Well, it looks like the Koch Brothers' agenda

….. is proceeding right along as scheduled here in Tennessee:

UPDATE: Moving right along in North Carolina, too. 
"As more major counties and cities trend Democratic, expect to see Republicans meddling more in local affairs and making a mockery of the concept of self government. Just imagine if congressional Republicans had the ability to gerrymander the state legislatures of California, New York, and Illinois as they have done with the three largest and Democratic-leaning county governments in North Carolina." http://tinyurl.com/qalw7yx

"There is some talk among Republicans of changing state law to allow partisan competition for municipal offices and for local school board seats, now also officially nonpartisan under a current state statute. Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, supports such a move……..

“The role of the state party is to get Republicans elected on all levels,” Smith (Gov. Haslam's spokesman) wrote."
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/politiknox/tenn-gop-aims-to-paint-state-redder-than-ever-by-2016_49398253

'Red to the Roots"

All of this is by design….and it is heavily financed, NOT a "grassroots" effort.

"Now the council (ALEC) is looking to take its blueprint for influence over statewide lawmaking and drill it down to the local level. It has already quietly set up, and is making plans for the public launch of, an offshoot called the American City County Exchange (ACCE) that will target policymakers from “villages, towns, cities and counties”.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/06/conservative-group-alec-city-local-government

Don't forget that that these two guys have had their hand in the "war against women" in all states as well as their group Americans for Prosperity making sure that Insure Tennessee (using the ACA) is not going forward.
http://tinyurl.com/k9oytnq

How long before Tennessee looks and operates just like Kansas, South Carolina, Michigan or Wisconsin? And by latching on to the extreme fundamentalists and NRA to blindly move this effort along…..……how long before the US looks just like the theocracies that we go all over the world to "preach the ways of democracy?"

Out Of State Interests Pushing TN Policy

It's probably just an exercise in futility….but four major Tennessee newspapers are trying to make people of my state aware of what is actually going on here. It is going to be a four part-part series. 

  

      

"…. the outside interests are trying, engaged on such controversial issues as Gov. Bill Haslam’s Insure Tennessee proposal and gun laws, all the way down to less-noticed matters such as experimental drugs and state subsidies to parents of children with specified disabilities…...

"The Koch-founded AFP made defeat of Insure Tennessee its top priority this year…..""Other interest groups engaged in Tennessee range from the National Rifle Association, which has had considerable success in enacting gun rights legislation, to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has taken to introducing a package of bills drafted at the national level each year that are distinct from the agenda of its state affiliate, the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and hiring its own lobbyists…."

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/state/outofstate-interests-shape-public-policy_81752026

And in case you missed it : http://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/editorials/2014/04/01/tennessee-political-test-tube-koch-brothers/7132745/

Also, another read on this: https://southernbeale.wordpress.com/2015/05/03/tennessee-where-conservatism-has-come-to-die/

Unfortunately, the GOP base in this state…..the gun loving, gay hating, Bible carrying, racist, antiabortion, "Obama is going to put us in camps" thinking, hate the poor…….will just say it's all liberal propaganda. Tennessee is just like Texas…only with different letters. 

Random Acts of Religious Freedom?

UPDATE: What do You think?

"One such ALEC conference was held in North Carolina. “While nobody can say for sure where the next religious freedom law bill will pop up, it’s probably a safe bet to look at where their most recent national conferences were held and where the next one will be,” says Meyer." http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2015/0330/Who-s-pushing-the-religious-freedom-legislation-in-states 

If you are as fed up, disgusted, and ready to SCREAM about all those poor persecuted conservative (white) Christians as I am…take heart. This country is being run like one big giant school yard and the Bullies with the Bibles (they've never read….) are beating us over the head and getting away with it. Or at least they have a bigger voice. (Have you ever been to a Southern Baptist Revival? I have. Left the SBC when I was in my teens…their hypocrisy was evident even then….)

Grab a cup of coffee, or glass of sweet tea (I live in the south…) are read this. SPREAD IT AROUND, too. 

