TennWatch/Volitics

Taxes for Porn

The taxpayers of Tennessee should be outraged to discover that $34,500 of their money is being spent to subsidize the 37th annual Nashville Film Festival.

And while some may get angry at taxpayer money being used for sexually explicit films (like "Hung", in which lesbian friends experiment with penises), the real issue is why taxpayer money is being used at all. Drew Johnson, of the Tennessee Center For Policy Research, absolutely nails it with:

Films considered by some to be sexually explicit or otherwise objectionable garner greater public outrage for being shown at a taxpayer-supported film festival. Yet all taxpayers should be incensed that their tax money is spent to support art of any kind.

Government funding of the arts is inconsistent with a free society. Art—like all other goods and services—should exist in a market environment. If art is of value to a society, people will buy it, listen to it, watch it and enjoy it. It should not be a role of government to tax individuals to support art.

Eliminating government funding of the arts means that taxpayers would have more money to attend films that they personally choose to support. Instead, the state forces taxpayers to support films like Brothers of the Head, a mockumentary about Siamese twin glam rockers. This just goes to prove that the state government has no business spending our money on most of the things they spend it on.

Precisely.

Technorati Tags: Government Pork, Government Waste, Abusing the Taxpayer, Tennessee Politics, Film Industry.

Lottery Scholarships Missing the Mark

The citizens of Tennessee voted for a lottery to help the children, but they didn't know it would be the children that needed it least:

Students from high-income families benefit more from Tennessee's lottery scholarship program, according to a newspaper analysis of lottery records.

In Hamilton County, for example, the average student with a lottery scholarship comes from a family that makes $71,980 a year, compared with the $38,930 median household income the U.S. Census Bureau reports for the county.

The trend is common in nearly every part of the state, according to a report by The Chattanooga Times Free Press, which looked at 2005 state lottery data.

The program gives an additional $1,500 to low-income recipients who qualify, it's just the "qualify" part that's the problem. How many kids from low-income families are going to make a 3.0 GPA or a 21 on the ACT?

It's the families where the parents have college degrees that make certain that their kids do well in school. The families struggling to get by are sending their kids to a school that is struggling to control gang activity. Only the most incredibly exceptional kids are going to do well in that environment.

You can't ignore these kids for 12 years and then expect them to perform with the promise of money if they can pass a test! We need to get our priorities straight.

Technorati Tags: Education, Lottery, Scholarships, Tennessee Politics, Failing Our Future Generations.

Memphis Utility Funding Minority Causes

Memphis Light Gas and Water has subsidized the National Conference of Black Mayors, the Minority Business Council, the Black Business directory, the Freedom Awards and the Latino Memphis Fiesta to the tune of "close to a quarter million dollars".

Don't you just love being in the grip of a government monopoly? No wonder my utility bill keeps going up.

HT to reader Patriot Pat.

Technorati Tags: Memphis Light Gas and Water, MLGW.

Funding TennCare Lite

Gov. Phil Bredesen wants to use $100 million from the TennCare account to fund the first three years of his CoverTN program. This will only be enough if Tennessee Justice Center litigation is kept in check and enrollment doesn't explode.

Of course, Democrats have contingency plans: State Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz said the state could:

1. Raise the cigarette tax (which as everyone knows is a tax on the poor — how compassionate!)
2. Adjust budget priorities (has Democrats ever shut down one social program to fund another? I don't think so.)
3. Shut down the CoverTN program (a little like putting the genie back in the bottle, isn't it? Even if Bredesen retires and can take the political failure, Democrats won't stand for getting a black eye over this one.)

Jim Bryson (R), state Senator and likely gubernatorial candidate this fall, is a vocal critic:

"The reality is that this is the administration's plan, and they ought to have a way to fund the plan," said Bryson, R-Franklin. "And they don't, other than enacting a tax."

"I generally don't like increasing any taxes," he said.

Other lawmakers wondered whether the plan would better be tweaked to include more coverage for catastrophic events, and whether the working poor would be willing to pay even a $50 monthly premium.

Exactly. But what do the Dems think?

Because the Cover Tennessee plan would be run by the state, it would be guaranteed to avoid the cost overruns experienced by TennCare, Goetz said.

Did you catch that? Here it is again:

Because the Cover Tennessee plan would be run by the state, it would be guaranteed to avoid the cost overruns...

