The Sumner County Democratic party asks for the immediate resignation of Senator Diane Black’s Executive Assistant, Sherry Goforth, who recently admitted to sending a racist email from her state provided email address to the “wrong list of recipients.â€
In addition, we require full accountability from Senator Diane Black, our elected official, for the following questions:
Since her assistant’s half-hearted apology for this outrageous act was to claim to have sent the email to the “wrong list,” who is on the “right list?”
Is it acceptable practice in the Tennessee Legislature for Republican law-makers or their staff to engage in racist and dishonorable activities as long as they keep it among themselves?
And lastly, how will Senator Black’s constituents, yes even those of color, even those of another political affiliation, know that their concerns are being heard when the very gate-keeper of their Senator’s office finds a picture of the President of the United States represented as a “spook” to be so humorous that it should be forwarded by email to her colleagues and associates?
Senator Diane Black should address these questions quickly and publically if she is to restore the confidence that We the People have lost in her. And unless she demands her Executive Assistant’s resignation, we will know her words are hollow.
We invite the Sumner County Republican Party to join us in condemning this sort of bigotry and stereo-typing that so frequently flies under the cover of humor, yet damages our communities, our economic prosperity, and our American Spirit.
Who is on the “right list,” indeed. We’re looking forward to a response from Senator Black’s office. And considering the national news has picked up on the story, not sure if the “if we ignore it, it will go away” strategy will work for much longer.
Next, an editorial from the Jackson Sun wants to know why, in these hard economic times, Tennessee Senate Republicans proposed to remove funding for job creation in Haywood County:
Although we’re relieved that state officials have said the funding for the megasite will be found, we’re dismayed at the blatant political posturing displayed by Senate Republicans, who apparently would rather play political games than finish developing the site, which is crucial to West Tennessee’s future.
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What Senate Republicans apparently fail to understand is that this is the only and best opportunity for a project of this size in Tennessee. What they apparently don’t understand is that the Haywood megasite is crucial to the future economic development of the region. Once the site is ready, it holds the potential to attract industries that could bring thousands of jobs and millions of new tax dollars to West Tennessee.
And that’s not all. Once industries start coming to Haywood County, the domino effect could be huge. Or maybe they do understand, and they would rather try to one-up Bredesen.
We are left to wonder whether the political power brokers of Middle and East Tennessee care about what happens in West Tennessee.
What we also find distressing is the absence of action by state Sen. Dolores Gresham, R-Somerville. She did not make herself available on Thursday to discuss the site, which is practically in her back yard. Perhaps she fails to realize the importance of the matter. When she met with The Jackson Sun’s editorial board last year, she showed an appalling lack of knowledge about the project. That is unacceptable, especially from someone who had been in the House as long as Gresham.
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Senate Republicans owe us an explanation for their actions. We deserve to know why they’re seeking to de-fund such an important project. Unfortunately, we think we know the answer.
With a week to go this session (maybe), the strange priorities of Tennessee Republicans are coming through loud and clear.
Next, a scathing editorial from the Memphis Commercial Appeal. What do the state’s Republicans do with complete control of the General Assembly for the first time in over a century? They sulk and push through “wrong-headed legislation” that does nothing to ease the economic or social problems that plague the state:
When there was a show of [Republican] unity, it involved wrong-headed legislation to allow holders of handgun carry permits to take their weapons into places that serve alcohol and into local and state parks.
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On the ethics front, GOP Rep. Curry Todd of Collierville proposes to do away with independent oversight of lawmakers, charging that pressure from the media led to creation of the Tennessee Ethics Commission in 2006 following the Tennessee Waltz corruption scandal. Curry and others want the ethics commission to merge with the Registry of Election Finance.
As for the judicial selection question, many hard-line conservative Republicans seem intent on requiring state Supreme Court justices and other appellate judges to run in contested elections. Their apparent aim is to get rid of any appellate judges who issue rulings they don’t like.
Meanwhile, worthwhile projects such as a proposed five-megawatt solar generation plant in Haywood County and a companion solar research institute for the University of Tennessee at Knoxville appear in jeopardy as Republican legislators seek to trim the state budget.
That and other cuts in social programs totaling about $12 million prompted Bredesen last week to call the proposed GOP cuts “stupid.”