"Christian fundamentalists in this country are practiced at claiming marginalization and oppression. “They’re always saying they’re kept out of the public square, and that’s baloney,” said Marci Hamilton, a constitutional law expert and the author of “God vs. the Gavel.” “They’re all over the public square."……from a NY Times article by Frank Bruni.

http://tinyurl.com/ntue3or

And besides, are we not supposed to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you?"

"A Little Child Shall Lead Them.."

or at least that's what ALEC, the Koch Brothers and the Tea Party hope you will believe.

We all know how these cretins are buying our corporations, our legislators, and ultimately our entire government. We know they have no use for the EPA, unions, nonwhites, immigrants, women's health choices, and are using Conservative Christians to accomplish a lot of their dirty work for them….but the poor folks haven't caught on yet. And they certainly have no use for the education system here in this country: an educated populace able to think critically and research the facts instead of falling for MSM misinformation (propaganda) is a hinderance to them and their ideals. Besides: "free market."

In our daily paper, The Knoxville New Sentinel, was a letter submitted by a student waxing poetic about her "choice of a better school."

"Like me, many students across Tennessee struggle at their current school, and they simply need an opportunity to choose a better place to learn…..

Unfortunately, the high school I am zoned to attend is not the best fit for me, but that is about to change. I just received an opportunity scholarship from the Beacon Center of Tennessee to attend a private school……"

and of course, the kicker:

"We are already spending this money to educate each child. It makes sense that the money would follow the child rather than just fund the school system."

http://www.knoxnews.com/opinion/columnists/madison-ott-school-choice-lets-students-find-best-fit_91726990

The Beacon Center is part of the State Policy Network, a major player in the Koch Brother's ALEC, pushing their right wing, free market, no taxes agenda. It's president is Justin Owen, a Tea Party member as well.

http://www.beacontn.org/tag/knoxville/

"As the publisher of TennesseeWatchdog.org, The Beacon Center of Tennessee has hosted writers from the ALEC-connected Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, which screens potential reporters on their “free market” views as part of the job application process.^["

If you want to get the parents on board, have a essay contest, award a "scholarship", and begin your lobbying on the local level. People LOVE a heartwarming story about a hardworking, good student. Put her "essay" in the paper……that will get the attention they are seeking. 

Remember, folks:

Your right to vote…..your duty actually…is being chipped away nefariously state to state, under the guise of "doing away with rampant voter fraud." If you don't have policies that the people are receptive to, you resort to other means. Don't let the Kochs and ALEC take this vote away from you. (Even if they try this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/26/koch-brothers-voting-_n_5888110.html )

"As ALEC co-founder, Paul Weyrich, so chillingly observed during his 1980 remarks to a right-wing Christian audience (see video at right), their side does better when the number of citizens who vote goes down.

http://www.bradblog.com

Bob Corker, where's that big announcement???

 "Expansion talks at Volkswagen's lone U.S. plant have ground to a halt amid disagreements about the role of organized labor at the factory in Tennessee.

(snip)

…...comments came in the aftermath of revelations that the state's $300 million incentive package offered to Volkswagen in August contained the caveat that the money was subject to labor talks "being concluded to the satisfaction" of the state.
.. Monday raised concerns that Volkswagen could move to recognize the UAW even without revote. The Center for Worker Freedom said in a release that that would be a "betrayal" of the workers at the plant who voted 712-626 against the union in February." http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2014/apr/08/volkswagen-expansion-talks-at-standstill-in-tenn/

So much for "no government interference" in the running of a private corporation. The Repubs are ALL in favor of a Free Market…when it is to their advantage. "The government should stay out and let us run our business as we see fit."

Enter the lobbyists and "grassroots" organizations, and see how that song changes. A little bit of KOCH money can go a long way……ALEC and Americans for Prosperity.

