah Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, due to her work on President Trump’s behalf and then followed across the street by the restaurant’s owner who harassed her all the way to the door of her next stop. That incident followed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen being forced to leave a Mexican restaurant in Washington by a crowd of harassers, including Department of Justice employee Allison Hrabar, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. A similar group later gathered outside Nielsen’s home waving signs reading “child snatcher” and chanting “how do you sleep at night.” The demonstrators blasted Nielsen’s home with audio distributed by ProPublica in which alleged child illegal border crossers can be heard sobbing for their parents allegedly while in federal custody. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was also harassed at a movie theater this weekend by Leftist…

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Federal Authorities Warn Antifa To End ICE Occupation Or Be Arrested

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Portland Occupy ICE

by Kyle Perisic   Federal authorities warned Antifa members Monday to stop occupying an Oregon Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building or be arrested. “Individuals who continue to obstruct the entrance of this federal facility will be subject to arrest and prosecution in federal court,” a flyer Federal Protective Service agents distributed to Portland, Oregon, Antifa members reads. “It is unlawful under federal law to obstruct the entrances, foyers, lobbies, corridors, offices and/or parking lots of federal facilities.” Antifa has been camping outside the ICE building since last week and effectively shutting down the building. Federal authorities went into the building around 3:30 a.m Monday to secure the building. Antifa is known to get violent and they are labeled an official domestic terrorist organization. During an August 2017 protest at the University of California, Berkeley, they were recorded in several video clips attacking and injuring individuals they deemed “far-right” or “alt-right,” although there’s no evidence the individuals were associated with such groups and didn’t identify in such a way. As part of a new normal, liberals are consistently targeting President Donald Trump supporters and threatening them, especially if they work for immigration-related agencies or departments. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Republican Sens.…

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Bob Corker Won’t Stop Undermining Trump in Trade Battle, Democrats Offer Him a Helping Hand

John Bryant
Trump-Corker-Toomey

A new item out at Politico highlights just how determined outgoing Tennessee Senator Bob Corker is to cause problems for President Trump in trade negotiations while he still continues to have the power to do it. And Republican Senator from Pennsylvania Pat Toomey is helping him do it. Corker restarts tariff battle with Trump The frequent Trump critic is seizing on the Senate’s farm bill to try to curb the president’s tariffs. GOP Sen. Bob Corker is making a new push to allow Congress to block President Donald Trump’s tariffs on U.S. allies, though GOP leaders may stop it in its tracks once again. The Tennessee senator is offering an amendment written with Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) to the Senate’s farm bill this week that would allow Congress to approve or disapprove of tariffs levied against countries on national security justifications. Naturally, President Trump opposes the effort, as does Senate Finance Chairman Orin Hatch, calling it “too broad.” Trump opposes the amendment, and it could imperil the farm bill if the amendment is adopted. Party leaders are not sure whether it has 60 votes to succeed; Corker and Toomey argue the only way to find out is to hold a…

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Diane Black is Only Gubernatorial Candidate Willing to Change Attorney General Selection Process, Victor Ashe Says

Jason M. Reynolds
Diane Black Would Veto in-state tuition benefits for illegal immigrant students

Victor Ashe noted in his weekly column that Diane Black is the only gubernatorial candidate who supports bringing more transparency to the attorney general selection process. The Black campaign touted Ashe’s column in a press release. The former Knoxville mayor wrote in the Knoxville News-Sentinel that Democratic candidates Craig Fitzhugh and Karl Dean, along with Republicans Beth Harwell (state House speaker) and Randy Boyd all said they support the status quo. Ashe wrote, “Surprisingly, no one is a change agent here as the selection process for state AG is unique to Tennessee with the Supreme Court (only five people) meeting behind closed doors once every eight years to pick a Tennessean to be the chief legal officer. The open meetings laws do not apply to this meeting of a public body.” Black supports voter input Black, however, believes the voters should have a say. “Whether through direct election or legislative appointment, Diane supports changing this process and will push for that change as governor.” Tennessee’s attorney general is Republican Herbert H. Slatery III. He was sworn in as the attorney general and reporter on Oct. 1, 2014, according to the attorney general’s website. Prior to his appointment, Slatery served as…