Stay tuned, taxpayers, because unfortunately there’s more to come.
First, straight talk from Frank Rich (“The Obama Haters’ Silent Enablers“), about what happens when “legitimate ideological beefs” with President Obama are drowned out by the “rhetoric of purgation and annihilation:”
The question, Shepard Smith said on Fox last week, is “if there is really a way to put a hold on” those who might run amok. We’re not about to repeal the First or Second Amendments. Hard-core haters resolutely dismiss any “mainstream media” debunking of their conspiracy theories. The only voices that might penetrate their alternative reality — I emphasize might — belong to conservative leaders with the guts and clout to step up as McCain did last fall. Where are they? The genteel public debate in right-leaning intellectual circles about the conservative movement’s future will be buried by history if these insistent alarms are met with silence.
It’s typical of this dereliction of responsibility that when the Department of Homeland Security released a plausible (and, tragically, prescient) report about far-right domestic terrorism two months ago, the conservative response was to trash it as “the height of insult,” in the words of the G.O.P. chairman Michael Steele. But as Smith also said last week, Homeland Security was “warning us for a reason.”
No matter. Last week it was business as usual, as Republican leaders nattered ad infinitum over the juvenile rivalry of Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich at the party’s big Washington fund-raiser. Few if any mentioned, let alone questioned, the ominous script delivered by the actor Jon Voight with the G.O.P. imprimatur at that same event. Voight’s devout wish was to “bring an end to this false prophet Obama.â€
This kind of rhetoric, with its pseudo-Scriptural call to action, is toxic. It is getting louder each day of the Obama presidency. No one, not even Fox News viewers, can say they weren’t warned.
Don’t read the rest at night, it’s nighsweat/insomnia inducing.
I know, I know, the U.S. is not Iran. Which is good because if we used paper ballots like they do, we would count every ballot and count them all correctly – especially if we all did our part to be vigilant in election monitoring.
Or do you prefer the system we have now using electronic voting machines without a paper ballot in which we have no earthly idea if our votes are being counted at all let alone counted as cast?
This scene from Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections, illustrates all that is wrong with elections without paper:
Rep. Joshuah Evans (R-Greenbrier) jumps on the “let’s not count every vote” bandwagon and tweets about as much misinformation in 140 characters as Rep. Debra Maggart did in hundreds. Memo to Rep. Evans:
1) 49 other states and two counties in Tennessee are using optical scan machines certified to 2002 standards without incident. The paperless electronic voting machines we use suck and we’re one of the only states left that are using them.
2) The intent of the TN Voter Confidence Act is to make paper ballots the ballot of record so we do not have to rely on machines of any kind.
3) Studies (pdf) show that switching to paper ballots from the paperless electronic voting machines reduces election costs by 35-40%.
4) If there were to be a close election in 2010 in, say, District 66, and a recount was necessary, the paperless electronic voting machines we use now have no mechanism in place to give any kind of meaningful recount – all you could get is the same tally over and over again.
5) Please ask State Election Coordinator Mark Goins if he can show you proof that one vote using paperless electronic voting machines was cast or counted correctly. FYI, he cannot because the software used to tally votes in the paperless electronic voting machines we use now is proprietary – in other words, the manufacturers keep it secret and we’re not allowed to look.
6) The money to buy the new optical scan machines is federal money we already have (it’s left over from the funds we received to implement the Help America Vote Act) that can only be used to buy equipment to conduct elections. Just what money would we be wasting?
7) Do you really want to put a price tag on secure and verifiable elections? (see #4).
I received an email recently from a friend who contacted Rep. Debra Maggart (R-Hendersonville) about the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act, which was supported almost unanimously in the House and Senate and signed by an enthusiastic Governor Bredesen in 2008 and would have given Tennessee voter the three things which are almost universally accepted as ways to ensure fair elections – paper ballots, a meaningful recount mechanism, and an automatic audit process.
When my friend wrote to Rep. Maggart in March, he urged her to keep the Voter Confidence Act intact and on track for implementation for the 2010 election. When she wrote back to him in June to explain why she supported delaying implementation until 2012, she had a story to tell:
Thank you for emailing me about the verifiable ballots. I have always supported this legislation and I also sponsored a similar bill before the one we are discussing passed.