The single most disingenuous statement ever uttered by a politician. But wait, there's more!

The Tennessee Health Care Campaign organized a press conference in which desperately ill citizens who had been thrown off of the TennCare rolls described their plight, just a few of the 67,000 citizens with pre-existing conditions that are no longer covered because of Bredesen's actions, and who will not be covered under Bredesen's new plan. The administration's response?

"We don't believe they gave a full accounting of their situation," said Goetz.

Goetz said he couldn't elaborate on which aspects are allegedly incomplete without obtaining a signed release from the former TennCare enrollees.

Typical smear tactic. Trust the politicians, it's the sick people that are lying!

Of course, Bredesen's plan will cover 10,000 "high risk" individuals, all of 1 in 7. I wonder who decides which will be among the privileged few?

More at The Bryson for Governor Blog.

Technorati Tags: Tennessee Healthcare, Tennessee Politics, TennCare, Phil Bredesen, Cover Tennessee, CoverTN, Tennessee Justice Center, Tennessee Health Care Campaign, Jim Bryson, Socialized Medicine.

Cover Tennessee — With What?

As TennCare was bankrupting the state, Dem. Gov. Bredesen cut the rolls and now more than a half million Tennesseans are without any health insurance. To fix it, he has proposed a program called Cover Tennessee. It consists of three major initiatives:

1. CoverTN: A "partnership between the state and small businesses to help working Tennesseans buy affordable health insurance", according to the (Democrat) party line. The state, employer and individual all kick in about $50 a month each to pay for the plan. If the employer doesn't want to play, the individual can cover it with another $50.

   Bredesen claims that CoverTN will not require high deductibles on the front end, only modest co-pays - about $25 for a doctor's visit and $10 for a generic prescription. Workers will be able to transport their coverage between jobs. "Initially, the focus will be on workers earning $24,000 a year or less and small businesses such as restaurants, retail shops and landscaping firms. It could be expanded to allow broader participation."

2. CoverKids: The state pays for health insurance for uninsured children in homes with incomes up to $50,000 a year for a family of four. Families with higher incomes will be allowed to buy into the plan.
3. AccessTN: Provides health insurance to adults who can afford health insurance, but can't get it because of pre-existing medical conditions. This will be limited to a pool of 10,000 people and the state will cover the costs.

The Executive Director of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign is borderline-outraged, publishing a disparaging point-by-point analysis of the CoverTN proposal, beginning with:

The governor's health care reform is going through its full election cycle. Before his election, he promised to reform TennCare. After his election, he successfully cut off the sickest and most expensive people and is now proposing to replace those people with younger and healthier people. This is the dream of any insurance company: Cover young, healthy adults and children and let older and sicker adults fend for themselves. It is also the dream of any politician: Expand coverage during an election year.

GOP lawmakers, too, are somewhat skeptical because the program does not address the shortcomings of the current TennCare program.

TennCare costs billions to provide health care to over a million Tennesseans, mainly because since its inception the Nashville-based advocate group Tennessee Justice Center has filed lawsuit after lawsuit challenging every aspect of the program, expanding it to the point where bureaucracy wasted millions of dollars and fraud robbed millions of dollars from the working class. GOP lawmakers want to make certain this won't happen again:

"We have to be able to be sure we can manage this program in a fiscally responsible way," Mumpower, R-Bristol, said of Cover Tennessee. "If we pass this program, I want to be sure it is lawsuit-proof, where the Tennessee Justice Center can't run the program the way it did with TennCare. I want to make sure we don't overcommit ourselves financially and it be a runaway spender like the TennCare program has. ... I don't want to be looking back in 10 years and have helped create another TennCare."

GOP Rep. Davis has similar concerns:

"I don't think the people of Tennessee are striving for universal health care. ... There are some governors across the nation who think that needs to take place," said Davis, who is a candidate for the 1st Congressional District seat being vacated by incumbent William L. "Bill" Jenkins. "If you look back 12 years ago when another president (Bill Clinton) and another first lady (Hillary Clinton) tried to push universal health care, there was a hue and cry that we didn't want that."

Mumpower added: "TennCare was a prime example that universal health care doesn't work. ... When you start to give away everything for free, people will take advantage of as much as they can get whether they need it or not."

