Day: October 13, 2018

Steve Cohen Takes Personal Jabs at Marsha Blackburn on Al Sharpton Show

Chris Butler

U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) went on MSNBC recently to personally disparage U.S. Senate Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn as someone who lacks the capacity to think for herself. During his appearance, Cohen also stressed the importance of honor and integrity with Sharpton, of all people. Sharpton hosted Cohen on his MSNBC talk show PoliticsNation. Cohen, who has knocked Republicans for supposedly mistreating women, recently said Blackburn should jump off the Harahan Bridge in Memphis. Rep. Cohen said Blackburn’s Democratic opponent Phil Bredesen, is “light years beyond” her. “Blackburn would put us back into an anti-diluvian period,” Cohen said. “She described herself from one of her first ads as proudly a knuckle-dragging creature from the past. She has total fealty to Trump and no individual unique thoughts that will help us in our country.” As The Tennessee Star reported, the Brett Kavanaugh U.S. Supreme Court nomination hearings prompted Cohen to take to the floor of the House of Representatives. While there he delivered a fiery speech against Republicans and their supposed problems with the #MeToo Movement and respecting women. During his PoliticsNation appearance, Cohen called now U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh “a flawed candidate who perjured himself before the United States Congress.” Sharpton — who helped…

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Commentary: Yes, the Democratic Mob is Real

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by Donald Wilfong   Yes, the Democratic mob exists, and it is very real. It is a faction that aims disrupt to our representative government in an uncivilized manner. They are the reason for the Justice Brett Kavanaugh outrage, the senseless attack of the GOP’s charity baseball team last year, and Senator Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) wife Kelley sleeping with a loaded gun on her bedside table. The mob is real and while Democrats and the mainstream media try to avoid this fact, it is something that Republicans should label for what it is. It has no place in our republic. In an interview at Oxford, England, Hillary Clinton urged Democrats across America to be more uncivil and hostile towards Republicans across America, it is clear there is a real threat. While some news organizations will laugh and poke fun at the word “mob,” I ask, what better word is there to describe it? Webster’s Dictionary describes a mob as “a large crowd of people, especially one that is disorderly and intent on causing trouble or violence.” The three key components to describe a mob are there being a large crowd, disorderly, and violent. Were the people outside the Capitol and…

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Chris Butler Talks to The Tennessee Star Report: Bredesen’s Nashville Campaign Headquarters a Big ‘No Comment’ after Project Veritas Release

Julie Carr

On Friday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – the team talked with our own Chris Butler, investigative reporter at The Tennessee Star, about his visit to Phil Bredesen’s Nashville Senate campaign office on West End and whether or not Bredesen campaign worker Will Stewart appeared ruffled by his Project Veritas video debut where he made current headlines exposing the true intentions of Bredesen. Leahy:  Our lead story today, written by our intrepid investigative journalist, Chris Butler is about Will Stewart, the Tennessee Democratic Party employee who was captured on an undercover Project Veritas video shot at the Bredesen for Senate campaign offices on Nashville’s West End saying that Democrat senate nominee Phil Bredesen lied when he said he would have voted yes to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh.  Stewart is still working at a position of authority at that Bredesen for Senate campaign office.  How do we know that? Because Chris – who’s on the line with us now – went into that office yesterday and spoke with Will. Welcome Chris Butler great job yesterday! Butler:  Good morning thank you very…

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Why Mesh Networks Are the Future of Free Internet Access

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by Sam Bocetta   From an early age, the adage “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” has been drilled into our psyches and ingrained in our culture. Diversification, in all of its many forms, has become a cornerstone of American economic philosophy and a guiding principle we follow in nearly every facet of our lives. Every facet, that is, except for internet access. There is virtually zero diversification with regard to how we access the world wide web today. The internet is traditionally accessed through a handful of centralized points commonly known as internet service providers, or ISPs. However, as we’ve seen time and time again, this infrastructure quickly fails amid natural disasters, wars, and government interference. Mesh networks do not rely on a single access point to relay an internet connection. One need look no further than the internet outages caused by hurricanes Sandy and Harvey or the national internet shutdown in Egypt for a vivid illustration of the dangers that come from a network with a single point of failure. Unlike the “normal” internet, which is dependent on a select few carriers like Verizon and AT&T for access, mesh networks do not rely on a single…