Fighting for the integrity of the ballot box is one of the cornerstones of my career as a state legislator as I have sponsored for years the voter photo ID bill and several pieces of legislation about the voting and registration process.
Unfortunately, we have since learned of the enormous costs to the counties to implement this procedure. I have attached the estimated 2010 costs to Sumner County for you to review. Sumner County will have between 97 and 100 different configurations of the ballot because we have so many different elections. Sumner County has city elections, property rights city elections, eleven school board seats, the county commission, the county constitutional officers, and the state and federal elections. We also call for county primaries. Many of our counties face similar circumstances and costs.
For example, the Gene Brown precinct would have six different ballots available. Storage is also an issue, because these types of ballots that are scanned by each voter must be kept before and after the election in a climate controlled area. If these ballots get either too hot or too cold, they cannot be properly scanned through the scanner. This would be an Election Day nightmare if the voters showed up to vote and the paper ballots were unable to be fed through the scanners in each precinct.
Not really. No. If we make the switch to paper ballots and the paper could not be fed through the machines (or if there’s a power failure or machine breakdown or if we needed a recount), the ballots could still be counted – by hand. That’s the whole point. In other words, the new paper ballot system should make Rep. Maggart feel more secure if her “nightmare” scenario were to occur.
The real voting nightmare is what we have now – paperless electronic voting machines in which there is no mechanism for a meaningful recount and no way of knowing if any ballot cast using these paperless machines has ever been cast or counted correctly.
Also attached to her email was a spreadsheet detailing the estimated costs for conducting a paper ballot election in Sumner County. But another spreadsheet from the Secretary of State’s office shows enormous differences (pdf) in estimates from other Tennessee counties.
For instance, the storage of ballots in Sumner County would cost $7,152.00. But Houston County estimates it would cost $50.00 and Cocke County estimates $203.00. Campbell County estimates that it would cost $70,000.
As of today, there has been no explanation for the disparity in the numbers from any legislator or the State Election Coordinator, Mark Goins. And while they contend that it would be more expensive to change to a system of paper ballots, studies in North Carolina, Maryland and Florida have shown that voting with paper ballots (counted by optical scan machines) is 30-40% less expensive than voting on paperless electronic voting machines like the ones we use now in Tennessee.
The Senate version of the bill that would delay implementation of paper ballots until 2012 will probably be heard on the Senate floor next week. The House version will be heard in the House Finance, Ways & Means committee on Monday.
On May 13, Governor Bredesen introduced the Volunteer State Solar Initiative, a solar-energy development program that would use approximately $62.5 million in federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to create jobs and explore renewable-power production in Tennessee.
Joining him that day for the photo op were key legislators, including Republican Senators Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge), Tim Burchett, and Delores Gresham. Don’t they look nice?
But today was a new day in which Senate Republicans, led by McNally, called for the rejection of the stimulus money, a rejection of the innovative solar project, and a rejection of the jobs it would create.
WPLN Capitol Hill correspondent, Joe White, asked a significant question during a press conference held by Senate Democrats to protest Republican cuts to the budget: “Will every Senate Democrat vote against the cuts?” Senator Roy Herron (D-Dresden, the Fightin’ 24th!) answered, “Yes, I think Senate Democrats will be united on this.”
And it seems as if that’s the direction we’re heading according to Jeff Woods of the Nashville Scene, who reported that Democrats on the Hill did not back away from the Governor’s characterization of the cuts as “stupid”:
Gov. Phil Bredesen bluntly disparaged the Senate Republican budget proposal as “stupid” at a breakfast meeting with legislative leaders today, and Senate Democrats then trooped en masse into the press room here to heap more scorn on it.
“The governor’s characterization is very fair,” Sen. Lowe Finney said. “I heard him say that,” Sen. Jim Kyle said. “I agree with the governor.”
And all Democrats should be united against the proposed cuts because they take an axe to the very foundation of what Democrats stand for – education, health care, and jobs.