Both Mumpower and Davis offered solutions of their own, a more pro-business approach:

... Davis said small businesses should be allowed to participate in large insurance pools, while Mumpower suggested small businesses should be given tax incentives to offer their employees health insurance.

But in a stunning admission of pre-failure, Bredesen has already suggested that the program may be more expensive than initial projections indicate; perhaps so expensive that he would have to call the General Assembly into special session in order to pay for it:

A plan to provide health care for the working poor, children and people who cannot get insurance elsewhere, unveiled Monday by Gov. Phil Bredesen, could become more expansive - and expensive - if more people than expected want to join the plan, the governor told The Tennessean yesterday.

Bredesen indicated he would be hesitant to turn people away from the program, called Cover Tennessee, which is expected to insure 185,000 Tennesseans over the next three years at a cost of $190 million.

But if there is a flood of uninsured people wanting to sign up, Bredesen said he might call the General Assembly back into session to provide funding beyond what he has earmarked.

And that's the problem. Bredesen says that he wants to start slow, but if people want in the program it won't be long before the Tennessee Justice Center is in court forcing the state to expand the program, and then it's a hop, skip and a jump to another bloated TennCare.

Technorati Tags: Tennessee Healthcare, Tennessee+Politics, TennCare, Phil Bredesen, Cover Tennessee, CoverTN, CoverKids, AccessTN, Tennessee Justice Center, Jason Mumpower, David Davis, Socialized Medicine.

Knoxville Candidate Assasination Attempt

Knoxville City Councilman Steve Hall (R) is running for Knox County mayor against incumbent Mayor Mike Ragsdale (R). Last night someone either tried to assasinate him or tried to scare him out of the race:

As he prepared to enter his office, he heard someone say, "Mr. Mayor," DeBusk said.

"Mr. Hall said he turned around and saw a shadow of a subject standing at the edge of his building," he said. "The subject fired two shots at him and fled in an unknown direction."

"It was very dark," Hall told WBIR, Channel 10. "It wasn't a voice I've ever heard before or I'd recognize."

Hat tip to VOLuntarily Conservative, who had forewarning.

And I thought Memphis politics were dirty.

Technorati Tags: Tennessee Politics, Knox County Politics, Steve Hall.

Pride

It's pictures like these that make me proud to be an American. Sure looks fun.

HT to Say Uncle, who is employed again for a bit.

Scholastic Shooting Explodes in Memphis

Who would'a thunk it? A good school program expanding as the number of school shooting teams in Memphis triples this year:

Last season, only Memphis University School and Houston High School had trap shooting clubs.

That changed when Shelby County School Board member Ron Lollar heard about the 400 scholarships set aside by the Tennessee Wildlife Federation for Tennessee high school trap team members across the state.

Lollar and County Schools Supt. Bobby Webb gathered interested coaches and sponsors to form four more teams from Arlington, Bolton, Germantown and Briarcrest high schools. To join, students must maintain a "C" average, cannot misbehave and must complete a Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency hunter's safety course.

I always liked Ron Lollar.

And who would'a thunk it? The Commercial Appeal prints a story about kids with guns and doesn't descend into left-wing nut-bag ranting, not even a little.

Technorati Tags: Scholastic Shooting, Education, Second Amendment, Memphis, Tennessee, Shelby County.

Memphis Murder Rate Skyrockets

Action News 5 reports that there have been 51 murders in Memphis so far this year. This time last year there had been only 37, a 35% increase.

Update: Just ten minutes into the newscast and a breaking story comes across reporting the 52^nd murder of the year.

Technorati Tags: Memphis, Crime, Murder Rate.

English-only Drivers Test

This is why we need a national language:

A bill that would force people to take the Tennessee state driver's license exam in English would make the state vulnerable to a lawsuit if it becomes law, some groups said.

"It comes down to discrimination," said Janice Snow Rodriguez, executive director of the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute. ...

In other words, if confronted with a lawsuit, the state would have to prove with numbers that drivers who do not speak English get in more accidents.

Where does it stop? We have people from dozens of countries living and working in Tennessee. Some would have us print every government form in every conceivable language, and make every government service available in the language of choice.

This is America. If you go to all the trouble to uproot yourself and probably your family, learn the language. Millions of immigrants have done so.

