Friday, May 29, 2009

 

The Next Chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party

I have been lax to post anything regarding the race to become the next Chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party. It's not fair to the candidates or to my wife, who, as the State Executive Committeewoman for the 6th District of Tennessee, will cast her ballot for one of the three gentlemen who have put their name into consideration.

I know both Chris Devaney and Oscar Brock well. Chris and I share the bond of having both worked for Senator Fred Thompson while he was in Tennessee, and I had many dealings with him when he served as Executive Director of the TN GOP. I know Oscar through his work with the State Executive Committee (including my time serving as a proxy on the Finance Committee of the SEC, of which Oscar is a member), and we had many memorable experiences in Minnesota as part of the Republican National Convention in September of 2008.

(Regarding Rep. Eric Swafford, who is also a candidate, he has not made the trip to Knoxville to meet with the SEC members in this area to my knowledge, more than likely due to his responsibilities in the House. Because of this (and my solid opinion that he cannot raise money as Chairman when the House is in session under current Tennessee law), I'm going to comment as if this were a two-man race, because, in my opinion, that is exactly what it is. Eric has been a solid conservative vote in the House, and I am of the hope that he will remain there, serving the people of Tennessee's 25th House District.)

Both Chris and Oscar are fine men whose ideas about where the TN GOP needs to go from here strongly overlap. I will admit that while their ideas are similar, their styles do not appear to be. And I think this is what this will come down to - personality. With this being a close race - a fact accentuated by there being at least 8-10 SEC members who will not be making the trip to Nashville tomorrow - it could come down to each candidate's address to the SEC prior to the voting. If Rep. Swafford pulls enough votes on the first ballot, who is to become the next Chairman will hinge on whether Chris or Oscar can pull enough of Swafford's converts to seal the nomination on the 2nd ballot.

I do not know who Angela will vote for tomorrow. We have discussed both men, and I have weighed in (with her and other SEC members) when asked about specific issues. They are both outstanding men, but make no mistake - how this Party moves forward after the excellent results of Robin Smith's reign will be determined tomorrow. I'm not saying that either selection is "right" or "wrong," just different, and it will be very interesting to see how everything shakes out tomorrow.

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Thursday, May 28, 2009

 

The Case for Marriage

Sara McLanahan at Princeton University and her colleagues have found that boys who are raised by single mothers are twice as likely to end up in prison by age 32, that girls who are born outside of marriage are three times as likely to have a teenage pregnancy, and that teens born outside of marriage are about twice as likely to drop out of high school, compared with their peers who are raised in intact, married families.

Moreover, we should take cold comfort from the fact that many of these nonmarital births are, in Ms. Henriquez's words, to "women [who] may be living with a partner." It is true that most of the recent growth in nonmarital childbearing has been driven by births to cohabiting couples. But cohabiting couples are notoriously unstable, in large part because their relationships are not anchored by the legal, social and moral commitments associated with marriage. One study by Pamela Smock at the University of Michigan and Wendy Manning at Bowling Green State University found that 50% of children born to cohabiting parents saw their parents part by age 5, compared with only 15% of children born to married parents.


Read the whole Wall Street Journal article. It's rather frightening, given the rising number of unmarried mothers. I would have to run comprehensive statistics of our firm's case files to come up with an exact number, but I would guess that the percentage of children that we represent that come into the custody of the State who are from unmarried parents has to be around 75% of our entire caseload. I would be interested in if the Department of Children's Services has statistics on this.

Marriage matters, folks.

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Red State Update: Sotomayor the Racist

Jackie and Dunlap talk about saloons, George Jefferson, Jennifer Lopez, and New York racists.

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Lockett Urged to Resign

There was much talk amongst those in the courthouses of East Tennessee about Knox County's Law Director, Bill Lockett, and his admitted theft misappropriation from his previous law firm.

It's somewhat shocking. Law students all take a course in legal ethics, and aspiring attorneys have to pass a national test to be admitted to practice. While there are sticky issues, it's been said that you can pass the test by maintaining two universal truths - don't steal from your clients or your firm, and don't have sex with your clients. Seems pretty simple, doesn't it?

The attorneys I have heard from since the story broke have been near unanimous - Lockett should resign.

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Bredesen - Putting Programs Over People

Is this right? Governor Phil Bredesen's proposed budget axes over 1,300 jobs - many in fields such as child welfare and mental health - but actually expands the amount of money - by millions of dollars - given to Pre-K, the sacred budgetary cow that is Bredesen's educational equivalent to TennCare?

Yeah, that's wise in these economic times, where the State is having to raid the "rainy day fund" just to balance Bredesen's ever-expanding budget.

