Day: October 19, 2018

Memphis Group Demands Answers After Voter Registration Forms Rejected

Chris Butler

The Tennessee Black Voter Project wants to inspect voter registration forms that members of the Shelby County Election Commission rejected. As reported, the election commission rejected many applications because some were duplicates of already-registered voters. Other applications were incomplete. Felons who cannot vote filed other applications. But Administrator of Elections Linda Phillips told The Tennessee Star it’s unlikely members of the Tennessee Black Voter Project can access the forms right now. “One of the problems with that is, of course, in some senses everything we have is a public record, except there are these Social Security numbers on the forms, and they have to be redacted,” Phillips said. “They are more than welcome to inspect the forms, but they have to wait until we have time to redact the Social Security numbers, which is not something we can do during an early voting period of this election.” According to The Associated Press, members of the Tennessee Black Voter Project filed a lawsuit Monday asking to see the rejected voter registration forms. They and other groups submitted more than 36,000 registrations. The commission, however, said about 55 percent of them were invalid. Phillips, however, defended the detailed process her staff uses…

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Mnuchin Pulls US Out of Saudi Investment Conference

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has pulled out of an investment conference next week in Saudi Arabia, as Riyadh continues to face questions about its involvement in the disappearance and alleged killing of a U.S.-based Saudi journalist in Turkey. Mnuchin made the announcement Thursday on Twitter, following numerous Western corporate chiefs who have dropped out of the three-day gathering that starts Tuesday in Riyadh. As reports from Turkey have mounted alleging Saudi agents tortured, killed and dismembered Jamal Khashoggi two weeks ago inside Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul, the chief executives announced they will not be attending the Future Investment Initiative conference. Saudi Arabia has denied killing Khashoggi, a critic of the country’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Khashoggi wrote about Saudi Arabia in columns for The Washington Post. Saudi Arabia says it says it will disclose the results of its investigation into his disappearance. The investment conference is being organized by Saudi Arabia’s mammoth sovereign wealth fund and was being billed as a showcase for economic reforms advanced by Salman as he attempts to diversify the kingdom’s economy, for decades focused on its role as the world’s leading oil exporter. The gathering had been dubbed “Davos in…

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Steve Cohen Compares Marsha Blackburn to The Waterboy

Chris Butler

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis last week compared Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn to The Waterboy. Adam Sandler portrayed the character in a movie 20 years ago. In the movie, The Waterboy’s real name is Bobby Boucher. Boucher, according to IMBD, is “a socially inept, stuttering, simpleton” with hidden anger issues “due to constant teasing and excessive sheltering by his overbearing and domineering mother.” As reported, this is not the first time Cohen has publicly tried to demean Blackburn. Do Republican women threaten Cohen? No one at Cohen’s office returned The Tennessee Star’s request for comment Monday. Cohen made his remarks on MSNBC. The MSNBC host asked Cohen for his opinion on the latest polls in the U.S. Senate race between Blackburn and her Democratic opponent Phil Bredesen. One poll showed Blackburn has a 14-point lead over her opponent. “The Kavanaugh hearings had an effect, and I don’t know that former Governor Bredesen helped himself by saying he would have voted for Kavanaugh at the end, but he did and it cost him some enthusiasm among Democrats,” Cohen said. Cohen went on to describe a coming “big blue wave and a big turnout” among Democrats. That’s when he delivered…

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Mexico Says It Will Deport Any Migrant Caravan Members Who Enter Without Papers

