Day: December 28, 2018

State Sen. Ken Yager Pledges Opposition to School Vouchers

Jason M. Reynolds

State Senator Ken Yager (R-TN-12) said he will not support school vouchers if they come up for a vote in the Tennessee Legislature in 2019, the Independent Herald of Oneida said. “I am opposed to vouchers,” Yager said. “I will not support any proposal that will cause a hemorrhage of needed funds to our schools.” “One of the arguments on behalf of vouchers is freedom of choice,” Yager said. “I happen to believe we already have that choice. It’s called parental choice. You can send your kids to charter school if you want to, or to a private school, or you can home-school them or send them to a public school. The choice is already there. Gov.-elect Bill Lee campaigned on school choice. Yager’s statement would appear to go against what Lee has said is a priority, but will Lee follow through on his campaign promise? On the Dec. 11 Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. – the men analyzed Lee’s cabinet picks and the absence of any conservatives. They also discussed whether Lee would honor his “school choice” campaign pledge.…

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OFF THE RECORD: Governor-Elect Lee Finally Finds a Dependable Conservative in Courtney Rogers

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Despite campaigning as a staunch conservative, Governor-elect Bill Lee has assembled a senior leadership team and Cabinet composed almost entirely of Democrats, anti-Trump Republicans and Haslam Administration holdovers over the nearly two months since election day. Nevertheless, his announcement of former State Rep. Courtney Rogers (R-Hendersonville) as his Commissioner of Veterans Affairs is a clear signal that he CAN find a conservative leader to serve on his team when he chooses to do so. Supported by Tea Party and Second Amendment activists, Rogers won an underdog primary race against Rep. Debra Maggart in 2012. At the time, Maggart was a part of the House Republican Leadership team as Caucus Chair. Rogers crafted a solidly conservative record in the House and remains a favorite of conservative activists across the state. While Rogers’ appointment will be cheered by conservative grassroots activists, it is a position with limited policy significance despite the strong credentials that she will bring to the job. The State Department of Veterans Affairs largely serves as a pass through for federal dollars to federally authorized programs and services. Many Cabinet appointments remain that carry much more weight — including Transportation, Education, Economic Development, and General Services. Should Lee continue…

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Trump’s Cash Advantage for 2020 Has Democrats Worried

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by Jason Hopkins   President Donald Trump’s huge cash reserves for the 2020 election has the Democratic Party concerned, with its leader asking supporters for donations to catch up. The Federal Election Commission revealed in October that Trump has over $100 million in cash on hand for the 2020 presidential race. Trump — who prepared for 2020 almost immediately after the last presidential election — raised more than $18 million in the last quarter via his campaigning committee and through fundraising ventures with the Republican National Committee. The Republican president’s huge war chest is prompting Democrats to solicit for more donations. “Now, we face our greatest challenge yet: Taking back the White,” Democratic Party Chairman Tom Perez wrote in a fundraising email to supporters. “Donald Trump already has years of campaigning under his belt and $100 million in the bank. It’s our job to build a strong, strategic party infrastructure that will give our Democratic nominee the best shot at taking him on and winning back the White House.” The advantage of incumbency goes a long way in U.S. politics. The last president to lose re-election was George H. W. Bush in 1992. As the Democratic Party waits for whomever…

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Senators Give Up On Effort to Rename Senate Office Building in Honor of John McCain

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by Molly Prince   The effort to rename a Senate office building after the late Republican Sen. John McCain has seemingly gone to the wayside as months pass without any further action. Following McCain’s death in August, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pledged to introduce a resolution that would change the name of the Russell Senate Office Building as a tribute to the Arizona senator. “As you go through life, you meet few truly great people. John McCain was one of them,” Schumer tweeted the day of McCain’s passing. ‘His dedication to his country and the military were unsurpassed, and maybe most of all, he was a truth teller — never afraid to speak truth to power in an era where that has become all too rare.’ ‘The Senate, the United States, and the world are lesser places without John McCain,” he continued. “Nothing will overcome the loss of Senator McCain, but so that generations remember him I will be introducing a resolution to rename the Russell building after him.” Schumer, however, never introduced the aforementioned resolution and his office did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation when asked if he was still planning on doing so. The…

