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Friday, July 08, 2016
Somebody needs to stop me before I jump on the Trump bandwagon!
Last night I watched the House hearings questioning FBI Director James Comey on the decision not to indite Hillary Clinton. As I watched my disgust and anger grew. Somebody now needs to stop me before I jump on the Trump bandwagon!
I still think
Trump is a danger to the Republic, most fearful he may start trade wars
and fearful that he may do something stupid like default on the national debt or
really try to deport 12 million Mexicans. I still think he is an
ill-mannered, egotistical, bully with unknown political views and unfit to be president. It is not that I think any better of
Trump, but I am so outraged at the thought of Hillary becoming president, that I would almost rather pull a random name from a hat to be president rather than trust Hillary.
I am outraged at the long list of Clinton scandals. I am outraged she mixed her
private, Clinton Foundation, and State Department email on an unsecured
server and then when the emails were subpoenaed she deleted 30,000 of
them! Any normal citizen who destroyed evidence in that fashion would
be in jail. She showed reckless disregardful for the security of our
country and destroyed evidence. She has contempt for our nation's
security and the rule of law. I am outraged she got by with it. Nixon
did nothing coming close to her criminality.
I wish we had a better
alternative than Trump, but I may prefer to risk reckless rude Trump
than put the country in the hands lying criminal Hillary.
It is clear that she mishandled classified information and it is clear she destroyed evidence and she has gotten by with it. That she got by with it is the real crime and that her supporters don't give a damn is the real outrage. This should not be the end of it, however. It is crime to lie to Congress. The House should ask the FBI to open criminal investigation into allegations that Hillary Clinton lied to Congress. Unfortunately, It may not matter. I have the feeling that the fix is in and Clinton will get a free pass from the Obama Justice Department no matter what she does. Clinton probably sealed the deal on that private airplane in Arizona. The Obama administration has demonstrated it's contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law. The vast federal bureaucracy is only a tool for handing out favors and punishing enemies. The rule of law is dead.
If charges had been brought against Clinton for the mishandling of classified material and destruction of evidence, then most likely she would have withdrawn from the race for President and the nomination would have most likely fallen to Joe Biden. For those who want Trump to be president, what happened with Hillary is probably not a bad outcome. Trump probably has a better chance against Hillary than he would Joe Biden. While in a normal election year I would have agree that this was a good outcome, I really do not want a Trump presidency. In a choice between Trump and Biden, I could have reluctantly welcomed a Biden presidency. Justice should have been served and Hillary should have been indited.
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Wednesday, July 06, 2016
Nashville judge throws out fairgrounds gun show lawsuit
The Tennessean - Davidson County Chancellor Carol McCoy, in a ruling from the bench, granted Metro’s motion to dismiss the case and denied the motion of plaintiff David Goodman of Bill Goodman’s Gun and Knife Shows for injunctive relief. Goodman had requested that the court order the Metro fair board to block off weekends next year when gun shows at the fairgrounds had previously been scheduled. ... McCoy said that Goodman does not face immediate and irreparable harm to warrant an injunction and also lacked standing to bring the lawsuit .... “I cannot find that there is a right to contract with Metro,” McCoy said. (link)
My Comment: While my sympathies are with Goodman, I am not surprised or outraged by this ruling. I am not a lawyer but I thought the Goodman argument was weak from the very beginning.
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3-D Printed Guns and the Second Amendment
The Nashville Lawyers’ Chapter of the Federalist Society presents 3-D Printed Guns and the Second Amendment with Prof. Josh Blackman on Wednesday, July 20, 2016 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. at The Law Offices of Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP, Nashville City Center, 511 Union Street, Suite 2700, Nashville, Tennessee 37219. Lunch Will Be Served, and CLE Credit Will Be Available RSVP.
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Tuesday, July 05, 2016
Look who is supporting Will Pinkston
I am supporting Jackson Miller for School Board. I am not posting this to promote Will Pinkston but I am always interested in who is supporting who in political races and thought my readers may find this interesting.
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Charles Sargent Earns NFIB Guardian of Small Business Award
NFIB Press release, June 30,2016 - The Tennessee office of the
National Federation of Independent Business, the state's leading small-business
association, has presented its coveted Guardian of Small Business Award to
state Rep. Charles Sargent. NFIB made the presentation this afternoon at Elliott
Davis Decosimo, an NFIB member in Brentwood.
 |
| Rep. Charles Sargent |
Jim Brown, state director of NFIB, said, “Charles Sargent is an exceptionally strong supporter of NFIB on a variety of issues. Most notably, he sponsored legislation to repeal the state’s inheritance and gift taxes, as well as a reform bill that provides a more flexible, less punitive reporting method for businesses that pay our franchise & excise tax. Representative Sargent once again scored a perfect 100 percent voting record with NFIB and continues to support legislation that promotes a stable business environment for free enterprise.”
“Tennesseans are fortunate to have leaders like Charles Sargent representing them in our legislature,” Brown said. “On behalf of all small businesses in Tennessee, NFIB wants to thank Representative Sargent for everything he’s done for our state’s entrepreneurs.”