“Some of these cuts are personal. The House spent two months talking about abortion this year, and now we’ve got a budget cut to eliminate the infant mortality money. That borders on being hypocritical as to what you believe in, whether you are pro-family or pro-life. It’s a study on infant mortality. It’s a study on how to keep these babies alive. I’ve got zip codes in my hometown with infant mortality rates of Third World countries. We’ve got to figure out how to stop that and we don’t need to wait until we’ve got a budget surplus to do it.â€
A pattern of debating and introducing debunked accusations, unnecessary legislation, and frivolous resolutions would make any outside observer think Tennessee’s Republican State legislators live in a place where there’s nothing better to do.
First, GOP House members clamor to jump on the “I-will-not-accept-that-he-won-let-me-see-his-birth-certificate” train to Kooktown. Then, instead of focusing on our failing schools, high unemployment, and inadequate health care, they introduce unnecessary gun bill after unnecessary gun bill (did anyone catch Senator Mae Beavers on Glenn Beck’s TV show?). And then there’s HJR108 by Rep. Susan Lynn which “Urges Congress to recognize Tennessee’s sovereignty under the tenth amendment to the Constitution.”
So what’s next, you ask? Well, in the midst of a budget crisis and severe unemployment throughout the state, the Senate Finance, Ways and Means committee will take up HJR0369, introduced by Rep. Mike Bell (R-Riceville) and carried in the Senate by Sen. Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville), which “Urges United States Senate to reject ratification of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
Behind this inconsequential, time-consuming fight is Bobbie Patray, state president of the Tennessee Eagle Forum, who has very specific reasons why this “urgent” resolution needs our lawmakers’ attention – and none have anything to do with, you know, actually fixing the many problems we face as a state.
“First,” a posting on their website states, “ANY United Nations treaty is suspect on its face.” Don’t ask why because if you don’t already know then you’re probably not from around here. And second, “The United Nations has no business telling parents how to raise their children.”
Which makes one wonder, why can’t Bobbie Patray read? And why does she insist on wasting our time?
Senator Burchett said in yesterday’s Finance, Ways, & Means committee meeting that he is carrying the bill to protect parental decision-making rights on education. The evil U.N. and it’s nasty Convention on the Rights of the Child, says Sen. Burchett, would remove a parent’s right to make decisions regarding the education of their children:
Senator Burchett:Basically, what that did was it took away a lot of the powers of parents, in my opinion, and intruded into a lot of different areas of their life. The part that caught my eye was – I’m sure most of you all know about Article 29 of this piece of legislation. I’m just kidding, I know you don’t. But it limits the rights of parents and others to educate children in private schools. It also…it takes away the parental rights we have in this country. I think it’s, in my opinion it’s really an attempt by the United Nations to bring our children under universal control and it creates more of an, well, in my opinion a one-world government situation and I urge for its passage.
“Article 29!,” is Sen. Burchett and Patray’s rallying cry, as if either one of them has committed the demon statute to memory.
Article 29 does address the education of children. It states:
1. States Parties agree that the education of the child shall be directed to:
(a) The development of the child’s personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential;
(b) The development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and for the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations;
(c) The development of respect for the child’s parents, his or her own cultural identity, language and values, for the national values of the country in which the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate, and for civilizations different from his or her own;
(d) The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of
understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin;
(e) The development of respect for the natural environment.
Oh horror! The U.N. wants children all over the world to reach their fullest potential! How dare they encourage in children a healthy respect for rights, freedoms, and…their parents! Tolerance? Bah! Equality? Who needs it! And what’s with section (e)? Who do they think we’re raising here, a generation planet-respecting young people?
As ridiculous as opposition to this document is, what’s worse is the intellectual dishonesty when presenting their case. Because while they are riling up State Legislators with cries of “State’s rights!” and “One World Government!”, they’ve – oopsie – left out a very significant section of Article 29:
2. No part of the present article or article 28 shall be construed so as to interfere with the liberty of individuals and bodies to establish and direct educational institutions, subject always to the observance of the principles set forth in paragraph 1 of the present article and to the requirements that the education given in such institutions shall conform to such minimum standards as may be laid down by the State.
Can we please ignore Ms. Patray and her unnecessary battle and get back to a fight for Tennessee families that is worth fighting for – our failing schools, our shameful infant mortality rate, and rapidly expanding unemployment?
HJR0369 will be heard in the Senate Finance Ways and Means committee again today, Wednesday, June 11, at 3:00 PM.
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