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Commentary: Sweet Shutdown, Roll On

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by Michael Walsh   It never seems to occur to the Democrats, currently bellyaching about the largely phantom “government shutdown,” that the last people Donald Trump cares about offending are the army of Democrat-voting bureaucrats who will be the only folks inconvenienced by Senator Charles Schumer’s latest temper tantrum. As far as the rest of America is concerned, the shutdown of “nonessential” government services can bloody well continue indefinitely, as the president has promised, in order to get funding for his wall along the Mexican border. It’s the best Christmas present ever. The furloughed federal employees in question are the Beltway parasites who feed off the taxpayers in real America, and provide next to nothing in exchange for their three square meals a day and fancy digs in what has become, for all practical purposes, a one-party deep state that now consists of eastern Maryland, the District of Columbia, and northern Virginia—and thus the rest of America. Bureaucrats are happy to munch on the hands that feed them, with slovenly, indifferent “service” in useless, invented sinecures, but would never think of barking at the guys who actually throw them the bones, and thus keep them ensconced in petty power over…

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The 2018 Partial Government Shutdown, Detailed

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by Joe Carter   On Friday the federal government entered a partial shutdown after the Senate failed to pass a spending bill that includes border wall funding. President Trump refuses to sign any additional funding that does not include $5.1 billion in additional money to pay for an extension of the border wall, allowing him to fulfill his primary campaign promise. What is a partial government shutdown? A government shutdown occurs either when Congress fails to pass funding bills or when the president refuses to sign a funding bill before the current appropriations expire. A partial government shutdown occurs when many or most government agencies have already been funded by other legislation but there remains some areas that still need funding. What parts of the federal government are affected by the shutdown? Several government agencies were already funded for fiscal year 2019. But another funding bill was needed to cover several agencies for about seven weeks. Nine out of 15 federal departments, dozens of agencies, and several programs will be closed or reduce operations: – Department of Commerce – Department of Homeland Security – Department of Housing and Urban Development – Department of Interior – Department of Justice – Department…

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Trump Administration Urges Supreme Court To Protect Cross-Shaped War Memorial

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by Kevin Daley   The Trump administration filed an amicus (or “friend of the court”) brief Wednesday urging the Supreme Court to protect a 93-year-old war memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland, that is shaped like a Latin cross. The court will soon decide whether the cross-shaped World War I memorial violates the First Amendment’s ban on religious favoritism. The justices agreed to take the case on Nov. 3. [ Read the Trump administration’s brief to the Supreme Court ] The Trump administration’s brief emphasizes the need for the high court to clarify its jurisprudence concerning religious displays in the public square. Since 2005 the justices applied two different tests for assessing the constitutionality of sectarian symbols in public settings. Confusion has followed in lower federal courts as to which test should govern the so-called public display cases. That uncertainty, the government says, “encourages challenges to longstanding displays like the Memorial Cross, which in turn fosters the very religion-based divisiveness that the establishment clause seeks to avoid.” “Cases like these cannot help but divide those with sincerely held beliefs on both sides,” the brief reads. “This case presents an opportunity for the Court to adopt a standard for establishment clause challenges to…

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Commentary: Democrats Plan to Bully Out Administration

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by Natalia Castro   Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is the just the most recent on a long list of Trump Administration officials who have been pushed out of his confirmed position because of constant bullying from the left. It is clear their goal is to obstruct any progress the Trump Administration makes by launching investigation after investigation into every Trump appointee. The relentless left has made it impossible to be a Trump Administration official unless one has millions of dollars to combat legal investigations. Zinke explained in his resignation statement, “I love working for the President and am incredibly proud of all the good work we’ve accomplished together. However, after 30 years of public service, I cannot justify spending thousands of dollars defending myself and my family against false allegations. It is better for the President and Interior to focus on accomplishments rather than fictitious allegations.” Zinke was recently subject to a Department of Justice probe examining a land deal made with an oil services giant in his hometown which some viewed as a conflict of interest. Zinke has also been accused of misusing taxpayer funds for travel expenditures. Zinke has called these attacks “vicious and politically motivated”…

