Watching Romney win the debate at the GOP debate watch party

I watched the debate tonight at the Republican Party debate watch party at Three Stones Pub in Belleview. About 65 people filled the bar and watched TV on about six different screens. It was great to watch the debate in this setting with like minded people. People applauded and cheered as Romney scored points and hit Obama with zingers.

Kathleen Starnes, Chair DCRP,  being interviewed by News 2

Lonnie Spivak
Member of the DCRP Board
hosted the Party.

In my opinion, Romney knocked it out of the ball park. He had a mastery of the issues, he appeared calm and sure of himself and did not let Obama get away with distorting his position. Obama, on the other hand, appeared grumpy and defensive and mad and had trouble articulating a position.

I could not have been more pleased. I have not yet watched or read commentary so I don't know how professional journalist and spin artist saw it, but I thought Romney was by far the better debater and presented the more compelling

Brad Staats, 5th Congressional

District Candidate

arguments and vision for the future.

Beth and Bill Campbell, Larry Maxwell, and
Mark Rogers are among the debate watchers.

Mary Ann Parks and Charles Williamson
sit at the bar and watch the debate.
Charles is the Republican candidate for
State House in District 50.

My wife Louella and our friend Sue Duess
attend. Sue won one of the door prizes,
an "empty chair" campaign tee shirt.

The next debate party will be the vice presidential debate on Wednesday October 11and will be at the GOP Nashville office in Green Hills at 4801 Hillsboro Rd, formerly Wolf Camera, next to McDonalds. There will be finger food and wine for sure and maybe other beverages. This is a free event. Come watch the debate with people who share your values, wear your Romney-Ryan gear and cheer for our team.

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update: What's on the Council Agenda for Oct 2, 2012

You can get your own copy of the Metro council meeting agenda at this link: Metro Council Agenda.
From the agenda you can link to the analysis. Council meetings can be really, really boring if you don't know what the Council is voting on. With an agenda and an analysis, they are just really boring.

There are six zoning bills on public hearing but they should interest no one except those living in the vicinity.

There are eighteen resolutions on the consent agenda. There are no resolutions not on the consent agenda. Bills on the consent agenda are passed as a group unless someone objects to them being on the consent agenda. None of the resolutions appear controversial and I do not expect any to be pulled.

On introduction and first reading is  BILL NO. BL2012-266 (Claiborne, Todd), an ordinance pertaining to health insurance benefits for Members of Council after they leave office.  This bill will not be debated on Tuesday.  All bills pass first reading without discussion. After first reading the bill will be assigned to committee.

At last council meeting  the council passed ORDINANCE NO. BL2012-237 on second reading which amends the Metro Code to implement a number of the recommendations of the study and formulating committee pertaining to employee and retiree benefits and pensions. This ordinance basically curtails the benefits of employees going forward. It will be on third and final reading at this meeting.  This is a much needed bill.  Many cities are going broke due to excessively generous defined benefit plans.

An attempt was made by Councilman Clairborne to amend the bill at the Sept. 18th meeting so that going forward, former council members would not be eligible for the subsidized health insurance unless they had served 10 years and then they would pay the same rate as Metro retirees who had served 10 years. (To see the Council discussion of this issue follow this link, and go to 1:09:15 in the video.) 

Councilman Clairborne withdrew the amendment after several council members raised objections that the amendment had not been to committee. CM Claiborne promised to bring it back the issue as a separate bill. He is now doing so with BL2012-266..

Prior to term limits there were not that many former council members. The body was generally older and there was much less turn over in the body. With term limits there is a growing number of former members of the Metro Council and this benefit for former council members is very expensive. Claiborne's proposal should be adopted.

None of the bills on second reading appear controversial and I expect they will all pass by voice vote with little or no discussion. ORDINANCE NO. BL2012-261 is interesting because it deletes a lot of the code that is no longer enforced such as a bill requiring all pool halls to close at midnight and a section requiring movie projectionist to be licensed and a requirement for the inspection and permitting requirements for coin-operated or self-service dry cleaning establishments. Some of the provisions such as that dealing with dragging lumber in the street and electric street cars are really antiquated.

There are no controversial bills on third reading.

This should be a short council meeting.

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FiftyForward hosts District 50 candidates forum

Tomorrow afternoon, Bellevue's FiftyForward J. L. Turner Center will host a Meet the Candidates Forum for Tennessee House of Representatives District 50 beginning at 1 p.m. at the center, 8101 Highway 100. 