The Center for Worker Freedom is a Grover Norquist ("anti tax") group. They are also part of the anti-union, right-to-work pushes, with groups like Americans For Prosperity, being made in Missouri just like they did in Michigan and Wisconsin.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/04/12443/national-right-wing-special-interests-groups-lean-missouri-legislators-push-alec

So…let the Koch Brothers, those examples of American expansiveness and hard work, have their editorials printed the the WSJ, quoted on FOX and have emails sent to their employees to "share with like minded people." If people are THAT gullible, easily duped, bigoted, uninformed to the point of ignorance or just too darn lazy to not dig a little deeper, we are in a world of trouble. 

Worth Thinking About…...

“The prevention of conception is not in itself forbidden or sinful providing the reasons for it are in harmony with the total revelation of God for married life” and that the “method of preventing pregnancy is not so much a religious as a scientific and medical question to be determined in consultation with one’s physician.”  

http://tinyurl.com/lcpg576

(Thanks, Jamelle Bouie)

Today's Conservative Party keeps on in it's glorious tradition of tying itself in knots………or what I'd call marching on it's highway of hypocrisy. I realize time can change someone's point of view; life itself sometimes forces intellectual growth. But the Republican Party of today is on a mission……backwards. Citizens United. Voter suppression. Stalling on sensible immigration reform…not the "stay here pay taxes but no healthcare, education, or citizenship" route. Profits on oil and gas production for corporations, but lousy water and air for you. Making women the chattel of their husbands, starting with reproductive rights then moving on to education and voting privileges. You get my drift.

All it takes is a chip here, a crack there. A school voucher here, a revised textbook there. Remove a voting place here, pass an ALEC bill there.

WAKE UP, PEOPLE.

Getting It Out There

Trying to push through against FOX, Breitbart, ALEC, Limbaugh, Boehner, the GOP, and all those others who are spending millions of dollars in order to save their investment in BiG PHARMA and the insurance industry.

Here is the video:

 http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/07/21/real-doctor-smacks-down-koch-brothers-obamacare-ad-video/#ixzz2ZgeuxYmV

And then there is this: healthcare premiums in three states so far, are going to be going down with minimum coverage going up....Obamacare mandates what will be covered in it's basic coverage. It is usually is more than what some insurance plans want to cover. 

http://news.yahoo.com/obamacare-slash-premiums-york-obama-along-221737762.html

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/second-year-row-ma-health-insurance-p

http://sandiegofreepress.org/2013/05/no-sticker-shock-for-covered-california-health-care-consumers/

It's About Time....not that it matters

We've heard ad nauseum what the old white conservative Republican men think women should be able to do concerning their bodies, and what their reproductive health rights should be. We've seen what they do to ANY woman who dares contradict THEIR beliefs....with facts, in governmental settings no less. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/12/sarah-slamen-interview_n_3585739.html

FINALLY there is some objection from those in-the-know about such matters: The American Congress of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG)

"That’s why we’re speaking to the false and misleading underlying assumptions of this and other legislation like it: These bills are as much about interfering with the practice of medicine and the relationship a patient has with her physician as they are about restricting women’s access to abortion.."

http://www.politicususa.com/2013/07/12/ob-gyns-texas-gop-out-exam-rooms.html

They of course, will be shouted down, called out, ignored.......presented as "toadies for the Left." NOTHING stands in the way of the Tea Party, the Koch Brothers, ALEC, and hateful Republican men on a mission. This whole agenda has NOTHING to do with fetuses, embryos, babies, abortions or women's health: it is all about control..........the Right is going to get it ALL, come hell or high water. The Talibaptists, I heard someone call them.

I'm sure Jesus told them so.......

UPDATE:

Now, to add insult to injury, women are being "frisked" for carrying concealed feminine hygiene products. Talk about idiocy.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/12/tampons-confiscated-texas_n_3588177.html

Raise Up A Child In The Way He Should Go....Right Wing Version

In an attempt to manipulate the thinking of 'future voters" ....they already have the attention of corporatists and religious fundamentalists.....those on the right are going full speed ahead to demolish the public school system. And make money doing it.

