Day: August 31, 2018

The Tennessee Star Interview: Dr. Mark Green’s Real-World Experience in War and Life Prepares Him to Serve in Congress

Anthony Accardi
Steve Gill, Mark Green

State Senator Dr. Mark Green (R-Clarksville), the Republican nominee for the 7th Congressional District seat currently held by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07), sat down for an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star political editor Steve Gill earlier this month. The 53-year-old physician, a long-time resident of Tennessee, and decorated combat veteran of the Iraq war, where he served as an Army Ranger, told Gill that his Christian faith is a defining element of his own life, but that Christians are increasingly being blackballed from public service. Gill asked if this was a growing problem, citing the case of federal appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett. She was belittled for her Catholic faith during a September 2017 Senate confirmation hearing by Sen. Diane Feinstein, (D-CA), who said “the dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern.” Green said Christians are often the victims of misunderstanding by those who don’t share their faith. “I think it’s just a misunderstanding that people have,” he said. “I am a Christian, and because I’m a Christian I love and serve everyone, even people who don’t believe the way I believe. When I went into combat I was going to potentially give my life for…

Read the full story

Tennessee Loses Out on New Security Technology Due to State Regulations

Chris Butler
Adam Jackson

A Tennessee man who sold state-of-the-art technology that could have kept the state’s churches and schools more secure lost a substantial sum of money because state officials wouldn’t grant him the right to do business. This, according to members of the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a Nashville-based free market think tank. You may not know it, but since 1993 the state has had an Alarm Systems Contractors’ Board. Members meet regularly to license, register, and regulate alarm systems contractors.  They also judge whether they’re competent at their jobs, according to the board’s website. The board has five members, and the governor appoints each of them. “Four of those members are alarm system installers themselves,” said Braden Boucek, Beacon’s director of litigation. Going by what Beacon says, the board, by a 3-2 vote, just reversed an earlier decision to classify Adam Jackson’s product as an alarm system — and that requires a license. “They told him his facial recognition software met the definition of an alarm system that would require licensure,” Boucek said. Jackson produces software that instantly scans the face of someone using existing security cameras and compares the image against known offender databases. Board members, Beacon said, wrongfully determined…

Read the full story

FAKE NEWS: Mainstream Media Continues to Prove It Is Nothing but Propaganda

Admin
Donald Trump

By Printus LeBlanc   To say the relationship between the mainstream media and President Trump is rocky would be an understatement. The mainstream media has waged a jihad against Trump since he descended from the escalator in Trump Tower on June 16, 2015, to announce his candidacy for President. The press is upset the President calls them out on their blatant bias, but when looking at the details, does the press have a leg to stand on. While the sad status of journalism began its decline generations ago, the people got a glimpse of it after the 2008 election. It was a widely held belief the mainstream media was left-leaning, but the JournoList scandal solidified it was not only left-leaning but pretty much left-wing propaganda. In February of 2007, a private google group was created containing 400 left-leaning academics and journalists. This was no big deal until after the 2008 election. The Daily Caller got a hold of some of the conversations going on in the group, and it was shocking. What they found were “journalists” colluding with one another to kill storiesthat would make then-candidate Obama look bad, while coordinating the effort to boost the future President. The attained documents were…

Read the full story

Commentary: Who Do You Trust More on Government, Reagan or ‘Pocahontas’ Warren?

Admin
Ronald Reagan, Elizabeth Warren

by Jeffery Rendall   “I think you all know that I’ve always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” – Ronald Reagan. Among the multitudes of unique qualities Ronald Reagan brought to the American political table – and eventually to the presidency – was his ability to encapsulate complex concepts into short sentences, big ideas in quote form that didn’t take intense contemplation or an Ivy League education to decipher. The line above is certainly one of those famous Reagan-isms that fans of the 40th president can roll off their tongues whenever the occasion calls for it. Liberals also received Reagan’s message, apparently, as none other than ultra-leftist/socialist Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren recently took issue with The Gipper’s immortal words. Nicholas Ballasy of PJ Media reported last week, “Warren, who originally proposed the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has suggested establishing a new federal anti-corruption agency… “Warren slammed President Reagan’s famous quote… ‘Since Watergate, generation after generation of American politicians have attacked the very idea that our government can do anything right,’ the senator said. ‘Anyone remember Ronald Reagan’s famous line? ‘What are the nine most terrifying words…

