Day: November 21, 2018

Glen Casada Wins House Republican Nomination For Speaker

Laura Baigert

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Widely seen as the favored candidate, State Representative Glen Casada easily won the three-way race for Speaker-Elect with 43 of 73 votes, setting the tone for the other mainly predictable 11 elections held during the House Republican Caucus meeting held Tuesday. As current Republican Caucus Chairman, Representative Ryan Williams (Cookeville) opened the meeting and reviewed some ground rules. Williams said that, per the Bylaws of the House Republican Caucus, an independent accounting firm would count the ballots and declare the winner of each race. The successful candidate would need a total of 37 votes, even if a member chose not to vote. Although it did not happen, there was a provision in the event that no candidate received 37 votes in the first round, whereby the person with the lowest number of votes would be eliminated, and additional votes taken until a candidate reached 37 votes. The votes for each position would not be cast until the results of the previous election were declared. Williams announced that the ballots and tally sheets would be preserved and available for review in the office of the new duly-elected Caucus Chair. Representative Dan Howell (Georgetown) made a motion, which was…

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Dr. Carol Swain Commentary: Voter Fraud and the 2018 Midterm Elections

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by Dr. Carol M. Swain   From the Democrats, we get “Every vote should be counted.” Hidden in these words is an effort to legitimize votes cast by non-citizens and others who might not have had legal standing to vote on November 6. That was in the wake of the state of Florida’s passage of legislation to allow convicted felons who have paid their debts to society to vote. The cry from Republicans is quite different. Republicans believe Democrats are bent on stealing elections using any means necessary. Democrats have established a pattern of seeking the relaxation of voter-identification requirements. They argue that requests for state-issued identification discriminates against black voters, when a lax system makes it easier for non-citizens and convicted felons to vote.  Nationally, we have not done enough to protect the integrity of the electoral system. Only 34 of the 50 states require voter identification at the polls. Other states accept easily accessible documents such as utility bills, paychecks, and bank statements. Things have begun to change, though.  Since 2005, there has been a greater push to require photo identification.  Efforts to require photo identification have been met by pushback from those who argue requiring such documents…

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Commentary: Big Media’s Power Games and the Khashoggi Affair

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by Joseph Duggan   Jamal Khashoggi was a thoroughly charming and charismatic person. In March 2012, I took the last available seat at a luncheon table at the 20th Public Relations World Congress in Dubai. By sheer accident I found myself sitting next to Khashoggi and conversing with him for an hour or so. It was the first and last time I had any contact with the man. His gruesome murder last month distressed me deeply. Here was a human being, a prominent one in his own part of the world, who had accorded warmth and courtesy to me, a foreigner in his region. I love Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, which embraced my family and me as our adoptive home for a number of years. I would like to see the tens of millions of citizens of Saudi Arabia enjoy peace, prosperity, and greater freedom. It’s in interest of the West—and that of the whole world—for Saudi Arabia to establish good relations with all of its neighbors, including Israel—a prospect that once seemed impossible—as well as a prospect that today seems impossible, Iran. Khashoggi’s murder, and the revelation that it had been committed on orders of the government…

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Ivanka’s Personal Email Use Could be a Gift to Democrats Looking to Investigate White House

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by Chris White   Ivanka Trump used a private email account in 2017 to conduct official government business, according to a White House review. The news gives incoming House Democrats another potential opening for congressional oversight hearings. The first daughter’s email use included exchanges with cabinet secretaries, among other forms of correspondence, The New York Times reported Monday night, citing sources who’ve seen the emails. The story also places more pressure on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to cave into Democratic members who are intent on wrapping the White House in probes. The Washington Post initially reported on the scope of Trump’s email use, noting Monday that there were several related to government business, but hundreds of others related to schedules. Her email usage also rehashes reports from 2016 concerning Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was the secretary of state. Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Trump, did not respond to The NYT’s request for comment but a spokesman for the lawyer confirmed again that Trump had used personal email for a time before she transitioned into government. “To address misinformation being peddled about Ms. Trump’s personal email, she did not create a private server in her house…

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Commentary: The Truth About the Invasion Heading Toward the Southern Border

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  While the Leftist establishment media has been trying to brainwash Americans into believing that the “caravan” of aliens who are threatening to cross our southern border illegally are doing so without organization or logistical support from traitors inside America, our friends independent investigative journalist Sara Carter, Nolan Peterson of the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal and independent film maker Ami Horowitz have documented a starkly different story. Peterson reported on a large group of aliens camped in Mexico City, the first and largest of five migrant “caravans” traversing through Mexico and headed north. Altogether, says Peterson, they comprise roughly 12,000 people, mainly from the three Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. In a scene not unlike when a coach rallies his players before a big game, Peterson reports organizers pressed the encircling migrants on the night of Nov. 7 not to give up on their “mission” to achieve the U.S. border. “It’s your right to go to the U.S.,” Milton Benitez, a political analyst and sociologist who hosts the Honduran TV show “El Perro Amarillo,” implored the impassioned crowd. ‘These caravans are very well orchestrated,” one Mexican official who asked not to be named told Peterson. “We’ve…

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Insurers Are Refusing to Do Business With Coal Companies

