Day: July 31, 2018

Phil Bredesen Fails to Disavow Tennessee Democratic Party Spokesman Who Said ‘F*** Reaching Out to Trump Voters. The Idiots Aren’t Listening’

Jason M. Reynolds
Mark Brown

Republicans are raising a ruckus over a spokesman for the Tennessee Democratic Party’s use of foul language and name-calling, especially since that spokesman has been vigorously promoting the candidacy of Democrat Phil Bredesen for the U.S. Senate, who has expressed outrage at being called a “liberal.” The former governor, who is running in the U.S. Senate race against Rep. Marsh Blackburn (R-TN-07), said last week it was “name-calling” when Vice President Mike Pence said he is a “liberal.” However, Tennessee Republicans say Bredesen is deaf when it comes to the many imprecations uttered by state Democratic communications official Mark Brown, the Washington Free Beacon said. Brown, who has been promoting Bredesen’s campaign in his role as a spokesman for the Tennessee Democratic Party, in the past has tweeted “f*** ‘reaching out’ to Trump voters. The idiots aren’t listening.” The Tennessee Star reached out to the Bredesen campaign to ask if the former governor disavowed the Tennessee Democratic Party spokesman Mark Brown, or his foul-mouthed comments about the 1.5 million Trump voters in Tennessee. The Bredesen campaign did not respond. Bredesen’s failure to disavow Brown’s vulgar comments is not expected to sit well with Tennesseans, who are well known for their civility…

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Commentary: Tennessee Democrat Wrongly Pushes TVA as Broadband Solution

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Phil Bredesen

The Democrat seeking to replace the retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R) is pushing the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as a solution to solve the rural broadband gap. But, history shows that kind of big-government method will only take a bite out of taxpayers. Bredesen, the former governor of the Volunteer State, said recently he wants to amend the federal TVA Act to permit that government-owned power providers offer broadband access to rural areas of Tennessee. He said, “TVA is perfect to fix this digital divide,” noting the TVA board’s 2017 plan to spend $300 million to expand its network fiber capacity, which should improve the reliability of its transmission system. “I want our country to get back to the days when it did bold projects and not just fool around the edges with grants, tax credits, and demonstration projects,” Bredesen said. TVA seems more pragmatic and less eager about the idea than Bredesen. TVA spokesman Jim Hopson told the Times Free Press the focus of the expansion is to ensure reliable delivery to power in seven states, and that TVA “is not intending to become a broadband supplier.” While the Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Act signed by Republican Gov. Bill Haslam…

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Rumor Control: Setting the Record Straight on PreK/Kindergarten Portfolios

JC Bowman
JC Bowman

Social media was hard at it this weekend over the PreK/Kindergarten Student Growth Portfolio Model.  While Professional Educators of Tennessee is not sold on the portfolio process, it is the current law (see T.C.A. §§ 49-6-103–49-6-110).  We believe the current portfolio system takes up too much time for our educators.  However, the inaccurate information about pre-K and kindergarten portfolios was spreading way faster than a speeding bullet.  So, let’s set the record straight with some accurate details. There was no computer glitch or computer error related to portfolios. We confirmed this with a simple phone call to the Tennessee Department of Education.  There statement was:  “There was no error by our vendor, and there was no computer glitch.”  The Department further explained:  Teachers receive an overall portfolio growth score based on their scores on four separate collections, which look at students’ growth over the course of the school year on specific standards. Some teachers mismatched students and/or standards when they were inputting their portfolio information. In those cases, the issue was flagged by a peer reviewer and the teacher received a score of a 1 on that specific collection, which was by design if this mismatch occurred. For example, a…

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Sen. Rand Paul Backs Supreme Court Nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh

