Another Day

UPDATE

Tennesseans are about ready to get screwed again. Hope my relatives who finally got Obamacare to help them afford their on-going colon cancer, diabetes, mental health, heart surgery and constant heart monitoring (which they cannot afford…over $47,000 a year just for one of them) realize it was their party,…..two REPUBLICAN judges and a REPUBLICAN governor that did not expand Medicaid the way it should have been…. that will cost them. Blue Cross probably was about ready to cancel them. He is a small business owner but cannot handle the costs. This ruling, of course, will be appealed as it should.

(main blog)...…another Right Winger pushing the untruths about a Dem opposing him here in Tennessee, the state that is sooo red it makes you cringe. (I've often wondered, how did they manage to have Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Manhattan Project? So many solar farms? Wind turbines in the hills? An overabundance of Prius's on the roads? HGTV, which is a green company? Such a dichotomy here.)

"My opponent  [a Christian Dem with a Muslim background] has expressed his beliefs publicly that the United States is not a Christian nation; that the American flag should be removed from public buildings because it is a symbol of tyranny and oppression; that public prayer should be banned because it insults non-Christians; and that the Bible should be removed from public places."

Mark Kelly(Photo: Submitted)

Kelly said his letter was not about religion but only about voting…..

http://tinyurl.com/nr5aslo

This guy, of course, is just one of the Republican brain trust that is ruining, er I mean, running this state.

We have Stacy Campfield:

"Democrats bragging about the number of mandatory sign ups for Obamacare is like Germans bragging about the number of manditory sign ups for 'train rides' for Jews in the 40s," he wrote.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/05/stacey-campfield-tenn-state-senator-likens-obamacare-to-holocaust/

John Duncan is running again here:

"Rep. John Duncan (R-TN) admits that he won’t extend middle-class tax cuts in order to keep control of the floor out of the hands of Democrats"

            http://www.buzzfeed.com/dorsey/republican-congressmans-excuse-for-not-extending

    Duncan's son also had a short-lived political career:

"Despite his insistence on bringing trust back to the office, the record shows that within days of taking office, Duncan was approving state bonuses for himself and others in his office for a certification process that neither he nor the others had completed.  A year later in 2011, he did the same thing."

http://www.wate.com/story/22741800/knox-trustee-john-duncan-iii-pleads-guilty-to-official-misconduct-resigns

Can't forget Marsha Blackburn:

I guess she forgot:... On a national level, Tennessee ranks 43rd out of 50 states when it comes to unemployment, with 50 being the worst"

http://tinyurl.com/lucv545

Then there is our governor Bill Haslam, his brother and their family company:

http://www.wtxl.com/news/pilot-flying-j-to-pay-m-fine/article_e1c79f94-0c0d-

11e4-8f87-0017a43b2370.html

BUT…on the positive side: (Good work, VW)

Maybe all these Repubs are not as smart as they think they are…or we are not as dumb as they'd like us to be.

The GOP's Big Tent in Tennessee

You know how the Democrats are elitist snobs, always looking down their noses at ordinary folks, not really in tune with the middle class. Well, except for the poor, unemployed, Blacks, Hispanics (Americans, in my book), seniors, single parents, post-fetus beings (children, by another name), LGBT, sick, and those of varying religions or none at all.

“.........because Republicans have been looking for that big tent, and I’m very happy that that big tent is on the conservative side, and that’s really where lots of Americans are going right now,” said DeMint, one of the leaders of the tea party movement on Capitol Hill.
(Newsmax.com: Sen. DeMint: GOP Really Is 'Big Tent' Party)

Well, looks like the tent is starting to come apart at the seams here in Tennessee:

NASHVILLE — Stewart County Republican Party Chairman Kyle Mallory says Gov. Bill Haslam's greatest failing is that "he hasn't cleaned house" by ridding state government of Democrats and homosexuals in key positions and by hiring a Muslim.

The hiring of Ali, who is being described as "an expert in Shariah Compliant Finance, which is one of the many ways Islamic terrorism is funded" and as "a one-time Obama appointee" from a family with "a long history of supporting the Democratic Party." ECD officials say Ali, who served in a White House fellowship program, has nothing to do with Shariah law or finance

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/jul/17/gop-groups-blast-haslam-for-retaining-democrats/?partner=popular

UPDATE: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/tennessee_tea_party_bill_haslam.php?ref=fpb

This is not the whole TN GOP, of course, but enough of them to make a stink. Inclusion, compassion and compromise are NOT in the Republican conversation these days....anywhere. Yet they want to blame President Obama for not getting us out of this downhill spiral SOONER.

"If Haslam is sanctioned by the Republicans and not welcome in their party," House Dem Party Leader Fitzhugh said, "he would be welcomed by Democrats."

IMPENDING BACKLASH?

Yesterday a horrible event took place: a killing of 13 people and wounding of 31 at a military base. The perpetrator was an American citizen of the Muslim faith, and a military officer. The exact reason has yet to be known. What is known, though, was that in the past this person had been ridiculed by fellow military men and others about his name and religion. We all know that being a person in uniform is no easy task. Sometimes the training, the mindset, the listening to horror stories of soldiers returning form Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel and Pakistan is overwhelming. Especially if people in these countries we are fighting, or even trying to help, are the people of your heritage. Americans can be cruel, also. Maybe not intentionally, but our coarseness, brusqueness, our get-to-the-point attitude has been mistaken many times for arrogance and uncaring. Oftentimes this feeling of low self worth, ridicule, and "not belonging" can be exploited by larger groups for a sinister purpose. Or we ourselves just can't take it anymore.

Right wing radio and television---ok, Fox and the 700 Club for sure---have already started the questioning. The backlash has begun. More trouble will start. It works so well for getting the teabaggers together.

"Just what makes this a "Muslim problem?" Maybe it's a "male problem." Maybe it is a "gun problem." Or an "Army problem."

Timothy McVeigh was Catholic. Was the bombing of the Oklahoma Federal Building a "Catholic problem?" Hitler was a Catholic. Another "Catholic problem?" Serial killer Ted Bundy was Mormon. Was that a "Mormon problem?" The Son of Sam was a baptist. Dylan Bennet Klebold, of the infamous Columbine shootings was Lutheran. A "Lutheran problem, perhaps?"

In reality, this is a "Bigotry problem." And those people full of hate are happy to make an issue of it."................from Huff Post.

The above response to an article this morning hits the nail on the head. Try to keep some perspective in all of this. If there are cooler heads among us, let them prevail.