Please join candidates, Bo Mitchell (D) and Charles Williamson (R) as each discusses his candidacy and platform for the job. The Forum also will provide an opportunity to ask questions of each candidate prior to Election Day on Nov. 6. District 50 includes Bellevue, Goodlettsville, Joelton, Madison, Whites Creek and Scottsboro. Both men won their party primary election in August. For more information about the event, or to RSVP, please call Kristin Blackburn, FiftyForward program director at 646-9622.

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10/01/12 Council Budget & Finance Committee Meeting

The real work of the Metro Council takes place in committee meetings. The most important of the various committees is the Budget and Finance Committee. Follow this link to view the Oct. 1, B&F committee meeting. 10/01/12 Council Budget & Finance Committee Meeting

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State Senate Candidate Dickerson picks up endorsement from Nashville Business Coalition

Another Business Group Aligns Behind Dr. Dickerson

 

Steve Dickerson

NASHVILLE, TN. - Dr. Steve Dickerson, the Republican candidate for the State Senate in District 20, has announced today that his campaign has received the endorsement from the Nashville Business Coalition (NBC).

 “I am very pleased to announce that the Nashville Business Coalition has endorsed my campaign,” stated Dickerson. “Their endorsement is yet another testament to the importance of having a person with real small-business experience to serve in the State Senate, so they can serve as an advocate for business friendly policies for Tennessee.”

The Nashville Business Coalition has served, since 1999, as a pro-business political action committee that is dedicated to electing business-friendly candidates who have made the long term economic vitality of Nashville a priority. The NBC has a long history of only endorsing candidates who support economic development incentives, an overall reduction of burdensome regulations and the general support of free market principals.

“While the State is moving in the right direction, in regard to fostering a robust economy by removing burdensome regulations and red tape, we must continue to fight in order to create the best economic environment possible.” Dickerson continued, “Economic growth and job creation will be of top priority to me while serving in the State Senate, therefore I will be an advocate for implementing policies that will remove government regulations that hinder job growth.”

Steve Dickerson is a practicing physician and founding partner of Anesthesia Services Associates. Dickerson attended the University of the South in Sewanee graduating with a B.A. in History. He then received his medical degree at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University. Steve Dickerson has been married to his wife Katrina for 19 years and they have three sons, Reid, Evan, and Bennett.

For more information about the Steve Dickerson campaign or to schedule an interview with Dr. Dickerson contact: 615-519-1896 or visit www.votestevedickerson.com.

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Food Stamps for illegal immigrants

Not content with one in seven Americans being on food stamps, the Obama administration has been pushing to enroll illegal immigrants households in  the food stamp program. Illegal immigrants are not supposed to be eligible.  However, if there is an American in the household, such as an infant born in America, the infant would be eligible and the parents could make application. 

With a safety net for illegal immigrants we should not expect too much self deportation in these hard economic times.
  
Obama USDA met 30 times with Mexican gov’t to promote food-stamp use among Mexican immigrants 

Department of Agriculture personnel in the Obama administration have met with Mexican Government officials dozens of times since the president took office to promote nutrition assistance programs — notably food stamps — among Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals and migrant communities in America.

Writing in response to Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions’ July request for information about the USDA’s little known partnership with the Mexican government to educate citizen and noncitizen immigrants from Mexico about the availability of food stamps and other nutrition assistance programs, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack defended the partnership as a way to curb hunger in America — and the continuation of a program formed under the Bush administration in 2004.(read more)

USDA uses Spanish soap operas to push food stamps among non-citizens, citizens

The government has been targeting Spanish speakers with radio “novelas” promoting food stamp usage as part of a stated mission to increase participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps.

Each novela, comprising a 10-part series called “PARQUE ALEGRIA,” or “HAPPINESS PARK,” presents a semi-dramatic scenario involving characters convincing others to get on food stamps, or explaining how much healthier it is to be on food stamps. (read more)

Senator says food stamp partnership with Mexico 'pressuring' immigrants to enroll

The Mexican government has been distributing information about the U.S. food stamp program through its embassy and dozens of consular offices, a partnership that one Republican senator says is the latest example of an "aggressive" push to "expand enrollment regardless of need." (read more)

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Help win OHIO, Send Postcards from home, Debate Watch Party

From:

You can HELP win the VERY important swing State of OHIO by

Sending postcards from Home. 