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by William Racke   Mexico sent federal police to its southern border Wednesday with a warning that they will detain and deport any members of a highly publicized migrant caravan who try to enter the country without a visa. The police officers arrived in two planes in Tapachula, a border city that is a popular waypoint for migrants coming up through Central America to cross into Mexico. Local media reports showed hundreds of agents deplaning, some carrying riot gear. In a statement released Wednesday evening, the Mexican foreign ministry said any of the caravan migrants entering the country “in an irregular manner” will be arrested and administratively deported if appropriate. Migrants who claim they are fleeing violence and want to petition for asylum must do so at the border, while remaining in a government-run camp for up to 45 days, the statement also said. The caravan, dubbed “March of the Migrant,” formed in the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula on Friday, numbering about 150 migrants. It has since swelled to more than 2,000 people and has already crossed into neighboring Guatemala en route to the Mexican border. Caravan members say they are fleeing endemic poverty and violence in Honduras. Upon reaching…

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Commentary: The Rise of the Republican #WalkAways – And Why No One Cares

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by Troy Worden   You might have heard about the #WalkAway Movement, in which disaffected Democrats say farewell to their party due to its hard-left turn. But you might not have heard much about an identical movement of disaffected Republicans leaving their party, though it’s not because it isn’t happening. It’s just that nobody cares. Nobody cares about recent pieces in The Atlantic, Washington Post, and other liberal papers detailing former Republicans’ disaffection with their party, even if they were published in the wake of Brett Kavanaugh’s highly contentious nomination to the Supreme Court. Indeed, very few people cared about the exodus of other, more prominent conservatives from the party, among them campaign strategist Steve Schmidt and columnist George Will. This isn’t to say Schmidt or Will or others—Bill Kristol, David French, and Jonah Goldberg among them—are not intelligent figures who sincerely believe that they are defending the principles of “true conservatism.” They can be mistaken without being insincere. All due respect for their work on behalf of a cause we once thought we shared in common. Now, however, we have to be honest. Many of them are cashing in on their Trump Derangement Syndrome, bigly. Kristol says he’s still…

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While Know-It-Alls Lecture on Tariffs Against China, Trump Dials Up New Trade Deals with UK, Europe and Japan

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by Robert Romano   While President Donald Trump continues to bring the pressure to China, so far with 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods shipped to the U.S., rising to 25 percent in Jan. 2019, which comes atop another 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of goods from China, he is dialing up new trade deals with traditional U.S. allies. Trade agreements with South Korea, Mexico and Canada are already going to Congress, accounting for a combined $1.4 trillion in trade with the U.S. And now, Trump has notified Congress of his intent to negotiate deals with the UK, Europe and Japan, with whom the U.S. carried on a combined $1.7 trillion in trade. These were supposed to be mutually exclusive things, according to all the experts. Trump could either put up more trade barriers or lower them, but he could not do both. Instead, Trump is proving that the U.S. can walk and chew gum at the same time as it pursues the Trump trade agenda. If nations act fairly and reciprocally with the U.S. to lower trade barriers, they can get a good deal. If not, like China, then they face tariffs. “Under President Trump’s…

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Commentary: Civility, Violence, and the Social Compact

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by Clifford Humphrey   Democracy is the worst form of government,” Winston Churchill famously remarked, “except for all those others that have been tried.” What makes democracy better than “those others” is that differences of opinion are settled through peaceful elections, a process of order agreed upon by all parties before the results are known. The spirit of compliance that makes this process of order possible is known as civility. Last week we were treated to two frank acknowledgments by mainstream Democrats—not fringe leftists—that incivility and violence are perfectly acceptable as means of attaining political ends in America today. Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder justified violence against Republicans because “they have used the power that they have gotten for all the wrong things.” And Hillary Clinton—the Democratic Party’s nominee for president two short years ago—informed us that civility is due only to those who agree with “what you care about.” These are political salvos that—“like a fire-bell in the night”—should wake us to recall that rule by force is the historical norm and always much closer than we imagine. All this leads to a clear inference. We have begun to disregard the very foundation of our civil society, the agreement…

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CDC Searches for Answers on Why Mysterious Polio-Like Disease is Flaring Up in US Children