Sargent, who chairs the House Finance Ways & Means Committee and serves on the Insurance & Banking Committee, is a longtime NFIB member from Franklin.
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Bob Corker, potential GOP vice presidential nominee, is campaigning with Donald Trump today
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TNGOP Statement on FBI's Investigation of Clinton's Secret Server
TN GOP, NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 5, 2016 - The Tennessee Republican Party released the following statement from Chairman Ryan Haynes regarding the Federal Bureau of Investigation's criminal inquiry into Hillary Clinton's secret server:
Today's FBI findings are nothing short of a disaster for Hillary Clinton. This announcement was a damning indictment on Clinton's character, integrity, and her use of a secret email server. We now know that Hillary Clinton has repeatedly made false and misleading statements about sending and receiving classified materials. Director Comey's comments clearly reveal a pattern of criminal behavior with Clinton. Given this, and the fact the status of her security clearance is now in question, how can Hillary Clinton be president? While the FBI may not be bringing charges, I am confident that American voters will render a much different verdict this November.
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Monday, July 04, 2016
What's on the Council agenda July 5th: Killing an Affordable Housing Development and trampling property rights, getting in bed with the teachers union, more.
The Metro Council will meet Tuesday, July 5th at 6:30 PM.
To watch the Council meeting, you can go to
the courthouse and watch the meeting in person, if you are so inclined,
but unless you are trying to influence a Council member and think your
presence in the audience will exert an influence, I don't know why you
would want to. The chamber will probably be packed There are 40 bills on public hearing. Most bills on public hearing are request to rezone property and some of them are bound to be controversial, so a lot of people will show up to voice their opinion.
Meetings are broadcast live at Metro Nashville Network's Government TV on Nashville's Comcast Channel 3 and AT&T's U-verse 99 and are streamed live at the Metro Nashville Network's livestream site. You can catch them the next day on the Metro YouTube channel. If
you will wait, I will watch it for you and post the video and point out
the good parts so you can go to that point in the video and watch just
that segment. Also, I will tell you what I think about what happened.
Council meetings are really boring and I watch them so you don't have
to. If you are going to watch a council meeting, you really need the agenda and the Council staff analysis or you won't even have a clue about what is going on.
Here is my commentary and analysis of the agenda. I am only listing what
I think is interesting or important, so if you are really
interested in the details of what the Council does, you may want to read the agenda
for yourself. Also, be advised that I don't even try to understand all
zoning issues. Most zoning bills only concern a few nearby neighbors. If I think a zoning issue has wider implications than just one neighborhood, I will try to report on it or if I think it is particularly contentious, but otherwise you are on your own when it comes to zoning issues.
Confirmation of appointments to Boards and Commissions: There are
six positions on the agenda and I expect the Council to rubber stamp
them all as they always do.
Bills on Public Hearing. These are the ones I am watching.
BILL NO. BL2016-199 applies a Contextual Overlay District to 231.8 acres in Council member Hurt's District. A Contextual Overlay is a zoning tool that can be applied to residential neighborhoods. It applies design standards in order to maintain and reinforce established form or character of residential development in a particular area. It does not affect the base zoning of a property. It essentially keeps property owners from building something on their lot that is terribly our of character with the neighborhood. It addresses such things as Setback, Height, Lot Coverage, and Access, Garages, and Parking. There are several neighborhoods that have this designation.
BILL NO. BL2016-218 would allow Council members to initiate three zone changes a year without paying the required fee to the Planning Department usually associated with considering a zone change. Currently council members can do one. Most zone change request come from the owner of the property and the zone change is requested as part of a plan to develop the property, but there are occasions when a group of property owners may want a rezoning or a community may want a rezoning, that is not part of a planned development. Those instances should be rare and I don't know if this change to allow a council member to have three free rezonngs is justified or not, but it is not being opposed by the Planning Department.
BILL NO. BL2016-219 is the attempt to kill an affordable housing project and trample a person's private property rights by cancelling an approved Planned Unit Development and down zoning a persons property without their consent. This has been disapproved by the Planning Commission. If it passes the State of Tennessee has threatened to withhold future tax credits used to help finance affordable housing developments. For more on this story see this link and this and this.
BILL NO. BL2016-265 and BILL NO. BL2016-266 both make modest changes to the process for canceling a Planned Unit Development, making it easier to do so. These changes appear modest but I hope developers are paying attention. If I were serving on the Council, I would not opposed these bills unless I heard a good argument that they should be opposed. I hope developers are alerted.
BILL NO. BL2016-266 would amend the Mansion at Fontanel Specific Plan District. I am not going to try to explain or form an opinion on this, I just tagging it as potentially controversial. It is disapproved by the Planning Commission.
BILL NO. BL2016-293 in Scott Davis's district would rezone 54 acres, comprised of many parcels, from various current zonings to R6-A which is a medium density residential district. I oppose taking away a persons property rights and would not support this unless it had the approval of those whose properties are being rezoned. This is disapproved by the planning commission.
BILL NO. BL2016-298 also in Scott Davis's district would rezone 46 acres consisting of a bunch of properties from various current zonings to RM40-A which is a high density residential zoning allowing 40 units per acre. This has not been to the Planning Commission yet. I have the same concern as on the above bill. Is this away taking property rights?