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Harvard Bias Trial to Spotlight Use of Race in College Admissions

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A lawsuit challenging the use of race as a factor in U.S. college admissions will go to trial in Boston on Monday, when Harvard University will face accusations that it discriminates against Asian-American applicants. The lawsuit, backed by the Trump administration, could eventually reach the Supreme Court, giving the newly cemented five-member conservative majority a chance to bar the use of affirmative action to help minority applicants get into college. “The case is critically important as it’s really about diversity at colleges all across the country,” said Nicole Gon Ochi, an attorney at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles who supports Harvard in the case. Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), founded by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, sued Harvard in 2014, contending it illegally engages in “racial balancing” that artificially limits the number of Asian-American students at the Ivy League school. The U.S. Justice Department, which launched a related probe of Harvard after Republican President Donald Trump’s election, has backed the group, saying the Cambridge, Massachusetts, university has not seriously considered alternative, race-neutral approaches to admissions. Conservatives argue that affirmative action, which aims to offset historic patterns of racial discrimination, can hurt white people and Asian-Americans while helping black…

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On Todd Starnes Show, Steve Gill Talks About ‘Fibber Phil’ Bredesen’s True Intentions Uncovered in Project Veritas Video

Julie Carr

Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill was a guest on the Todd Starnes Show this week and chatted with Todd about “Fibber” Phil Bredesen’s false intent of voting for Kavanaugh in order to win the Senate race here in Tennessee.  They continued the discussion regarding Project Verata’s recent visit to the Bredesen campaign headquarters and uncovering his campaign staff’s admission to Bredesen’s true feelings about Trump and the found and unknown intention of running as a “one and done” Senator in order to put Schumer and the Democrats into power. Gill continued,  “I wanted at the time to put one of those dog shock collars around Phil Bredesen’s neck and have him on a polygraph and ask him about his announcement that he would vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh as a justice to the supreme court.  I don’t think he would have taken that lie detector test and been held to that standard. “Thankfully, Project Veritas went out with an undercover reporter and caught on video tape, staffers at the Bredesen headquarters talking about the fact that ‘No he didn’t mean that, it’s just politics, he’s just saying that.  He’ll be a hundred percent with the Democrats.  He hates Trump.’ …

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Dave Ramsey Endorses ‘True Conservative’ Marsha Blackburn for Senate

Jason M. Reynolds

Financial advice guru Dave Ramsey of Brentwood formally announced his endorsement of his “good friend” U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) for the U.S. Senate on Friday. Watch his endorsement: Ramsey says, “I’ve known Marsha since way back in 2001 when she and I and a bunch of others fought against a state income tax here in the state of Tennessee. I learned then a couple things about Marsha. Number one – she’s a fighter, she likes to win. Number two – she’s a conservative, and a true conservative, and she’s proven that in her public service over and over again. Marsha stands for family values … Marsha stands for Second Amendment rights … Marsha has a voice of common sense, and this is the kind of person we need as a Senator for the state of Tennessee …  I’ll be backing Marsha Blackburn, my friend for a long time, for all the right reasons, to be the next Senator for the state of Tennessee.” In response to the endorsement, Marsha Blackburn said in a statement, “Dave Ramsey is a brilliant economic mind, trusted counsel, and I’m honored to have his continued support as we work to win in November.” On his…

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Turkish Court Orders Andrew Brunson Released After Four Witnesses Recant Testimony

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by Chuck Ross   A Turkish court on Friday convicted American pastor Andrew Brunson of terrorism charges but ordered his release from house arrest, a decision that will allow him to return back to the U.S. During a court hearing, four government witnesses retracted their statements that Brunson had aided two organizations, the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, and the network of supporters of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Brunson, 50, was arrested in October 2016 on claims that he supported the two groups. He was sentenced to three years in jail on Friday but released due to time served. The Turkish court also relaxed a travel ban against Brunson, allowing the North Carolina native to return home. Brunson and his wife had operated Christian churches in Turkey for 23 years until his arrest. Brunson’ case touched off a bitter diplomatic dispute between the U.S. and Turkey. The Trump administration pushed its Nato ally to release Brunson, arguing that the charges against him were bogus. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected those requests, saying publicly that he was using Brunson as a bargaining chip to force the U.S. to extradite Gulen, who is living in exile in Pennsylvania. The Trump administration…

