Day: July 21, 2018

Marjorie Dannenfelser Comes Out Strong for Marsha Blackburn: She’ll Fight for Life in the Senate

John Bryant
Marsha Blackburn, Marjorie Dannenfelser

Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser has come out strong for Rep. Marsha Blackburn in her U.S. Senate race against liberal Democrat Phil Bredesen, writing, “as Marsha runs to represent Tennessee in the United States Senate, we are reminded of the critical importance of electing pro-life leaders who will never back down from doing the right thing. We have seen exactly what she will do in tough situations, and we know she’s the right woman for the job. Her opponent, Phil Bredesen, will not protect the right to life. While running for Congress, he said he supported federal funding for abortion if the baby had Down’s syndrome. In fact, as governor, he refused to sign legislation that would prohibit taxpayer funding of abortion. Fortunately, the Tennessee state legislature passed that bill into law without his signature, but in the Senate, there will be no such check.” There’s more available here in her whole-hearted  endorsement of Blackburn. Tennesseans have a clear choice in November. They can elect a liberal, who supported Hillary Clinton and her extreme pro-abortion policies, or they can elect Marsha, who has a rock solid record of fighting for life. There is just one candidate who Tennesseans…

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VP Pence Visit to Conservative Lee University Triggers Left Wing Lunacy

Julie Carr
Mike Pence

Conservative political commentator and Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill of The Gill Report, broadcast live on WETR 92.3 FM in Knoxville, stated in disbelief the left’s infiltration into Lee University, one of Tennessee’s top Christian schools – and in particular one Lee University student’s petition to cancel a Vice President Pence visit to one of the most conservative cities in the country. “If you need any further evidence – which you shouldn’t need much – that the left is truly deranged and hurting themselves in their interest to overcome any question about how anti-Trump and anti-Pence they may be,” Gill said; adding, “We just need to look down at the Chattanooga area as students at supposedly conservative Lee University are running a petition to block Vice President Mike Pence from visiting the university in Cleveland on Saturday.” He continued: I don’t know how many presidents or vice presidents that have actually visited little Lee University down in Cleveland, I don’t think it’s many you would think that having a president and vice president visit your campus might be a big deal that would be celebrated by virtually everybody, but no, the left-wing loonies are off to the races. They…

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Tennessee Tribune/Tennessee Star Poll: Campaign for State Senator Thelma Harper’s 19th District Seat in Nashville Wide Open

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Howard Jones, Brenda Gilmore

A new Tennessee Tribune/Tennessee Star poll indicates that the race to fill the Nashville State Senate seat (District 19) being vacated by State Senator Thelma Harper remains wide open. The Triton Polling survey was conducted over four days (July 13-16) and polled 419 likely Democratic Party primary voters. It has a margin of error of 4.7%. According to the survey, State Representative Brenda Gilmore leads Howard Jones 37.5-12.5% with a whopping 46% still undecided at this point. Two other candidates, Sandra Moore and George Thomas are supported by 1.4% and 2.2%, respectively. Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill noted that while the poll is certainly good news for Gilmore from the standpoint of being in the lead. “However, the fact that only 37.5% of voters support her despite having better name recognition edge and the advantage of currently representing a significant part of the district in the State House indicates that there is a big opportunity for Jones to close the gap by improving his name recognition and informing voters about his credentials.” With early voting already underway, Jones needs to move quickly to capitalize on the overall lack of support that Gilmore has in this poll, Gill added. The…

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Democrats Censure Respected State Senator Tate For Private Remarks Made to Republican