Resolutions. There are 30 resolutions on the agenda, all on the Consent Agenda at this time. Most of them are routine things such as approving acceptance of grants or approving allowing sings to overhang the public sidewalk. If a resolution has any negative votes in committee it is taken off of consent. Also any council member may ask to have an item taken off of consent or to have his abstention or dissenting vote recorded. All items on consent are passed by a single vote instead of being voted on individually. Below are the Resolutions of interest.
SUBSTITUTE RESOLUTION NO. RS2016-270 request the civil service commission establish paid maternity and paternity leave for metro employees. I oppose this resolution. Metro employees are paid well and have generous benefits. They should not have benefits substantially better than the private sector or State government.Bills on First Reading. There are 22 bills on First Reading but I usually don't review bills on First Reading. First reading is a formality that gets bills on the agenda. They are not evaluated by committee until they are on Second Reading. All bills on First Reading are lumped together and pass by a single vote. It is almost considered bad manners to vote against a bill on First Reading. The following bill on First Reading, I would oppose.
RESOLUTION NO. RS2016-277 request that the Tennessee General Assembly and Gov. Bill Haslam communicate with Nashville’s business groups and community before passing legislation that could be detrimental to Nashville & Davidson County commerce. This is meaningless and if I were in the Council I would not bother voting against it. Since it is on consent, the sponsor will not be able to explain his bill and blast the Governor or State legislature for bills such as that that addressed freedom of conscience for metal health counselors or the bill that prohibited rental price fixing or the bill prohibited Metro from requiring contractors to discriminate against out of county residents in hiring on Metro projects. It is better to let this meaningless bill slide through rather than give the sponsor a platform.
RESOLUTION NO. RS2016-286 would approve an application for a Paid Leave Analysis Grant in the amount of $217,632 from the U.S.Department of Labor. If approved, the proceeds would be used to conduct a paid leave analysis study across the Metropolitan Nashville area. In my view we should not do this, however it is only approve an application for a grant for a study, so I am not sure it worth opposing. I think we should support families, but we should not expand benefits for metro employees who already have very generous benefits and never have to fear losing their job. Also, if we should have a paid maternity leave program, which I do not think we should, it should not apply to single mothers. We should not be encouraging illegitimate births.
RESOLUTION NO. RS2016-306 request that the Council approve the location of the Sheriff's new administrative offices before any funding is dispersed for the project. The location of the new jail has been a concern of the Council. Council members from Antioch fear it will be build in their community and do not want that to happen.
BILL NO. BL2016-133 would establish an inclusionary zoning ordinance which incentivize Inclusionary Housing with any residential development that seeks additional development entitlements beyond that permitted by the current base zoning district. This is not as bad as an earlier version but is still price-fixing and still a bad bill and may violate state law. A better affordable housing bill is going to be introduced by Council member Sheri Weiner. I do not think the council should try to force developers to build affordable housing and any effort to encourage it should be a grant program. The Weiner proposal is better than this bill. To learn more, read the Tennessean's Competing affordable housing plans to face off before Metro Council.
Bills on Second Reading. There are only seven and this is the only one of interest.
BILL NO. BL2016-257 would allow Codes to issue stop-work orders against illegal, non-permitted short-term rentals and increase the ban on an STR permit at such a property to three years. Now, if one is caught operating a short-term rental without a permit, the ban on getting a permit is one year. The Tennessean explains this at this link: Nashville may ramp up penalty for Airbnb permit violators.
Bills on Third Reading. There are 11 bills on Third Reading
SUBSTITUTE BILL NO. BL2016-234 would add “natural gas compressor stations” to a list of facilities regulated as a “major source” of air pollutants which require a local permit and would do some other things. This is part of an attempt to stop proposed natural gas compression stations planned for Joelton and Antioch. Federal law says that local government can not stop these developments and the Federal government has the right to permit them. However, there is a process whereby a local government may gain permitting authority and this is part of that process to gain that authority. It is differed to the first meeting in July.
BILL NO. BL2016-240 would establish new rules and fees for developers who close streets or sidewalks during construction. This is more complex than it sounds.This would attempt to fix what is a real problem.
BILL NO. BL2016-258 is what appears to be a sweetheart deal that would put Metro in bed with the state teachers union. It would sell the old Ben West library to the TEA and they would allow Metro to use the property rent-free for up to 12 days a year. The TEA would pay $2 million dollars for the property but Metro wold let them take ten years to pay it and they would not have to pay interest. The city put out a Request for Proposals which included a requirement that the building be preserved
BILL NO. BL2016-259 require that the Metropolitan Transit Authority, in conjunction with any other related entities, provide to the Metropolitan Council, no later than December 31, 2016, a comprehensive mass transit plan for Nashville and Davidson County. The plan is to identify a source of funding also.
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President Reagan's address to the Nation on Independence Day, July 4, 1986.
I wish we again had a president who loved this country, was not embarrassed to say so, who recognized and understood American exceptionalism, and respected our founding principles.
Happy July 4th.
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Sunday, July 03, 2016
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