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FAKE NEWS: Washington Post Reporter Paul Kane Blames Tea Party for Attempted Assassination Against Gabby Giffords

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by Joe Simonson   A congressional reporter for The Washington Post decided to revive a liberal talking point that places the blame on the nearly-fatal shooting of former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on the Tea Party and heated GOP rhetoric. The reporter, Paul Kane, tweeted his remarks Friday afternoon in response to an editorial by National Review that criticized recent protests and demonstrations by left-wing activists. “This Nat’l Review editorial would have a lot more potency if NR owned up to fact that 2010 right-wing anger/mobs played a role in dehumanizing Congress, helping lead to Giffords shooting in 2011,” Kane wrote. His comments were immediately criticized for spreading inaccurate theories on why gunman Jared Lee Loughner (pictured) targeted her in a mass shooting in 2011 that led to six deaths and 18 wounded. Giffords was shot in the head at point-blank range and nearly killed but was left with severe trauma to her brain. This Nat'l Review editorial would have a lot more potency if NR owned up to fact that 2010 right-wing anger/mobs played a role in dehumanizing Congress, helping lead to Giffords shooting in 2011. https://t.co/7Nd37igSEg — Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) October 12, 2018 An investigation into the incident by…

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Commentary: Making Law Professors and Law Students Great Again

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by Stephen B. Presser   It was little noticed, and of little effect, but more than 2,000 professors signed a letter urging the U.S. Senate not to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. Given that he is the best qualified nominee in some time, having graduated from Yale and Yale Law School and having served a clerkship with Justice Anthony Kennedy and for more than a decade on the nation’s second highest court as the author of opinions embraced by the Supreme Court itself, this is curious. This cri de coeur from the professors tells us more about them than about Kavanaugh, and it tells us about the diseased state of jurisprudence in the law schools. The ostensible reason for the letter was Kavanaugh’s defense before the Senate Judiciary Committee against the charges brought by Christine Blasey Ford. He vehemently denied her claims that when he was a wastrel youth at Georgetown Prep, in a drunken stupor, he sought to remove her clothes, and forcibly to detain her in a bedroom with an equally inebriated comrade. There was no substantiation for that assertion, nor was there for any of the other slanders perpetrated as part of the…

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Kevin McCarthy Rolls Out Bill to Fully Fund Trump’s Border Wall, Cut Off Sanctuary Cities

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by Will Racke   House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy formally introduced Friday a bill that would set aside more than $23 billion to build President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall, drawing attention to a key concern of Republican voters ahead of the November midterm elections. The proposal, known as the Build the Wall, Enforce the Law Act of 2018, would appropriate $16.6 billion for a “border wall system” along the U.S.-Mexico frontier consisting of physical barriers and intrusion detection systems. It adds another $6.8 billion for security infrastructure, including border surveillance technology and additional detention space for illegal immigrant families. McCarthy tied the bill’s border security provisions to the ongoing family migration crisis at the southwest border, which the Trump administration says is caused by laws that encourage illegal immigration. “For decades, America’s inability to secure our borders and stop illegal immigration has encouraged millions to undertake a dangerous journey to come here in violation of our laws and created huge loopholes in the legal channels we use to welcome immigrants to our country,” the California Republican said in a statement. “President Trump’s election was a wakeup call to Washington. The American People want us to build the Wall and…

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Georgia Lawsuit Latest Blow in US Fight Over Voting Rights