Technorati Tags: Tennessee, Drivers+License, National Language.

Who Are the "Naifeh Nine"?

In January of 2005, nine Republicans abandoned their party and voted for Democrat tyrant Jimmie Naifeh for House Speaker. These have since come to be known as the infamous "Naifeh Nine". For the record they are:

• Michael Harrison of Treadway
• Russell Johnson, Loudon
• Joe McCord, Maryville
• Steve McDaniel, Parkers Crossroads
• Bob McKee, Athens
• Richard Montgomery, Seymour
• Chris Newton, Benton
• Doug Overbey, Maryville
• Dennis Roach, Rutledge

Technorati Tags: Naifeh Nine, Michael Harrison, Russell Johnson, Joe McCord, Steve McDaniel, Bob McKee, Richard Montgomery, Chris Newton, Doug Overbey, Dennis Roach.

Rep. Brian Kelsey

Tennessee State Representative Brian Kelsey (R-Dist.83, Germantown/Memphis) spoke to the Shelby County chapter of the Tennessee Firearms Association tonight.

The most interesting thing about talking to Republican state reps is reading between the lines of what they say about their experiences. If you pay attention you soon get a picture of how things work: if you don't make Speaker Naifeh mad then you may get your legislation passed, but if you cross him he will make certain that your legislation never sees the light of day on the House floor.

Naifeh is a petty tyrant with no regard for rules or procedures and he seems to abuse his position whenever the whim strikes him. For example, read this post by South End Grounds. Or this post by Rep. Campfield or this post by Bill Hobbs.

Now back to Rep. Kelsey, who (among other things) was trying to fix an antiquated law. According to Kelsey, anyone who goes to Starbucks and connects to the supplied wireless network is breaking the law in Tennessee — a law passed well before the explosive growth of wireless networks.

Kelsey introduced a bill that basically says that any network that has been left open for anonymous use is fair game. The bill was passed out of the subcommittee, and then out of the full Judiciary committee. The next stop for every bill is the Calendar and Rules Committee where they are usually rubber stamped to scheduled for the House floor.

Let me mention here that Rep. Kelsey is not one of those "whatever you wish, Master Naifeh" type of RINOs like the Naifeh Nine that voted for Naifeh for Speaker. So it is should come as no surprise that Kelsey has crossed Naifeh from time to time.

Back to the Calendar and Rules Committee, a committee of 21 Democrats and 4 Republicans — two of whom are members of the Naifeh Nine. [Does that seem fair for a House with 53 Democrats and 46 Republicans?]

Rep. Kelsey begins explaining his bill and Speaker Naifeh rudely interrupted (ignoring parlimentary procedure) and mandated that it be sent back to committee. [Note: travesties like this can be seen on the live internet feed.]

Yet another example of Naifeh's tyranny.

Technorati Tags: Naifeh, Jimmie Naifeh, Brian Kelsey, Representative Kelsey, Tennessee, Tennessee Politics.

John Farmer: District 8 Republican Primary Debate

This is a summary of the comments made by candidate John Farmer during a debate between him and one of the other two candidates, James Hart. Read my summary of the overall debate.

Farmer started off with quoting the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

This was, no doubt, intended to set him apart from his white supremacist opponent.

Iraq:
The War in Iraq is not an embarrassment; the true embarrassment would be to cut and run. Iraq is part of the larger war on terror. We must defeat the ideology. It is a far-reaching ''shadow war" and we are failing to seal our borders.

NAFTA:
Free trade opens markets and give consumers what they want. The reason that we are losing manufacturing facilities is that consumers vote with their pocket book and so jobs go overseas. The answer is not to declare war on Mexico (a reference to Hart's recommendation). Rather we should enforce the laws currently on the books to penalize employers and act to seal our borders.

Immigration:
Amnesty certainly is not the answer, nor is instituting punitive tariffs (another Hart reference). The truth is that in spite of the large number of illegal aliens, unemployment is at one of the lowest rates in a long time. But we need to seal our border to stop illegal immigration.

Affirmative Action:
All men are created equal. If you can do a job then you should get the job. Farmer related that he was raised in a welfare family (he then joked that he must be a "lessor race" — a dig at Hart). However, welfare should not be a lifestyle. Dependence on welfare has ruined our inner cities.