Jason M. Reynolds
Reginald Tate

Common sense State Sen. Reginald Tate is questioning what it means to be censured by the Shelby County Democratic Party Executive Committee, since they never gave him the courtesy of informing him. The New Tri-State Defender reported the action taken against the Democratic senator from District 33 in Shelby County. The organization contacted him for comment, but that was the first he had heard about it. “I’m censured? What does that mean? Do you know what that means? Have I lost my right to speak? Do I have to stay in my room? I can’t come out without permission? I’m censured. This is the first I have heard of it, and I don’t know what it could possibly mean,” Tate told the TSD. The Executive Committee censured Tate during its July 17 meeting, according to a press release the organization sent to the TSD. The action was in response to remarks he made prior to the start of a committee meeting on May 30. The senator’s remarks were called “vulgar,” “detrimental to the Party” and “unbecoming of a Democrat.” Tate said, “I entered the room where the Fiscal Review Committee was meeting. It’s a joint committee, and on this particular…

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NFIB: E-Verify and Tennessee Businesses

John Bryant
E-Verify

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has updated information for Tennessee businesses to help owners and managers keep up with what Tennessee state law requires when it comes to the E-Verify system. As of Jan. 1, 2017 – due to an update to the Tennessee Lawful Employment Act (TLEA) passed in 2011 – all Tennessee employers with 50 or more employees must use the E-Verify system to verify that their workers are eligible for U.S. employment. Previously, employers had a choice of compliance options; now employers of this size must use E-Verify. If a staff member was hired on or after Jan. 1, 2017, E-Verify must be used for them. This applies to employees working in or outside the state of Tennessee, and if the employer fails to use E-Verify, they could receive a $500 civil penalty per day of noncompliance (or more for repeat offenses). Employers with between six and 49 employees are required to either use E-Verify for workers hired on or after Jan. 1, 2017, or request and retain I-9 documentation from each employee. I-9 documentation includes: Tennessee driver’s license or photo id license issued by the Tennessee Department of Safety Valid driver’s license or photo id…

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The First Time Britons Voted to BREXIT Was Through the Magna Carta

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Magna Carta signing, Prime Minister's Questions

by Robin Koerner   Many people regard Magna Carta as the first constitutional guarantee of the basic liberties of the English-speaking world. Fewer people know that Magna Carta wasn’t imposed on King John just because he abused his power (which, after all, has been true of most kings and governments throughout history) but because he had handed away the sovereignty of England to a foreign governing institution in Europe. That institution was the Holy Roman Empire. John had unilaterally handed England to Pope Innocent because earlier arguments with Rome had left England under an interdict (a kind of nationwide ex-communication). John was facing the possibility of an invasion from a strong, Catholic France with a papal blessing that would have made finding allies impossible and inevitably led to John’s defeat. To split his enemies and peel away the Church from France, John gifted the pope sovereignty over his entire country and leased it back as the pope’s vassal. For a time, Britain was ruled from Europe. For the barons at Runnymede, that was the last straw: they responded to the fundamental transfer of power out of their country and forced Magna Carta on John. History Repeats Itself More than 500 years later,…

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Commentary: How Unchecked Progressives Turned California Dreamin’ into a Liberal American Nightmare

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California liberalism

by Jeffery Rendall   Our plane’s tires screeched noticeably when we touched down in California last week, the conclusion of a journey that took us across the length of the country in a little more than five hours. Along the way I gazed out the window and tried to guess where we were at the moment, noting that from over 35,000 feet everything in the fruited plain looks surprisingly similar. But not in California. My birthplace and home for the first twenty-seven years of life has changed markedly since I left for good in the mid 90’s. Back then I felt I needed to leave – the political home of Ronald Reagan was tilting decidedly left in political and cultural orientation and California’s government was only in its beginning stages of a transformation that would choke off conservative ideas and constitutional liberty in favor of pandering to the rapidly expanding illegal alien population and know-it-all establishment elites. California was no longer California, it seemed. Sure, it still had all of the places and attractions I’d grown to love in my formative years (Disneyland!), but times were a-changing. Today, thanks to the presence of the tech industry (which largely sprouted after I exited the Golden State)…

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House Defunds D.C.’s Attempt to Restore the Obamacare Individual Mandate