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by Evie Fordham   The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is searching for answers on 127 suspected and confirmed cases of a polio-like disease leaving children across the U.S. paralyzed. Sixty-two cases of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) have been confirmed in 22 states out of 127 reports of AFM. Those numbers put 2018 on track to have a record number of AFM cases, Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the CDC told NBC News. “We have not been able to find the cause of the majority of AFM cases …” Messonnier said according to NBC News. “AFM is a rare condition. It’s also a serious condition. So we want to encourage parents to seek medical care right away if you or your child develop symptoms of AFM such as sudden weakness or paralysis of the arms and legs.” Patients with AFM often need help from a ventilator to breathe, and they can be disabled for years AFM can also strike people older than 18, according to NBC News. Confirmed AFM cases peaked at 149 in 2016 after the illness first grabbed headlines with 120 confirmed cases in 2014, according to CDC data. The illness appears to spike every other year. The…

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OFF THE RECORD: Who Paid Expenses For Promoters of Nashville Police Oversight Board to Attend Organizing Conference in Florida?

Chris Alto

At the end of September, “Community Oversight Now – Nashville,” the Coalition which succeeded in bringing the question of a civilian community oversight board to a referendum as part of the November 6 ballot, posted their travel plans for October. Some or all of the Coalition’s leftist member groups were traveling to Florida to attend the annual conference of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE). This is an organization that claims to have “professionalized” the business of lay people pretending they know more or at least enough, to decide whether cops are doing their jobs according to the law. Or at least judge a police officer’s actions according to what Black Lives Matter says is the way policing should be carried out. What’s not known about the Florida radicals’ junket, is who footed the bill, how many and from which Coalition member group attended the NACOLE conference? NACOLE is one of the organizations that was included in Obama’s White House task force that came up with 63 recommendations for how local police departments can make themselves better liked by the communities they serve, including the criminals who have guns. It also includes the assassins who, without direct provocation,…

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Former ICE Acting Director Tom Homan Decries Loopholes That Allow Illegal Immigrants to Remain in the US, Blames Democrats

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by Nick Givas   Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting director Tom Homan blamed Democrats for loopholes that allow illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S. indefinitely. “The numbers are up on family units — and look, the president is 100 percent accurate on this. As ICE director, I went to the hill many times to talk to lawmakers about closing those loopholes,” Homan said on “Fox & Friends” Thursday. “The two biggest loopholes is asylum — threshold is so low you’ve just got to say a couple magic words that the criminal organizations teach you to say and you get into the United States and you get released from custody, because of the second issue. The second loophole is … we can’t detain families for more than 20 days. That’s not quick enough to see a judge,” he continued. Homan said many illegal immigrants are told how they can beat the system and exploit the loopholes in order to bypass any vetting processes or restrictions and have no incentive to leave. “There’s no consequence, there’s no deterrence. You’re going to get in. You’re going to get released, never to show up in court. Why would they stop coming?” “This issue, this…

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Newt Gingrich Endorses Marsha Blackburn for U.S. Senate

Chris Butler

Former Republican Speaker of the U.S. House Newt Gingrich endorsed Republican Marsha Blackburn for the U.S. Senate Thursday, calling her “the only conservative in the race.” “The choice is clear. I’ve known Marsha for years, I’ve worked with her in the Congress. She is hardworking. She is smart, and she is a solid conservative with courage,” Gingrich said in a YouTube video that accompanied the endorsement. “She will stand up and fight for the values of Tennessee. She will represent the conservative cause, and she’ll do what’s right for America. So, don’t be fooled by any of these ads or any of these claims about being a ‘moderate democrat.’ There are no moderate democrats.” Gingrich, of course, was referring to Phil Bredesen, who is running against Blackburn for the seat that current Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker will soon vacate. Bredesen describes himself as a moderate Democrat. “You either give power to radicals like Chuck Schumer or you are with Mitch McConnell and the conservatives,” Gingrich said. Gingrich reminded viewers that Bredesen donated $33,000 to elect Hillary Clinton president and wrote a book saying Obamacare didn’t go far enough and the country needs a government-run health system. “I knew Bredesen when he…

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