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Rep. Mark Meadows Says Trump Will Not Budge on Requested Amount for Wall Funding

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by Henry Rodgers   Republican North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows said President Donald Trump will not budge on the $5 billion requested for a border wall Wednesday, as the government enters its sixth day of a partial shutdown. Meadows, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said he does not believe Trump will agree to the Democrats’ counteroffer of $1.3 billion that could be used for the border wall, saying he does not think the amount is “reasonable.” The government will remain shut down until a compromise can be worked out among the two parties. “I can tell you, if they believe this President is going to yield on this particular issue, they’re misreading him, misreading the American people,” Meadows told CNN on “Inside Politics.” “I see no evidence that would suggest he would come even close to 1.3” billion dollars in border wall funding. This comes as Meadows pushed strongly against a short-term funding bill that would have funded the government until Feb. 8, saying the wall is necessary and that “the time to act is now.” “The time to stand up for the American people and fight for wall funding is now. If the president vetoes a [continuing resolution (CR)] without wall funding,…

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White House Mulls New Year Executive Order to Bar Huawei, ZTE Purchases

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President Donald Trump is considering an executive order in the new year to declare a national emergency that would bar U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment made by China’s Huawei and ZTE, three sources familiar with the situation told Reuters. It would be the latest step by the Trump administration to cut Huawei Technologies Cos Ltd and ZTE Corp, two of China’s biggest network equipment companies, out of the U.S. market. The United States says the companies work at the behest of the Chinese government and that their equipment could be used to spy on Americans. Huawei and ZTE did not return requests for comment. Both in the past have denied that their products are used to spy. Rural operators in the United States are among the biggest customers of Huawei and ZTE, and worry that they may also have to rip out existing Chinese-made equipment without compensation. Industry officials are divided on whether the administration could legally compel operators to do that. The executive order, which has been under consideration for more than eight months, could be issued as early as January and would direct the Commerce Department to block U.S. companies from buying equipment from foreign telecommunications makers…

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Liberal Billionaire Apologizes For Funding Russian Bot ‘False Flag,’ But Questions Remain Unanswered

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Tennessee Star

by Chris White   Billionaire Reid Hoffman apologized Wednesday for funding an effort to dupe Alabama voters into believing Russian bots were fueling Republican Roy Moore’s failed senatorial bid. But he left crucial questions unanswered. His statement left several important facts about the so-called experiment unaddressed, including a detailed accounting of everyone involved in the caper, as well who crafted and executed the campaign. The effort was the subject of a closed-door presentation in Washington, D.C., to a group of liberal technology experts, The Washington Post reported, citing anonymous sources. “I find the tactics that have been recently reported highly disturbing,” Hoffman said in his statement. “For that reason, I am embarrassed by my failure to track AET — the organization I did support — more diligently as it made its own decisions to perhaps fund projects that I would reject.” The Hoffman-financed group allegedly used Facebook and Twitter to undermine support for Moore and boost Democrat Doug Jones, who narrowly won the race. Hoffman referred to a group he funded, American Engagement Technologies (AET), as being involved in the effort. He poured $750,000 into the organization, much of it going to the project, the report notes. Democratic operatives associated with the…

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Commentary: Compromise Doesn’t Work in the World of Cutthroat Politics

