Who Are They Trying to Influence?
The Occupy Nashville crowd has been given until 8pm tonight to clear out of the Capitol:Since the Constitution guarantees the right of protesters to peacefully assemble and "petition the government for a redress of grievances," it is fair to ask: If the Occupy Nashville protesters continue to be camped out at Legislative Plaza, what are they asking the Tennessee General Assembly specifically to do? Have they presented a list of their collective demands to Governor Bill Haslam, Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey, or House Speaker Beth Harwell? Are the demands of the protesters things that a State legislative body has the constitutional authority or ability to act upon? Perhaps most importantly, are many of these protesters even aware of the fact that the Tennessee General Assembly is a part-time legislature, that most of its members have a life outside of the Capitol and that, by the way, they aren't in session in October? It would appear that the answer to all of these questions is no. "Occupy Nashville" might see an occasional legislator duck in and out of a committee meeting from time to time, but if they are looking to wield influence, camping out at the Capitol in the middle of October isn't the way you do that in Tennessee-the General Assembly isn't there.
Labels: Duh, Federal politics, Local politics, Political correctness, Tennessee politics
posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 5:16 PM
1 Comments:
So Dave, since no one is there working in session, no one is being "threatened". As part of "everybody", I personally don't feel threatened at all by the protesters or the "forceful panhandlers" that apparently the police cannot seem to contain.
Do you believe the protesters should have to pay to be free to assemble? If you have to pay is it a right any more?
Should the freedom to assemble that we all apparently now have to pay for in Nashville (just like our 2nd amendment "rights") be limited to 9am - 4pm? How much would it cost to activate our rights for a full 24 hours? Would Lt. Gov. Ramsey consider this "Red Tape"?
Should they have to pay an invoice from THP? for what? doing their jobs that we already pay taxes for? Seems like they had plenty of extra time on their hands to help train TSA goons at weigh stations and the Greyhound stations. How much "security" do they normally provide to those places? Did THP invoice the TSA agents?
I predict you are going to see a sudden ability of plaza "security" to provide plenty of manpower...
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