Constitutional Rights:
Farmer said that he has a handgun permit and believes that it is not a privilege — it is a right. The politically correct movement is robbing us of our freedom of speech. Eminent Domain: the concept is good but it has gotten out of hand. The foundation of freedom is property rights. In all, we need to get back to the original concepts, what the Framers had in mind, such as that of States Rights.

Closing comments:
Farmer wrapped up by once more asserting that all are created equal. The right to life comes from God. We cannot take God out of the equation; our country based on the concept that there is a God. And by the way, God does cause the weather (see Hart's closing comments to get the reference).

On the topic of immigration, Farmer reiterated his support for legal immigration and said that low wages stifle innovation. For support of this view, he said that the cotton gin and other innovations had been invented as a result of the abolition of slavery.

Editor's Comments:
I thought Farmer did a pretty good job. His answers were reasoned and concise, and he was not rattled by either the anti-Bush tone of the questions nor the rantings of his opponent.

Not only that, I found it difficult to disagree with much of anything that Farmer said. At this point, he is the AlphaPatriot Pick in the race.

Technorati Tags: Tennessee, Tennessee Politics, Politics, John Farmer.

James Hart: District 8 Republican Primary

This is a summary of the comments made by candidate James Hart during a debate between him and one of the other two candidates, John Farmer. Read my summary of the overall debate.

It was a little difficult to tell, but I believe his opening comments were designed to show why he should be allowed to run as a Republican, even though the state party is doing everything in its power to stop him. He talked about ''Country Club" Republicans (like Bush) and then said that there is no freedom of speech in this country. After all, only 2 newspapers would run his ads.

Iraq:
Hart declared that it is ridiculous to establish democracy in Iraq when we are allowing Mexicans to run wild in our streets. He then went into a fairly extensive anti-Bush screed and white supremacist rant. He promised that, when elected, he will ask the FBI to investigate the invasion California by the flood of illegal Mexicans to determine if it is an act of war. Upon completion of that investigation he will ask the country to go to war (he did not allow for the possibility that the FBI would not consider it an act of war).

NAFTA:
When elected, Hart promised that he would repeal NAFTA to protect our jobs, our economy and our country. He said that it is ridiculous to think that trade is "free" — the government is meddling in prices of cars by messing with GM. Hart pledged to remove the NAFTA knife from the back of hard working Americans by employing punitive tariffs equal on products equal to what NAFTA is reducing the prices of the products.

Immigration:
Hart claimed that we are being lied to when we are told that only reasons to oppose immigration are racist. He then when on to talk about the low IQ of Mexicans and blacks as proven in The Bell Curve and the Wealth of Nations. This led into a call for instituting a program of eugenics that is required if we are to save civilization.

Affirmative Action:
Hart asserted that Affirmative Action is based on a false premise: that they can perform the same jobs as whites. Blacks have smaller brains and are not capable, which is why there are not that many black doctors or dentists. He then went on to claim that Mexicans and others of the less favored races will bring poverty and crime with them. Just look at Detroit and Los Angeles.

Constitutional Rights:
Hart held himself up as an example that the Constitution is a facade (what with the Republicans trying to kill his candidacy and the newspapers refusing his ads). "George Bush is no more the real president than the Pillsbury Doughboy." "Bush is nothing but a front for Enron and Halliburton." Closing comments:
Hart closed by warning the audience not to buy the Fundamentalist line against abortion: God did not pick a particular sperm and a certain egg so that a retarded child is born, forcing the parents to have to deal with a lifetime of raising a Down's Syndrome baby, any more than God is responsible for the weather. Eugenics is necessary to save our race. ''We are God." He then asserted that the unemployed are those with low IQs.

Editor's Comments:
Hart is an animated and humorous speaker. On the other hand, the level and intensity of fanaticism that comes out of his mouth is absolutely stunning. If he toned it down a little lot, he might get someone to listen to him. On the other hand, it was hard to stop smiling while listening to him. I mean, it was more entertaining than most movies and had twice as much fiction as a CSI episode.

Bottom line: James Hart's extremist 16^th century views will hopefully cause him to quickly fade from the political landscape and become no more than a less-than-amusing anecdote in history.

Technorati Tags: Tennessee, Tennessee Politics, Politics, James Hart.