"We need to be cautious about talking too much about these activities," Dick DeVos warned in a December 2002 speech at the Heritage Foundation. legislatures...Pro-privatization think tanks had concluded that vouchers were the most politically viable way to "dismantle" public schools...Dick DeVos introduced his 2002 Heritage Foundation audience to a covert strategy to provide "rewards or consequences" to state legislators, ... Vouchers should be promoted by local "grass roots" entities and could not be "viewed as only a conservative idea."  DeVos added, "This has got to be the battle.  It will not be as visible."http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/04/972949/-Blackwater-In-Law-DeVos-outlines-stealth-plot-against-Public-Education

The whole idea of "parent trigger laws", such as the one Bobby Jindall introduced in his state, is to help parents in failing schools, usually in the inner city, to have a say in their children's learning process, to restructure them, and save their children's future. But some parents have been misled by these organizations, and there is doubt about their effectiveness.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/01/parent-trigger-laws_n_3528346.html?ref=topbar

But like everything else, the Republicans and other Right wing groups have found a way to hijack the process, funnel taxpayer money to pay for it, dumb down the student body, insert their revised educational cirriculum, and make a buck or two. People are beginning to catch on:

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/4/20/232844/831

And in order to to muddy the waters a bit, they have given these groups innocent, patriotic names: Parent Revolution is one. Don't be fooled....ALEC, the name the Koch Brothers hide behind is the one sending model legislation to the state for their implementation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/01/parent-trigger-laws_n_3528346.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

  

The Bradley Foundation, headed by Governor Scott Walker's campaign co-chair Michael Grebe, has underwritten a massive, pro-privatization propaganda campaign, including "a systematic and relentless campaign to turn public opinion against the public school system. http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/04/12067/new-report-exposes-bradley-foundation-funding-behind-“massive”-campaign-promote-s

So....the "outrage" over the public education system country wide begins. All by design just like all the others we've heard over the last years: abortion, voter fraud, freedom of religion, taxes, immigration.......mock it, defund it, criticize it's effectiveness, replace it, privatize it.

Give Us Lawyers, Guns and Money

NASHVILLE — The National Rifle Association is spending $75,000 to unseat House Republican Caucus Chairwoman Debra Maggart while asking all state legislators whether they will side next year with the organization, even if it means breaking with GOP leadership.

"As a legislator, would you follow the demands of party leadership even if they run contrary to the NRA's legislative agenda?" one survey item asks. ihttp://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/jul/10/nra-spending-75k-to-unseat-house-gop-chair/

I see that Grover Norquist is alive and well as a clone in the NRA. This group is appealing to the basest of Southern instincts: gun control and the right to "pack" at any given time, at given place.

The NRA and the Tennessee Firearms Association have targeted Maggart for defeat because of her role in blocking a vote on a bill that would allow Tennesseans to keep guns in their locked cars in parking lots, even if the lots are owned by a company or government entity that prohibits firearms on its premises.

I don't believe that the colonists were this obsessed with "being armed" at the time the Constitution was being written. Why, if EVERYBODY was allowed to carry some type of gun anywhere, to "protect himself" from criminals, or opposing viewpoints and religions....we would have NO NEED for any type of police force, private or otherwise. Hmmmmm..........Of course, this is PURELY speculation on my part, and a coincidence that certain shadowy elements are involved:

Koch Industries has vigorously defended ALEC, and has assailed reporting that noted that the company, led by billionaire brothers Charles and David, is a long-time funder and leader of ALEC and that ALEC has long advanced the NRA agenda through "model" gun bills, including Florida's controversial SYG law that was ratified by ALEC in 2005.http://articles.cnn.com/2012-04-06/politics/politics_nra-alec_1_nra-officials-alec-gun-rights?_s=PM:POLITICS

Not all of the Koch money is going to large political pushes the country can see (but won't acknowledge)........a good portion is working it's way insidiously into our local legislation and everyday lives.

"The tax man cometh to police you on health care"

           or so says the headline on the Dayton Daily News story.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/nation-world-news/the-tax-man-cometh-to-police-you-on-health-care-1401679.html

"That scenario puts the Internal Revenue Service at the center of the debate, renewing questions about whether the agency is capable of policing the health care decisions of millions of people in the United States while also collecting the taxes needed to run the federal government."