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by Jason Hopkins   A growing number of insurance firms around the world are either divesting from coal companies or refusing to do business with them altogether. Generali — the third largest insurer in Europe and the largest in Italy — announced it will no longer insure the production of coal facilities or mines. Additionally, Generali will no longer accept new clients that acquire as much as 30 percent of their revenue or energy production from coal. The Italian company, however, will keep doing business with its existing clients. Generali’s moves are just the latest in a growing trend by major insurance companies who are refusing to work with coal interests. International insurance giants Allianz, Swiss Re, Murich Re, AXA and Zurich have all opted to limit their insurance dealings with coal. Their decisions mostly come, not only pressure from environmental organizations, but also from governments increasingly antagonistic against fossil fuels. Fifteen European countries have pledged to completely phase out coal by the year 2030. “Generali’s move shows that coal is increasingly becoming uninsurable. The majority of global insurance companies with the expertise to lead in assessing and underwriting new power plants have now committed to end or limit insurance…

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Judge Stops Trump Asylum Ban as Migrant Caravan Nears

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by Kevin Daley   A federal judge in California issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Trump administration’s new asylum rules early Tuesday morning. U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar said that Congress extended asylum eligibility to all new comers, and the president may not impose contrary terms. “Whatever the scope of the president’s authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden,” Tigar’s decision reads. Tigar is an Obama appointee to the federal trial court in San Francisco. President Donald Trump issued an order on Nov. 9 denying asylum for all foreign nationals who enter the country illegally for a 90-day period. The ACLU challenged the proclamation in court, arguing it violates the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Federal law provides that “any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum in accordance” with applicable statutes. That language…

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Insiders Say Democrats are Waiting On 2020 Push Till Beto Makes a Decision on Presidential Run

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by Hanna Bogorowski   A major Democratic fundraiser said party donors are waiting to hear if former Democratic Senate hopeful Beto O’Rourke will be on the ballot in 2020 before they put their money toward other presidential potentials. Mikal Watts, a San Antonio-based lawyer and political fundraiser, told Politico that several Democratic donors and political operatives have reached out to ask if O’Rourke is running after several other presidential hopefuls began to make their fundraising calls in recent weeks. Those imploring about O’Rourke’s possible run have majorly stemmed from Iowa, the “first-in-the-nation” presidential caucus state. “They’re not wanting to sign on to other presidential campaigns until they know whether Beto is going,” Watts said. “And if Beto is running, what good progressive Democrat wouldn’t want to work for Beto O’Rourke?” O’Rourke, who rose to national fame in part by the unquestioned and glowing media coverage he received, is a three-term congressman from Texas who raised over $70 million in his failed campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. “I can tell you that there has not been this kind of level of electric excitement about a candidate since” former President Barack Obama ran in 2008, Watts told Politico. O’Rourke said before the midterm elections that he…

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White House Journalists Ditch Tradition of Inviting Comedian to Annual Dinner

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  Months after comic Michelle Wolf angered Trump administration officials with her blistering routine at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, the group said on Monday it would feature a historian, not a comedian, at next year’s event. The WHCA said Ron Chernow (pictured above), who has written biographies of presidents George Washington and Ulysses Grant and founding father Alexander Hamilton, has been asked to speak on freedom of the press at next year’s black-tie affair in April. “Freedom of the press is always a timely subject and this seems like the perfect moment to go back to the basics,” Chernow said in a statement released by the WHCA. President Donald Trump has repeatedly derided some media organizations as “fake news” and the “enemy of the people.” The decision breaks with the association’s long-standing tradition of having a comic roast the president and the press at the dinner, and it drew a sharp response from Wolf. “The @whca are cowards. The media is complicit. And I couldn’t be prouder,” she said on Twitter. Presidents traditionally have been given the floor to make their own humorous remarks before the comic speaks. But President Donald Trump, who frequently found himself the…

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State Sen. Mark Green Announces Jan. 3 Resignation Date to Assume Congressional Seat

Jason M. Reynolds

State Sen. Dr. Mark Green (R-TN-22) announced his resignation as Senator effective Jan. 3, 2019 to assume the U.S. Seventh Congressional District seat he won in the Nov. 6 election. That seat was previously held by Marsha Blackburn, who won the U.S. Senate race. Once Green resigns his State Senate seat, the Montgomery County Commission will appoint a senator to serve until a special election is held. First elected to the State Senate in 2012, Green’s service has been marked by his leadership on behalf of all Tennesseans, the West Point graduate said in a press release. Green has passed numerous pro-veteran and pro-business bills. His leadership led to the passage of landmark legislation like the Hall Income Tax Repeal and the Teachers Bill of Rights. Green recently announced his appointment of Stephen Siao as his chief of staff in the U.S. House of Representatives. Siao will lead the transition over the next two months and lead the congressional office starting in January. In his resignation letter to Gov. Bill Haslam, Green wrote, “Serving the people of this district for the last six years has been a privilege and an honor, and I am proud to have worked on their…

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Tennessee Woman Killed by Alleged Illegal Immigrant Was ‘An Angel’ in Life

Chris Butler

Bedford County resident Keri King, 29, was one of the finest people Jeff Boyce ever knew. She didn’t deserve to die the way that she did, because of the actions of an alleged illegal immigrant, said Boyce, who lives in Cannon County. As The Tennessee Star reported, Omar Edgar Torres-Rangel drove drunk last month and killed King as she drove home from Murfreesboro. Boyce said he feels sadness. He also has rage. Sadness because a woman he called “an angel” no longer walks the earth. Rage because Torres-Rangel escaped from law enforcement. Rage, again, because King’s surviving family members say law enforcement won’t give them any answers. “One minute I’m so angry I can’t even explain how angry I am, and it makes me so sad I want to cry,” Boyce told The Tennessee Star Tuesday, before his voice broke and he started sobbing. Boyce said wants to lobby members of the Tennessee General Assembly to act to make sure nothing like this happens again in Tennessee, although he did not specify how they could do that. “I will spend every penny I’ve got to run a damn front page ad in every paper in this state right before election…

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