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Supreme Court Lets Contested District Maps In Texas, NC Remain In Effect

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SCOTUS, North Carolina, Texas

by Kevin Daley   The U.S. Supreme Court Monday cleared the way for Texas and North Carolina to use a set of contested legislative district lines, declining to side with plaintiffs who alleged the maps were gerrymandered for partisan or racial advantage. The decisions come one week after the high court sidestepped sweeping rulings in landmark challenges to political gerrymanders. The North Carolina case, Rucho v. Common Cause, involved a challenge to the state’s congressional district map. The current lines afford Republicans a 10-3 advantage in North Carolina’s congressional delegation, although the state has adopted a moderate political character in recent election cycles. As in other gerrymandering cases, mapmakers brazenly acknowledged the partisan interests driving the process. “I think electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats,” said North Carolina Republican Rep. David Lewis, who chairs the state legislature’s redistricting committee. “So I drew this map to help foster what I think is better for the country.” A three-judge district court said the map was unconstitutional and ordered the state to produce new maps in time for the 2018 elections, but the justices placed that order on hold in January. Monday’s order lifted the three-judge panel’s ruling, and required the lower court to…

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Williamson County House 61 Voters Almost Unanimously Support School Resource Officers in Every Tennessee School

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security at schools

A new poll conducted among likely GOP voters in the Nashville suburbs of Brentwood and Franklin by Triton Polling shows that voter concerns about traffic congestion, illegal immigration and rising crime are at the top of the list. Recent school shootings have also resulted in over 90% of the Republican voters in the District supporting placement of School Resource Officers (SROs) in each school across the state in order to increase security in our schools. The survey of 361 likely Republican Primary voters was conducted June 18-22, 2018 and has a margin or error of 5.1%. “School shootings across the country are clearly top of mind among parents in Tennessee,” Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill pointed out. “Currently only about half of Tennessee schools have an armed SRO, and 90.5% of the voters in this district support making sure that every school has that protection.” 65.3% of those polled supported state funding to ensure that level of protection of schools. Governor Bill Haslam included some funding for SROs in his final state budget, and several candidates for Governor, including Beth Harwell and Randy Boyd have expressed support for the Governor’s plan and that they intend to expand upon it.…

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California Can’t Make Pregnancy Centers Advertise Abortion, Supreme Court Rules

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by Rachel del Guidice   The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling Tuesday, struck down a California law mandating that pro-life pregnancy centers advertise where clients may get an abortion. The decision, supporters said, confirmed that government can’t compel citizens to promote messages they don’t agree with. “No one should be forced by the government to express a message that violates their convictions, especially on deeply divisive subjects such as abortion,” Michael Farris, who argued the case at the Supreme Court, said in a formal statement following the decision. “In this case, the government used its power to force pro-life pregnancy centers to provide free advertising for abortion,” said Farris, who is president, CEO, and general counsel of the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom. “The Supreme Court said that the government can’t do that, and that it must respect pro-life beliefs.” [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] In the majority opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the state law “unduly burdens protected speech,” and in a concurring opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the government can’t compel citizens to promote a message they don’t agree with.…

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The Flawed Red Hen Analogy Shows Liberals Still Don’t Understand Christian Baker Case

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Sarah Sanders, Jack Phillips

by Monica Burke   After a Lexington, Virginia, restaurant, the Red Hen, refused service to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Friday, commentators on the left immediately seized upon a false analogy. They likened that incident to the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, the case of the Christian baker in Colorado who refused to craft a custom cake for a same-sex wedding. That attempt at an analogy reveals that the left still does not understand the Supreme Court’s ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Jack Phillips, the baker, serves all customers, but cannot serve all events. He declined to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple not because of their identity, because he could not communicate a message that violated his religious beliefs. He even offered the couple any other item in his store. Meanwhile, the Red Hen denied service to Sanders precisely because of who she is. They did not refuse to create a custom order that would have endorsed views they disagreed with. They denied her service, period. The false analogy also reveals the hypocrisy of the left’s position. They accuse people like Phillips, who serves everyone regardless of who they are, of discrimination,…

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Philadelphia Becoming Model City in Accommodating Islamists & Illegal Aliens