I can picture it now - "Yes, Johnny, you get to go to your Pre-K program today, which has never been proven to be beneficial to you or any other child, while Mommy sits at home since she's been laid off after 10 years of service to the State of Tennessee..."

Bredesen is in the pocket of Pre-K Now, the special interest group that has bilked state governments to the tune of $5 billion thus far. Who knew that our multimillionaire governor could be bought by the special interests? That's pretty much what has happened, isn't it? Why else would someone pump millions and millions of dollars into a program that has shown no attributable value nationally? I thought that was the point in having rich people as executives - so that they were above the influence. Guess that theory doesn't hold water anymore...

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If You Like Medical Privacy, Defeat HB2289

Blue Collar Muse has the details.

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Pinch the Tails, Suck the Heads in Middle Tennessee This Weekend

Have a hankerin' for some good food and good company this weekend? Join the Williamson County Young Republicans at their annual Crawfish Boil this Saturday.

What: 2009 Williamson County Young Republicans Crawfish Boil
When: Saturday, May 30th from 5:00 P.M. - 8:30 P.M. (Central Time)
Where: Moonshine Hill in Leiper's Fork

You can buy your tickets online.

This is a pretty cool event for a county YR group to undertake, so please make an effort to attend if you're going to be in the Franklin-area this weekend. Perhaps other YR groups will take note of this successful event, the kind of recognition that occurs when your group doesn't meet at a bar.

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Wednesday, May 27, 2009

 

Sessions? Is that French?

Cheese eating surrender monkey Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, the Ranking Minority Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is now on record as saying that a filibuster of Second Amendment hating bigot liberal Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is unlikely.

Way to lay down, Monsieur Sessions. What was that - like 24 hours of backbone? It must have been excruciating to hold out that long for the 60 million Americans who rejected Obama's socialist agenda with their votes last November. Guess that teaches us for placing our faith in someone from the state of the Crimson Tide.

I bet the Tennessee Republican Party is ecstatic. Nothing like having a strong keynote speaker for the Statesmen's Dinner in July...

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

 

What She Said

Terry Frank sends a passionate plea to Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey to show all conservatives and those who believe that the Tennessee Constitution means what it says why he is qualified to be our next Governor.

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Fitting Tribute for Memorial Day Weekend

A great piece from ESPN's "Outside the Lines" series, if you can make it through this without shedding a tear, you're a stronger man than I.

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Friday, May 22, 2009

 

Blount County Lincoln Day TONIGHT

I'm about to dash to William Blount High School, site of the 2009 Blount County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner. It starts at 6:00 P.M., and Congressman Marsha Blackburn is the keynote speaker.

See y'all there!

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Disturbing Murder in New Mexico

As a father who works every week in the juvenile courts of Tennessee, this story makes me ill.

Of course, since New Mexico has one of the worst governors in America, Tiffany Toribio doesn't have to worry about the death penalty. That's a shame.

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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

 

Holy Cow!

If someone had told me that Harry Carey was going to be making an encore appearance on Saturday Night Live a few weeks back, I might have endured an hour of bad comedy just to catch this golden oldie.



Anyone who grew up on Harry calling games for the Cubs can relate to Will Ferrell's impersonation. It was pretty much a stream of consciousness, one that tended to get a little bit more entertaining in the later innings, if you know what I mean.

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Monday, May 18, 2009

 

Quote of the Day

As students in the 1960s, the Baby Boomers fought for the right to be treated as adults. After they became college administrators in the 1990s, they began to fight for students' right to be treated like children.

- Mike Adams, Professor at University of North Carolina-Wilmington, lamenting the victim mentality of the average student at American universities

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Saturday, May 16, 2009

 

TN GOP Chairman Robin Smith Resigns, Will Run for Congress

As expected, Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Robin Smith announced this morning in a conference call to State Executive Committee members that she is stepping down from her current position, effective May 30, 2009. She will be devoting her efforts to running for the seat in Congress that is currently held by Zach Wamp.

The problem is that the powers that be in the Tennessee Republican Party have hastily called a meeting on May 30th of the SEC to pick a new chairman. This is a very bad idea. While Oscar Brock and Chris Devaney have been making the rounds to garner support for the important position, calling for a vote in 2 weeks is asinine. The current Vice Chair, Bob Rial, can serve as acting Chairman for a couple more weeks so that interested parties can meet with individual SEC members and state their case for being the new Chairman.