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Rand Paul

Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who had publicly wavered as to whether he would support Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, endorsed him Monday. Paul of Kentucky says he will back Kavanaugh despite his misgivings about the judge’s views on surveillance and privacy issues. Few had expected Senator Paul would oppose President Donald Trump’s choice in the end. The endorsement gives Kavanaugh a boost as he prepares to sit down Monday afternoon with Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, one of a handful of Democratic senators seen as potential swing votes in the confirmation fight. Manchin has said he’s interested in Kavanaugh’s views on the Affordable Care Act and its protections for people with pre-existing conditions. The senator has also asked West Virginia residents to send him questions for the meeting. Manchin was one of three Democrats who voted to confirm Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch. Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota were the others. All three are up for re-election in states Trump easily won in 2016. Republicans have a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate. With the absence of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who is fighting brain cancer, they cannot afford to lose…

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Trump Promotes More Jobs for Americans … at the UN

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by Fred Lucas   The Trump administration is trying to secure more jobs for American citizens in the United Nations bureaucracy, as a recent State Department report finds woeful underrepresentation even though the United States contributes more to the world body than any other government. The U.S. funds almost one-quarter of key U.N. agencies, and their staffs play a key role in implementing international policy on health, aviation, labor, and security. However, the U.N. hasn’t made a good faith effort to hire Americans under existing rules, according to a State Department report obtained by The Daily Signal. The report, sent July 3 to members of Congress, asserts that five U.N. agencies aren’t abiding by their own rules on providing geographic representation among employees, which would require more Americans. As of last year, 739 American citizens worked in these five agencies among a total of 7,126 employees, according to the State Department. With the advent of the Trump administration, the State Department began moving to reverse the long-running trend, which Congress first tried to deal with through legislation in 1991. That legislation required the State Department to report to Congress on whether international organizations are making “good faith steps to increase…

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EXCLUSIVE: Jim Jordan Explains His Bid For Speaker of the House

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Jim Jordan

by Robert Donachie    – Jim Jordan is running for speaker and he believes he can win.  – His main goals are to shake up how Congress operates, giving members more say in policy and more control over how the House operates.  – He wants to deliver on the promises Republicans made to voters in 2016 and thinks he is the perfect guy to make sure that happens. House Freedom Caucus co-founder Jim Jordan says he is running for speaker of the House to fix mismanagement and dysfunction in Congress and deliver on the promises Republicans made to voters in the 2016 election cycle, the congressman told The Daily Caller News Foundation. He also thinks he can win. Jordan, an Ohio Republican, formally announced his campaign for speaker of the House July 26 after months of speculation that the conservative stalwart would throw his name in the hat to replace outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan.The consensus in Washington and on Capitol Hill leading up to Jordan’s announcement this week was that Jordan, in league with his conservative HFC colleagues, was going on a shadow bid for the speakership to extract concessions from the two men in Republican leadership that Washingtonians have…

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Author Discusses ‘Dangerously Clever’ Founding Father and Tennessee Town’s Namesake, Albert Gallatin

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Albert Gallatin

by Gabrielle Orkun   Founding Father Albert Gallatin was a “dangerously clever” man who saved the United States from debt, the author of an upcoming book on the subject told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Gregory May, lawyer and tax policy expert, wrote about the overlooked Gallatin in his latest book “Jefferson’s Treasure: How Albert Gallatin Saved the New Nation from Debt.” While many people do not know much about Gallatin, the Founding Father had a monumental impact on American economics and government, May explained to TheDCNF. “I think we need to know about figures like Gallatin in order really to understand the history of the Early Republic,” May said. “He is the least understood of about a half dozen men who really thought the American government in motion. Just most people know about the first four presidents, and they’ve now heard something about Alexander Hamilton. But only a few historians know much about Gallatin who had as much to do with getting the government going,” May told TheDCNF. Gallatin also had a rivalry with Alexander Hamilton. Gallatin was an “outsider” as a foreigner born in Geneva, grew up speaking French and never lost his French accent. He was made fun of for his accent…

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Commentary: Is ‘Uncle’ Joe Biden a Threat to Steal Trump’s #MAGA Voters?