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Eleanor Holmes Norton

By Robert Romano   The House of Representatives voted 226 to 189 to prohibit the use of funds for District of Columbia’s Health Insurance Requirement Amendment Act of 2018 in an amendment to H.R. 6147 by U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ga.). The D.C. law would require, beginning in 2019, that D.C. residents maintain individual health insurance coverage or else face a local tax penalty. The law was passed in response to Congress repealing the Obamacare individual mandate in the tax cut law that President Donald Trump signed into law. The amendment was supported by Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning in a statement prior to the vote. Manning said, “Considering Congress explicitly ended this practice already, D.C. has absolutely no authority to compel individuals to purchase insurance, something the House can clarify today by passing U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer’s amendment. The D.C. government operates under Article I of the Constitution, and it is up to Congress to ensure that it is carrying out the laws of the United States.” Manning’s statement earned the ire of D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who tweeted at Americans for Limited Government, “Anyone else find it ironic that a conservative group named ‘Americans for Limited Government’ is calling on Members of Congress to…

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Federal Court Hands Trump a Win, Brings Rogue Agency Under Tighter Control

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Donald Trump

by John-Michael Seibler   “You’re fired.” President Donald Trump will soon be able to use his famous catch phrase against the head of a troubled federal agency, the Fair Housing Finance Agency, which is led by a single Obama appointee with no meaningful oversight from the president. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that the agency’s structure is unconstitutional. In Collins v. Mnuchin, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit issued a per curiam opinion holding that Congress unconstitutionally “insulated the [Fair Housing Finance Agency] to the point where the executive branch cannot control the [agency] or hold it accountable.” The judges sent the case back to the district court, ordering it to strike down a statutory limit (in 12 U.S.C. § 4512(b)(2)) on the president’s power to remove the agency’s director. This is an important decision for our government’s separation of powers and for keeping the executive branch agencies accountable to the president. An Unaccountable Agency In the wake of the housing market collapse, Congress created the Fair Housing Finance Agency as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, hoping it would rehabilitate two government-sponsored entities that had become insolvent: the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal…

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Girl Dies After Undergoing Female Genital Mutilation

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Tennessee Star

by Gabrielle Okun   A 10-year-old girl in Somalia died on July 14 after complications from female genital mutilation. Deeqa Dahir Nuur, the young girl from the village of Olol, bled to death after a traditional cutter in her town severed a vein causing hemorrhaging, according to The Guardian Friday. She was then taken to a hospital, where she died of blood loss. While FGM is constitutionally illegal, pressure from religious groups have prevented political figures from enacting any legislation to punish cutters, The Guardian added. Somalia has 99.8 percent Muslim population as of 2010, according to Pew Research Center. “The woman who performed the operation has not been arrested, but even if she was, there is no law that would ensure she is punished for the act,” said Hawa Aden Mohammed, the founder of an NGO that raises awareness against the dangers of FGM. “It is difficult to estimate the number of girls who die due to FGM per month or per day because they are [sworn] to secrecy, particularly in rural areas. We only get to hear of the few cases of those bold enough to seek medical treatment in towns. But from the stories we do hear, they could be in their dozens,” Mohammed added.…

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Google, Microsoft, Facebook And Twitter Reveal ‘Data Transfer’ Partnership

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Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft

by Eric Leiberman   Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook are teaming up to provide users with the capability of transferring data across platforms and services, the latter two social media giants announced Friday morning. After heightened concerns over data utilization (even exploitation and manipulation), companies appear to be trying to give users at least a little more say over how their personal information is managed. The four U.S. tech giants want users to be empowered with the ability to seamlessly access their data across their multiple, respective platforms in an initiative known as the Data Transfer Project. “For example, you might use an app where you share photos publicly, a social networking app where you share updates with friends, and a fitness app for tracking your workouts,” Steve Satterfield, privacy and public policy director for Facebook, wrote Friday in a blog post. “People increasingly want to be able to move their data among different kinds of services like these, but they expect that the companies that help them do that will also protect their data.” Due to the inherent and proprietary differences of the companies’ technology, this wasn’t always an option. “Information that is housed on one platform can not be easily and securely…

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