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U.S. voting rights advocacy groups Thursday sued Georgia’s top election official, Secretary of State Brian Kemp, accusing him of putting more than 50,000 voter registration applications on hold to boost his gubernatorial campaign. Kemp is the Republican nominee for governor in one of this year’s highest-profile state races, in which Democrat Stacey Abrams is seeking to become the state’s first black governor. The lawsuit brought by a coalition of state civil rights groups accused Kemp of attempting to depress minority turnout to improve his chances of victory. It was the latest legal development this week involving voting rights that could influence the Nov. 6 elections in states, including North Dakota, Arkansas and Ohio. Stakes high In addition to governor’s races, control of Congress hangs in the balance in next month’s elections, when Democrats hope to claw back enough seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate to regain some power in Washington. Backers of voter ID laws say they are intended to combat voter fraud. But voter rights advocates say the number of documented cases of voter fraud in the United States is extremely small and that restrictions disproportionately affect poor and minority voters. “A lot of states’ laws…

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How the Myth of the ‘Robber Barons’ Began – and Why It Persists

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by Burton Folsom   We study history to learn from it. If we can discover what worked and what didn’t work, we can use this knowledge wisely to create a better future. Studying the triumph of American industry, for example, is important because it is the story of how the United States became the world’s leading economic power. Free markets worked well; government intervention usually failed. Capitalism Worked, but We Were Told It Didn’t The years when this happened, from 1865 to the early 1900s, saw the U.S. encourage entrepreneurs indirectly by limiting government. Slavery was abolished and so was the income tax. Federal spending was slashed and federal budgets had surpluses almost every year in the late 1800s. In other words, the federal government created more freedom and a stable marketplace in which entrepreneurs could operate. To some extent, during the late 1800s—a period historians call the “Gilded Age”—American politicians learned from the past. They had dabbled in federal subsidies from steamships to transcontinental railroads, and those experiments dismally failed. Politicians then turned to free markets as a better strategy for economic development. The world-dominating achievements of Cornelius Vanderbilt, James J. Hill, John D. Rockefeller, and Charles Schwab validated America’s unprecedented limited government. And…

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Lindsey Graham Says Chelsea Handler’s Comments About His Sexuality Aren’t Helping the Country

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by Hanna Bogorowski   GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina responded Friday to comedian Chelsea Handler’s tweet that appeared to imply Graham was a closeted homosexual, saying she “knows zero about me.” Handler, who is an outspoken critic of the Republican Party, took to Twitter Thursday to take another swipe at conservatives, specifically Graham, who has been making headlines lately for his impassioned defense of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “If you’re wondering why Republicans took a sick day today, it’s probably because it’s #NationalComingOutDay,” Handler wrote. “Looking at you @LindseyGrahamSC.” If you’re wondering why Republicans took a sick day today, it’s probably because it’s #NationalComingOutDay. Looking at you @LindseyGrahamSC — Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) October 11, 2018 TMZ spotted the senator at Reagan National Airport Friday in Virginia and asked him if he had a response to Handler’s comments. “It’s a free country. She can say what she wants to say. I don’t care,” Graham said. A TMZ reporter asked if Graham thought her comments were homophobic. “I don’t think much about what she says at all,” he said. “If she wants to live her life that way, that’s up to her.” The TMZ cameraman continued to question Graham as they…

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Completed New York Times Poll Shows Marsha Blackburn Leading Phil Bredesen By 14 Points, 54 Percent to 40 Percent

Jason M. Reynolds

The New York Times has finalized its poll numbers in the Marsha Blackburn-Phil Bredesen Senate race, and the complete results are good news for Blackburn and bad news for Bredesen. The Tennessee Star on Wednesday reported on an earlier snapshot of the poll, showing U.S. Representative Blackburn (R-TN-07) with a 57 percent to 39 percent lead over Democratic former Governor Bredesen. The New York Times’ poll has been updated in real time to show Blackburn’s lead at 54 percent to 40 percent over Bredesen. The newspaper’s poll information is here. In September, the newspaper said it would use “live polling,” in which the results of polls in Battleground States could constantly change over a two-month period leading up to the election. “For the first time, we’ll publish our poll results and display them in real time, from start to finish, respondent by respondent. No media organization has ever tried something like this, and we hope to set a new standard of transparency. You’ll see the poll results at the same time we do. You’ll see our exact assumptions about who will turn out, where we’re calling and whether someone is picking up. You’ll see what the results might have been…

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