No More Money for Panned Barrenhood
Within 60 days Planned Parenthood won't be receiving anymore State funding in Tennessee:Tennessee Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey announced late this afternoon that Davidson and Shelby Counties would end their contract to allow Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, to provide "family planning services" on behalf of those two counties. Ramsey congratulated Governor Bill Haslam for asking the State Health Department to pressure the State's two largest counties to end their contracts with Planned Parenthood.
Labels: Conservatism, Federal politics, Local politics, News Media, Political correctness, Republican Party, Tennessee politics
Moving to de-fund?
The State Executive Branch appears to be trying to find a way to uphold the intent of the Tennessee Legislature with regard to de-funding Planned Parenthood:According to a report in The Tennessean first published on Wednesday, Governor Haslam's executive departments are beginning to put pressure on the Health Departments in Davidson and Shelby Counties to oversee so-called "family planning" funds more directly, a coded message that means, in reality, that the Governor and Health Commissioner Susan Cooper want to prevent money going to Planned Parenthood or organizations like it that provide abortions as part of their services. It is reported that these county health departments have until some time today to decide how they might carry out the wishes of the executive branch.
Such is the latest in a saga which began with the subversive and unknown changes in the wording of the budget amendment which negated legislative intent to de-fund Planned Parenthood.
Labels: Conservatism, Federal politics, Local politics, Tennessee politics
Executive Order?
An Executive Order could be one possible avenue of insuring that the legislative intent of the 107th General Assembly with regard to the de-funding of Planned Parenthood is respected:The appropriate legal language may not be so direct, but issuing an order to enforce the budget as the Legislature intended may very well be within the Governor's authority. Sure, the General Assembly could override Governor Haslam, but it is doubtful they would want to do it-especially since both Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey and House Speaker Beth Harwell havce both said that they are going to pursue permanent de-funding of Planned Parenthood in next year's session.
Labels: Conservatism, Local politics, Tennessee politics
Secession Today
Tennessee seceded from the Union 150 years ago today:When the first referendum on secession was presented to voters in February of 1861, 60% of them voted against leaving the Union. Washington, many reasoned, was not bothering them. That changed after Fort Sumter, when Lincoln demanded that those States still loyal to the Union submit a quota of troops to "suppress the rebellion" in the South. Governor Isham Green Harris, unwilling to officially use State troops to invade fellow Southern States that had not harassed Tennessee, politely told Washington that they may inhabit the Infernal Regions instead.
Labels: Conservatism, Federal politics, Political correctness, Tennessee politics
The GOP Speaks-Sort Of
The Tennessee Republican Party, through its National Committeeman John Ryder, seems to be taking a position on the so-called "National Popular Vote:"Some of Ryder's arguments were similar to our own, and in many other ways, John Ryder put a unique spin on why the electoral college is important. What was most telling, however, was not John Ryder's article in the Times, but the fact that yesterday the Tennessee Republican Party felt the need to disseminate that article to via e-mail to its list of press, supporters, and other such interested persons. In choosing to do so, the Tennessee GOP engaged in a kind of tacit endorsement of the Ryder position (which, per Thursday and Monday's columns, is also the Oatney position), and that is important because the party acknowledged, however faintly, the threat to Tennessee's political influence within the Union that is posed by this subversive political movement, one whose supporters are thus far being anything but forward and direct about their ultimate goal, to abolish the federal Electoral College in everything but name.
Labels: Conservatism, Federal politics, Local politics, Presidential Election, Republican Party
Check On the Majority
The effort by a certain group to do away with the Electoral College by a stealth "National Popular Vote" system would do away with a critical check on majority power:There is obviously a clear attempt-and one that is being paid for-to get the populous to accept what is, in reality, a major constitutional change by stealth. It sounds good to most people, doesn't it? After all, shouldn't the candidate who gets the most votes for Presidnet win? Isn't that how it is supposed to work in a democracy? Perhaps it might be, except that the United States of America is not, and was never intended to be, a democracy. We do not pledge allegiance to the "democracy for which it stands," nor do we have any patriotic song called the "Battle Hymn of the Democracy." Oh, Oatney, aren't you just playing with semantics, you may say, aren't a republic and a democracy the same thing." They are not the same thing-at least not according to our founders-and they placed certain checks within our constitution to try and insure that we would not descend into a democracy.
The winner in the Electoral College does win the popular vote most of the time, but it is presently possible for certain States to align together to insure that their candidate is chosen-there is presently a way to put a check on the "tyranny of the majority" if need be, so that rural America has a united voice if they vote as a block. If the National Popular Vote scheme is adopted, that check-and-balance within our system as it presently exists would disappear.
Giving way to popular sentiment is usually a good thing, but in a "complex republic" of the kind that the Founding Fathers created, there must be a way to check the will of the majority within the machinations of government-the Electoral College is that way as we have it today. National Popular Vote would permantly undermind this key protection of minority power and rural America.
Labels: Conservatism, Federal politics, Local politics, News Media, Political correctness, Tennessee politics