Chris Alto
Philadelphia

Earlier this month thousands viewed Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney’s “happy dance” over solidifying the city’s status as a sanctuary protecting criminal illegal aliens. Two years ago, Kenney took the lead to help the Philly Eid Coalition achieve its goal of adding two Muslim holidays to the school district calendar relying on “cultural inclusion” to justify his support even though his rationale collided with the First Amendment’s establishment of religion clause:  Our city was built on the idea that … the city welcomes all to worship and practice the faiths of our culture or our choosing[.] … We have to take into account how society sometimes ostracizes and eliminates people from the mainstream[.] At the same time Kenney announced the creation of the Mayor’s Task Force on Cultural Inclusion: The task force will study and produce recommendations regarding the expansion of religious observance days, the education of city management and employees to the religious sensitivities of their coworkers, how the courts and judicial system can better acknowledge religious days, and ways best disseminate information on religious holidays to the public including local businesses and employers. Joining the Mayor and Philly School Superintendent when the Muslim holidays school calendar change was made were representatives…

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NSA Contractor ‘Reality Winner’ Pleads Guilty In Leak Case

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Reality Winner, NSA

by Will Racke   Former National Security Agency contractor Reality L. Winner pleaded guilty Tuesday to sending a media outlet a classified document pertaining to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. A former Air Force linguist, Winner is the first person to be prosecuted by the Trump administration for leaking sensitive government information. Her plea agreement in federal court in Augusta, Georgia, calls for a 63-month prison term, though she will be sentenced at a later date, reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Winner was arrested in June 2017 after she stole classified materials from her former employer, Pluribus International, a defense contractor that works for the NSA at its offices in Augusta. After being arrested by the FBI, she admitted to printing and mailing the classified documents to investigative news website The Intercept, which went on to publish a story based on the document. The FBI announced that it had arrested Winner just hours after The Intercept published its story. In an affidavit, federal investigators said they were tipped to a leak of secret documents when an Intercept reporter seeking to authenticate the documents contacted the NSA, which then reached out to the FBI about the possible security breach. A scan of the document given…

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Richard Viguerie Commentary: How William F. Buckley Jr. Gave Birth to the Conservative Movement

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William F. Buckley, Jr.

by Richard A Viguerie, CHQ Chairman   One man – William F. Buckley Jr. – and his new magazine National Review were successful in creating a mass conservative movement in the years after 1955.  We learn the reasons for their success in this excerpt from Chapter 5 (“The Birth of a Movement”) of America’s Right Turn: How Conservatives Used New and Alternative Media to Take Power, by Richard A. Viguerie and David Franke. We look at what made National Review different from previous conservative and libertarian publications.  In ideology, it brought together anti-communists, advocates of free-market economics, and traditionalist conservatives.  And it was willing to get involved in activist politics rather than just preach from an ivy tower.  The result was the creation of a movement that would take the liberal world by surprise with a mass rally at Madison Square Garden in 1962.  The conservative movement had arrived! Chapter 5: The Birth of a Movement   “If you ask 10 conservatives today to name their favorite journalist, their favorite author, their favorite intellectual, and their favorite TV talk show combatant, you’d probably get close to 10 different answers in each category – there are so many to choose from.  If you had asked the same questions of conservatives in…

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On the 10th Anniversary of the Heller Decision, Many States Refuse to Recognize the Second Amendment

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By Natalia Castro   Ten years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that every American has a basic right to defend themselves. D.C. v. Heller affirmed the constitutional right granted in the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms not just for the purpose of creating a militia but also for basic protection for every individual. The case was viewed as monumental for the defense of the Second Amendment, but states have chosen to continually ignore the ruling and make gun ownership a nearly impossible task. As we celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the Court’s ruling, we must accept how far we have come and how far we still must go. Before Heller, Washington, D.C. essentially banned handguns by making it a crime to carry an unregistered firearm and prohibiting the registration of handguns. D.C. also required residents to keep lawfully owned firearms unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock at all times. Heller, a D.C. special policeman who applied to register a handgun and was denied, filed a suit and the Supreme Court ruled in his favor. The late Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court in which he explained, “The handgun ban amounts to a prohibition of an…

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