Who does this rushed process fall on? It seems that it has to be laid at the feet of Robin Smith, who is probably making no friends with this maneuver. Former Chairman Bob Davis left in a similarly sudden situation when he joined Fred Thompson's presidential campaign, and he provided much more notice and allowed more time for candidates to make necessary decisions. It is my understanding that much fuss was made on the conference call about the truncated time table that Robin Smith has put forth, and that the concerns of the SEC members were given short shrift. Of course, the SEC has the power here, not Smith. If a quorum is not present on May 30th, then there will be no meeting, and their will be no vote. Voting by proxy is not allowed in officer elections, according to State Party Bylaws.

While Smith stopped short of announcing that she was running for the 3rd District seat currently held by Wamp, I assume that people reading this are not morons and understand what is going on here. I'm sure she has her reasons for needing this done as soon as possible (i.e. - fundraising, formation of an exploratory committee, etc.), but rash decisions too often result in disaster. Let the SEC members properly investigate the situation so that the right Chairman can be elected, and no one will have any doubts that the process was proper and deliberative.

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Friday, May 15, 2009

 

APA: Being Gay Not a Matter of Genetics

Those on the Left have hammered away at society for the past few decades, and, slowly, a great deal of the population has come to accept that being a homosexual is something that you're "born into." Not wishing to argue the science of the human genome and instead arguing the human nature of scientists and the Left, I have found it persuasive to ask those who have come to believe the argument put forth by the Left that if they believed that there was a "gay gene" and that there were scientists mapping human DNA for markers for decades on everything from eye color to colon cancer, wouldn't the Left be trumpeting the discovery of the "gay gene?" Basically, if it was there, don't you think we'd know about it?

There's proof now that even academics are accepting that there is no "gay gene."

The attempt to prove that homosexuality is determined biologically has been dealt a knockout punch. An American Psychological Association publication includes an admission that there's no homosexual "gene" -- meaning it's not likely that homosexuals are born that way.

Unlikely that this will undo decades of brainwashing by Hollywood, the media, and other Leftist tools, but it's a start.

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Thursday, May 14, 2009

 

Another Day, Another Trial...

Today's ranting and raving will be at a minimum due to an all-day trial in Blount County. For the third time, I'm representing a young Sudanese gentleman. Sure wish I spoke Dinka...

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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

 

Tennessee Republicans Think You're Stupid

Heh. Senate Republicans apparently think that Tennesseans are so dumb that they can't tell the difference between the words "elect" (as it says in the Tennessee Constitution) and "select" (as they pushed through the Senate Judiciary yesterday).

Those words are mutually exclusive, ladies and gentlemen - just like the words "honest" and "Republican" have become in recent times. I thought that this was more a national phenomenon with which we in Tennessee had immunity. That apparently is not the case anymore.

Promises were made during campaign season regarding the reinstitution of the Tennessee Plan. Apparently, new promises have since been made with the liberal trial lawyers (and their impressive checkbooks) by those running the show in the Tennessee Senate - and you have to look at the leadership here, beginning with Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey.

Consider yourself warned, Tennessee Republicans. If the Democrats are smart enough to nominate conservatives like Nathan Vaughn (should he seek a rematch in 2010), then the grassroots will flock to a new party. As they should, as your party has proven to be out of touch with the populace. The grassroots has come to the conclusion that all you think about is guns, guns, guns, and everything else is just a matter of politics. I can't tell you how many grassroots activists have said this very thing to me over the past month.

Do you think you've done enough in this legislative session to make a sincere case that you deserve the privilege of redrawing the legislative districts come 2011?!?! Really? Could you be trusted to do so after this session?

Absolutely sickening.

MORE: Terry Frank

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Monday, May 11, 2009

 

Stamp Increase Today

Keep in mind, dear readers, that all First Class Mail sent through the United States Postal Service today and beyond requires a $0.44 stamp, as the USPS has once again raised rates.

The Postmaster General would have us believe that the increase is small potatoes and doesn't even begin to cover the increased costs associated with delivering the mail. In fact, he's been whining to Congress for some time now that the USPS needs to eliminate mail on one day, backing down to a five-day delivery schedule. ("Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds - except on Tuesdays...")

Perhaps Congress should step in and help the poor Postal Service with its real problem - out-of-control salaries. This from Yahoo! News:

Postal workers and models will be happy to know that their average annual pay increased more than anyone else's. Postal workers make 23.2% more than a year ago, bringing them up to an annual salary of $54,550. Models didn't make nearly as much to begin with, but they're up 20.4% to $30,160 a year.

$54,550? As an average for a job that requires no formal schooling or education? You've got to be kidding me.

If that's the baseline, what are we going to have to pay doctors - you know, the people who go to school for decades so they don't accidentally kill one of us when our health is poor - under Obama's socialized medical plan? A few million a year?

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