The big bad government is going to tell you how to deal with your own health. DEATH PANELS. And of course, TAXES. Seems like the old "repeal and replace" isn't polling very well as the people seem to LIKE the individual components, even if they say they don't like Obamacare. So, now they will try a different tack.

"In 2010, House Ways and Means Committee Republicans issued a report saying the IRS may need as many as 16,500 additional auditors, agents and other employees "to investigate and collect billions in new taxes from Americans."

An IRS spokesman has already said that the Right Wing has pulled that number out of thin air. They have also conveniently not mentioned that those TAXES or PENALTIES as Romney called them in his legislation (or he did at least one time...) only apply to those who don't want to buy insurance, or hope to sponge off the rest of us: less than 2 per cent of the population total. This is something the ACA is trying to alleviate. No more "I'll wait till I need it, then get it" so that everybody is not in the same pool of participants. You pay your current insurance premiums every month whether you USE it or not that month. Same thing in this policy.

"The agency's repeated lack of transparency to Congress and its failure to provide accountability to the American taxpayers raises fundamental concerns about implementation authorities vested to the IRS," the top four Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee wrote in a June 27 letter to the IRS commissioner.

I don't even know where to begin with this one. Let me just say: Koch Brothers. ALEC. Karl Rove. Crossroads GPS. Billions of dollars of secretly funded money for 2012 elections. Citizens United. Transparency?????

"The giant insurer Aetna directed more than $3 million last year to the American Action Network, a Republican-leaning nonprofit organization that has spent millions of dollars attacking lawmakers who voted for President Obama’s health care bill — even as Aetna’s president publicly voiced support for the legislation."

And if all else fails. resort to this: 

Paul LePage, Maine Governor, Blasts Obamacare, Calls IRS 'The New Gestapo'

Don't Rest On Your Laurels

Just because your efforts have made some contributors back away from ALEC, and they themselves have decided it wasn't worth it to continue on some of their hideous agendas, do not stop the pressure. These people....we know them as The Kochs.....will only turn their efforts nefariously in other directions.  Theirs is a never-ending saga.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/8625-hang-onto-that-paycheck-alec-sharpens-focus-on-jobs

To borrow a paragraph from Daily Kos: That makes an even dozen companies (McDonald's, Wendy's, Mars Inc., Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, Intuit, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Reed Elsevier [owner of LexisNexis], American Traffic Solutions and Arizona Public Service) who have severed ties with ALEC, inaddition to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

There's no question that ALEC has been significantly damaged by the exposure of their extreme right-wing agenda. They'll likely not go away, but they also won't be able to operate in secrecy any more.

JUST FOLLOWING THE LEADERS

Well, folks, looks like another Republican governor has been reading the instruction manuel handed out by the ALEC and the Koch Brothers when he was elected. Another state is being forced to "make government cuts to consolidate, streamline and save money." Oh, and by the way...give all this authority to do so...to the said governor.

NASHVILLE — Having completed a "top-to-bottom review" of more than 200 arms of state government, Gov. Bill Haslam is moving to assert more direct control over their operations and reduce their numbers.

His move has stirred some bipartisan unease among legislators and outright opposition from representatives of some professions and industries regulated by the boards and commissions impacted.

About 140 job positions would be abolished in 22 different governmental organizations.

In general, critics see Haslam's legislative proposals as an unwarranted assertion of executive political power that undermines the independent operations of agencies. These agencies, they believe, are working well and, in most cases, operate on fees collected from regulated industries rather than general tax dollars.


http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/feb/05/haslam-seeks-more-control-over-tennessees/

These Boards oversee such things as education, the Arts, water treatment, environment, the TVA, children's services, aging, disabilities, and gas & oil. (Haslam's family started and still own Pilot Oil.) 

Of course, all of this is being done quietly....hoping people won't notice. And since this is a Red State (except downtown Knoxville!) it'll be 10 years before anybody notices something's wrong.....