Simply send an email to

 postcards@nashvilleteaparty.com 

and we will send you the names of OHIO swing voters and simple instructions. Personalized postcards have proven to be a VERY successful way to influence swing voters.

 Also, Please Join us for the 

Debate Watch Party 

Wed Oct 3 at 7PM 

At the Rein Seminar Room near Opryland. 

Click on this link for a MAP
We will work on OHIO postcards together and watch the first debate. Location: Real Estate Investors of Nashville 2416 Music Valley Drive, Suite 151

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Vets Angry - Obama Flag replaced American Flag

I am not a conspiracy theorist and I don't believe Obama is the anti-Christ and doubt that he plans to turn American into a Maoist style dictatorship, but the policies of expanding  government control and promotion of class envy combined with the extreme adoration many have of him and the effort of his supporters to transfer loyalty from America to the leader smacks of fascism.  It is down right creepy.

An American flag with President Obama's image in place of the stars flew over a Florida county's Democrat headquarters long enough to enrage local veterans who called the altered banner "a disgrace."

Lake County Democratic Party officials took down the flag, which flew just below a standard Old Glory on the flagpole outside headquarters in Tavares following complaints by local veterans. But merely taking it down wasn't enough for several local veterans, who said they fought for the flag Betsy Ross made famous, not one with a politician on it.

 "It's absolutely disrespectful," Jim Bradford, a 71-year-old veteran who participated in the Bay of Pigs Invasion said. "It's totally ridiculous. To put somebody's picture there, to me, it's a disgrace to do that."

Bradford, an organizer with the Veterans Memorial at Fountain Park in Leesburg, Florida, snapped photos of the flag and distributed them to fellow veterans and friends. By late afternoon, he and several other veterans delivered a copy of the federal flag code to Nancy Hurlbert, chairwoman of the Lake County Democratic Party.

 "We read that to her, but she would not accept that," Bradford said. "The discussion finally got a little bit heated."

The flag, which had been flying for several months without complaint and is available online for $12.95, was later removed by Hurlbert. Bradford said Hurlbert apologized for the incident, but did not offer any promises that it wouldn't fly again.

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Mike Turner again plays the same ole race card, TNGOP demands apology.

NASHVILLE, TN, TNGOP – Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Chris Devaney demanded an apology from House Democrat Caucus Chairman Mike Turner for echoing an identical claim he made two years ago, saying racism is the reason for Tennessee voters’ opposition to President Obama. 

Turner’s comments came at the Tennessee Democrats’ state executive committee meeting on Saturday. Turner said, “We’ve got a president up here whose color is not the right shade according to a lot of people, and they just hate him for that reason…I was talking to a guy this morning at a filling station and it didn’t matter what Obama did, he’s not going to like it because Obama’s an African-American. I told him, I said, ‘Look, he’s half white. You ought to like half of him anyway.’ These people are dead set against him for that reason, and that’s unfortunate. That’s very unfortunate.”

According to the Nashville Scene’s Jeff Woods, the “half white” comment drew nervous laughter among the Democrats’ committee. 

“This is not the first time that Mike Turner has said something absurd, but this crosses the line,” said Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Chris Devaney.

Turner made similar allegations of racism against Tennessee voters back in March of 2010, saying, “All of a sudden, we have a black man elected president and everybody wants to start acting like something’s wrong with our country.”

Turner’s comments two years ago prompted Devaney to send a letter to Tennessee Democrat Party Chairman Chip Forrester, asking him to condemn Turner’s comments at the time. A response was never received.

“Aside from his own racially-insensitive joke about President Obama, for Mike Turner to once again accuse Tennessee voters for not embracing the President’s failed economic policies because of racism is nothing short of outrageous,” said Devaney.

“Tennesseans overwhelmingly reject this President based solely on his failed policies that have led us to more spending, higher debt, and 23 million Americans still struggling to find work. Saying that Tennesseans’ objection to the President is because of racism is a slap in the face to the integrity and morality of voters, and Mike Turner should be ashamed.

“As I did two years ago, I, once again, demand that Mike Turner immediately apologize for his irresponsible joke and outrageous claim about Tennessee voters.  And I, once again, also call on the Democrat Party to publicly condemn Mike Turner’s comments,” concluded Devaney.

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Oct. 8th Bean Supper to Support Charles Williamson

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