Read the full story

Report: Tennessee to Get Tough with Planned Parenthood

Chris Butler
Planned Parenthood

Tennessee officials may soon have the power to stop Medicaid dollars from going to clinics in Tennessee that perform abortions. This is meant to curb the power and influence of Planned Parenthood in Tennessee, according to a new article in Bloomberg. “The move signals growing GOP interest in using administrative means to rein in providers that offer abortion and underscores state confidence in the Trump administration’s friendliness to the conservative policy priority,” the website reported. Nationwide, the group received $543.7 million in taxpayer money in fiscal year 2016. Medicaid funds generally can’t get used to cover most abortions under the Hyde Amendment, Bloomberg reported. The Tennessee Star has requested state officials give specific information about how much money abortion providers in Tennessee have received through Medicaid during the past three fiscal years. The Star expects to receive that information sometime next week. Tennessee officials are asking the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to block providers that performed more than 50 abortions in the past year from its Section 1115 Medicaid waiver, Bloomberg reported. The publication quoted an unidentified spokeswoman for the state’s Medicaid program TennCare. “Public comments on the request close Sept. 23,” Bloomberg reported. TennCare pays for health care…

Read the full story

Facebook Flags, Censors NPR Report on Inflated Government School Shooting Statistics

Admin
handcuff keyboard

by John Miltimore   Earlier this week, NPR reported on the high number of school shootings alleged by the U.S. Department of Education. The 240 school shootings detailed in the department’s report on the 2015-2016 school year was significantly higher than other estimates. So NPR, with the assistance of the non-profit group Child Trends, began doing what good journalists do: they collected data. Over a period of several months, they contacted every school. What NPR found was startling. “[More] than two-thirds of these reported incidents never happened,” NPR reported. A colleague of mine, Sean Malone, shared NPR’s article – which carried the headline ”The School Shootings That Weren’t” – with his some 1,100 Facebook followers on Tuesday. It was flagged as spam and removed. Facebook’s crackdown on fake news and “hate speech” has been well chronicled. There are many reasons to be wary of such censorship: Who decides what’s true? Who decides what’s fake? Who decides what’s hateful? What’s most troubling about this case is that it strongly suggests that Facebook is censoring information that conflicts with particular political narratives. This is dangerous. Social media tech giants have claimed in court the right to censor users for any reason – even “on the basis of religion, or gender,…

Read the full story

Pope Francis: Resign, and Let Pope Benedict Return from Retirement

Admin
Pope Francis

by Richard A. Viguerie and Mark Fitzgibbons   The sex abuse scandal and its cover-up within the Catholic Church require solutions that the institutional Church will be incapable of achieving on its own. But the more serious problem is that since Vatican II the Church has been AWOL on Biblically based Christian moral issues affecting the core family and its relationship to God. From marriage, divorce, same-sex relations, sex outside marriage, and the love respect between men and women according to God’s laws, the Church has abandoned its role of moral teacher and spiritual guide telling people where the ‘guardrails’ are. The Church’s abandonment of focus on the central and natural institution of the family has been accentuated by Pope Francis’ attention to socialist, earthly issues. His progressive politics-over-family approach is a symptom of the larger problems within the Church and its hierarchy. No institution that is sick can cure itself, and the Catholic Church is grievously ill. Like any patient, the institutional Church must be a willing participant in the cure. But it will be up to the Catholic laity to administer the necessary fixes. We join others who have already made the call for Pope Francis to resign, and…

Read the full story

Republican Dave Joyce Releases Bizarre Campaign Ad Distancing Himself from Trump

Anthony Gockowski
David Joyce

In a risky political move, Rep. Dave Joyce recently tried to distance himself from President Trump in a congressional district that the president won by 12 percentage points in the 2016 Election. Joyce, who is seeking reelection in Ohio’s 14th Congressional District, recently released an ad in which he touts his vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act. “When Republican leaders in Congress tried to take away protections for pre-existing conditions, I said no,” Joyce states. “I won the the fight to fund the Great Lakes restoration, and when President Trump tried to take it away, I said no again.” “I’m Dave Joyce, and I approve this message, because I’ll do what’s right for northeastern Ohio, even if it means standing up to my own party,” the ad concludes. Joyce, however, regularly voted to repeal Obamacare before Trump took office, and his campaign website used to tout a record of voting for repeal more than 30 times, Cleveland.com reports. In a state that Trump won by by 8 points, the ad seems out of place, leaving Joyce’s spokesman, Dino DiSanto to explain that “Joyce will do what is right for his district, no ifs and or buts—doesn’t matter party affiliation…