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Joe Biden

by Jeffery Rendall   “But Barack, I want to run, I need to run…” The words hung in the air as Joe Biden clung to the edge of his chair in the Oval Office in late 2015. The vice president fiddled nervously waiting a response from the president, a normally impatient man who’d just spent fifteen minutes methodically droning on about how it was Hillary’s turn to rule now and every Democrat recognized it, blah, blah blah… That’s why Clinton is practically unopposed within the party this year, Obama insisted – who could realistically challenge her, that doddering idiot Bernie Sanders? He’s not even a Democrat! Pfft. Obama mused. “Let’s just keep peace in the party, Joe. When I knocked the ‘likeable enough’ Hillary off her pedestal in ’08 we all agreed she’d get the next go-round after I’d finished fundamentally transforming the country. If you get in now it’ll ruin everything.” Biden sighed and submissively stared out the window, obviously unpersuaded by the man who’d failed miserably to halt the rise of the oceans and unite the entire world. Obama thought to himself, ‘Here it is, I’ve tucked away my enormous ego for that old bat and now my left-hand man is bugging me to go against…

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Rep. Steve Cohen Predicts That Trump Jr., Kushner Will Be Indicted But President Will Pardon Them

Jason M. Reynolds
Wolf Blitzer, Steve Cohen

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) said he believes that special counsel Robert Mueller will probably indict Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner and then the president will pardon both. The Memphis representative made the remark on CNN in response to Rudy Giuliani saying he is not sure so-called “collusion” with Russia is a crime. Cohen said it is “entirely possible” both men would be indicted and President Trump would “go totally off his rocker … not that he’s on it now” and issue pardons. When Wolf Blitzer asked what charges would be brought, Cohen said he thought Trump Jr. and Kushner were in contact with the Russians to affect the elections. Blitzer asked if he had evidence for the “very serious charge,” and Cohen said he thought he was right and time would tell. The congressman, who is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, is making increasingly more unhinged remarks against conservatives. Calls men ‘pathological liars’ Cohen appeared on MSNBC’s “Live With Alex Witt” Sunday to discuss the latest developments with former Trump attorney Michael Cohen (no relation) and Mueller’s ‘Trump-Russia Collusion’ investigation, as The Tennessee Star reported. The congressman has a well-established record of vitriolic statements aimed at conservatives…

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Campaign Platform Explains Her Primary Victory

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Ocasio

by José Niño   After pulling off a major upset in the Democratic Primary for New York’s 14th congressional district, 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is now being touted as the new face of the Democratic Party. Ocasio’s victory has rejuvenated the Democratic Party and liberals nationwide. For many on the Left, Ocasio’s recent victory is a breath of fresh air after putting up with Hilary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign in 2016. Beyond the typical R vs. D analysis that continues to grab headlines, what is most troubling about Ocasio’s meteoric rise to political fame is her complete disregard for basic economics. A brief look at her platform is enough to realize that the ideas of socialism are alive and well in American politics. Her platform is centered on the following policy planks:  – Medicare for all – Free public university – Universal jobs guarantee – Housing as a human right The common denominator of all her proposals is the amount of faith placed in the State to conduct private affairs. Channeling the spirit of failed presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, Ocasio describes her program as democraticsocialism. White-Washing Socialism Leftists have tried their best to re-brand and obfuscate socialism to make it palatable to the misinformed masses. No matter how…

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Nashville Businessman Lee Beaman Endorses Diane Black for Governor

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Diane Black, Lee Beaman

Well-known Nashville businessman and conservative stalwart Lee Beaman endorsed Rep. Diane Black  (R-TN-06) for Governor on Monday. “There is only one true conservative in the race and her name is Diane Black,” Beaman said in a statement. “Diane will fight to protect and defend out Tennessee values. She will be an advocate for Tennessee businesses of all sizes, and she will always fight for families and the unborn. With Diane leading the way, we can become the most business friendly state in the nation while keeping our values intact,” he concluded. Rep. Black responded, “I am delighted to have Lee on my team;” adding: Lee is a man guided by his conservative beliefs who has worked hard for every success. From standing against the AMP and Metro Transit Plan, when he gets behind something, everyone better move out of the way. He is a stalwart fighter for the conservative cause who never waivers in his conviction. “Nobody in Tennessee has been a more consistent and dependable donor, leader and advocate for conservative causes,” Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill said. “From personally dropping off cases of bottled water to protesters at Legislative Plaza to providing funds for countless conservative candidates at…

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