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by Jeffrey A. Rendall   It doesn’t take a genius to declare American politics is broken. On one side you’ve got Republicans who are supposed to believe in limited government and individual liberty; on the other are Democrats, a party increasingly defined not only as the home of big government welfare spending but now harboring a growing inclination towards absolute socialism. As recent history proves voters tend to sway back and forth between the two extremes, putting one party in control until they get sick of them and then replacing that party with the other and the pattern is repeated over and over and over. Is there such a thing as a middle ground? Mark Penn wrote at Fox News, “More than 70 percent of registered voters say they want members of Congress to compromise and get things done, rather than stick to their principles and create even more gridlock. ‘Compromise’ may be a dirty word to partisans, but it is a golden word with the voters today. Watching President Donald Trump demand a wall, and Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer say Trump will never, ever get it, is exactly what the voters don’t want. We elected them to…

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Ohio Senate Fails to Override Outgoing Gov. Kasich’s ‘Heartbeat Bill’ Veto

Andrew Shirley

Ohio state Republican legislators were unable to override Gov. John Kasich’s (R-OH) veto of the “heartbeat” abortion bill Thursday. House Bill 258 (HB 258), first introduced on June 6, 2017, would have made it illegal for a doctor to perform an abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected. In most pregnancies, the heartbeat begins at three weeks but, with current technology, can only be reliably detected at six weeks. This would have made the bill one of the most comprehensive abortion limitations in the country. Kasich vetoed the bill on December 22, citing a high probability that it would be ruled unconstitutional and Ohioans would be left to pay the legal costs. Many Republican lawmakers disagreed and welcomed a court challenge. This was the second time Gov. Kasich has vetoed the bill. While the Ohio House was able to pass the override measure by a vote of 61-28, the Ohio Senate vote came up short at 19-13, one vote shy of passage. State Sen. Bill Beagle (R-Tipp City) cast the deciding vote that led to the override failure. Beagle did vote to initially advance the bill out of committee and voted for its passage when it came to the floor. Following…

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Illegal Immigrant With Criminal Past Reentered Country Illegally and Murdered His Ex in Minnesota

Anthony Gockowski

A 35-year-old illegal immigrant who reentered the country illegally pleaded guilty last week to stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death in August in his Shakopee apartment. According to a statement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Fraider Diaz-Carbajal was deported in 2012 for “suspected immigration violations.” He had a history of criminal activity, including three DUIs and a domestic assault conviction. “Since then he illegally reentered the United States, which is a felony. He remains in local custody pending adjudication of his criminal charges,” ICE said in August after Diaz-Carbajal’s arrest. The Star Tribune reports that he entered his plea to second-degree murder last week, and prosecutors will seek a maximum sentence of 40 years for the murder of Enedelia Perez Garcia. Court records reveal that Garcia was found with “multiple stab wounds all over her body” after she visited Diaz-Carbajal’s apartment to pick up some of her belongings. The two had previously lived together, but Garcia moved out “due to the domestic abuse,” the records state. A witness to the murder, a young woman who lived in a neighboring apartment, said she heard Garcia yell “drop the knife,” and then saw through a bedroom window Diaz-Carbajal pinning Garcia to…

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Gov.-Elect Lee Names Former State Rep. Courtney Rogers to Head Department of Veterans Services

Jason M. Reynolds

Governor-elect Bill Lee on Thursday announced that former State Rep. Courtney Rogers will head up the Department of Veterans Services for when his new administration begins next month. Rogers was one of two appointments Lee announced to his cabinet on Thursday- one for the Department of Veterans Services and one for  the Department of Military. The appointments are: – Lt. Col. (Ret.) Courtney Rogers, former State Rep. (R-TN-45) – head of the Department of Veterans Services  – Maj. Gen. Jeff Holmes – adjutant general of the Department of Military “We are pleased to add two experienced military leaders to our cabinet today,” Lee said in a statement. “Our veterans and active duty personnel will be in good hands with these appointments and I look forward to working with them.” Rogers, of Sumner County, serves as the Director of Recruiting and Retention for the Tennessee State Guard, the all-volunteer arm of the Tennessee Military Department, Lee said in a statement. Rogers served 28 years in the Air Force and Tennessee Air National Guard. She also was a Tennessee State Representative for the 45th District for three terms from 2012 to 2018 until deciding not to run for re-election, Ballotpedia said. Rogers received a…

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