Read the full story

Vice President Pence Calls for New ‘Century of American Strength’ in Minneapolis Address

Anthony Gockowski
Mike Pence

Vice President Mike Pence delivered the keynote address at the American Legion’s centennial convention Thursday in Minneapolis, touting the Trump Administration’s historic record of defending America’s veterans. “To all the legionares today, and every member of the legion family across America, I bring greetings and congratulations from a leader that you heard from last year, and a great champion of our armed forces—past, present, and future—I bring greetings and congratulations from the 45th president of the United States of America, President Donald Trump,” he began his address. Pence went on to thank “the men and women of the American Legion” who brought America “to the start of a new century of American strength,” a theme the vice president frequently returned to throughout his address. “You veterans are emblematic of American greatness. You stepped up to serve your country, to serve a cause greater than yourselves,” he said, before honoring the life of Sen. John McCain. “America will always remember and honor the lifetime of service of United States Sen. John McCain.” “In case you haven’t noticed, you have an ally and a champion in President Donald Trump. Just as you fought for our freedom, we will always fight for you,”…

Read the full story

Organization Seeks to Help Middle Americans At Risk of Losing Their Pensions

Anthony Gockowski
POWER organization

Millions of Americans are at serious risk of losing their pensions during retirement, but few lawmakers or politicians are addressing the issue, expect for an organization known as Protect Our Workers’ Earned Retirement, called POWER for short. “It’s one of those things that’s a time bomb that’s ticking. At least in the United States, policy is driven by a problem that is a reality rather than a potentiality,” Bill Greener, who is helping promote the project, told The Ohio Star, explaining why the issue has gone largely unaddressed. According to a report conduct by Matrix Global Advisors CEO Alex Brill, and sponsored by POWER, an estimated six million retirees and four million workers in the United States rely on multi-employer pension plans (MEPPs), which are collectively-bargained plans maintained by more than one employer to limit risk. “Even after legislative fixes to improve plans’ financial status in 2006 and 2014, one-third of the 10 million participants are in plans that are headed toward either a funding deficiency or insolvency. More than 1 million people are in plans projected to be insolvent within 20 years,” Brill’s report elaborates, though the problem doesn’t stop there. Brill points out that the federal backstop for…

Read the full story

Democrat Abigail Spanberger Unhappy Her Past Was Revealed

Admin
Abigail Spanberger

by Richard McCarty   Abigail Spanberger is mad. Real mad – and threatening legal action against the Congressional Leadership Fund. Spanberger is the Democrat candidate for Congress in Virginia’s 7th District. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC, recently obtained a document showing that Spanberger worked at the controversial Islamic Saudi Academy in Northern Virginia. Apparently, she didn’t want voters to find that out. How was this fact uncovered? Earlier this summer, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was filed with the National Personnel Records Center seeking “access to certain records contained in the official civilian personnel file of former federal employee Abigail Spanberger. Specifically, this request seeks records reflecting Ms. Spanberger’s employment dates, annual salaries, title, and position description.” This request was forwarded to the Postal Service, which also employed Spanberger. In its response to the FOIA request, the Postal Service included a document disclosing her employment at the Islamic Saudi Academy. Why might Spanberger have wanted to hide the fact that she worked for the school? The school, which was funded by the Saudi embassy, was dubbed “Terror High” by its critics. It had problems before she began working there, and those problems continued after she left. In 2001, two graduates of the…

Read the full story

Lamar Alexander Weighs in on Naming Building After John McCain

Chris Butler
Lamar Alexander, Bob Corker

U.S. Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee seems to want a wait and see approach on renaming a building in Washington, D.C. after the late Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill said the debate is a way for U.S. Dem. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. to score political points against Republicans. Schumer’s endgame — he wants to portray the GOP as racist, Gill said. As Time reported this week, a proposal to rename the Russell Senate Office Building after McCain is floating around the U.S. Senate. The name Russell refers to the late Georgia U.S. Sen. Richard Russell Jr., whom the website described as “a Southern segregationist Democrat.” U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly wants a bipartisan committee to find a less grandiose way honor McCain. Members of the U.S. Senate can best do that, McConnell said, by naming a conference room in McCain’s honor or hanging a portrait of him up on a wall. But Schumer’s seemingly single-minded focus is to rename the Russell Building. Gill said Schumer is not doing this to honor McCain. “He’s doing this because he wants to stir up political trouble,” Gill said. “Chuck Schumer and the…

Read the full story