Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Record is Written. Party Loyalty Trumps TN Common Sense

First, let me Congratulate Jim Cooper for having the spine to buck The Party. He was one of only 11 Democrats to vote against the "Stimulus" package which adds approximately 10% to the National Debt acquired over the last 200 years. The Porker Bill passed the House yesterday along strict party lines. Every Republican voted against Pelosi's Plan to save Condom Manufacturers.

As I said before, this spending bill started out in the right place, or at least close to it. But when The Party in Power got ahold of it, knowing there is insufficient opposition in Congress to vote it down, they porked it up. It will take days to get through the Special Interest pork payouts, but that is what we are paying our Representative to do. In this case, I must express disappointment that ours did not oppose it.

The Record:

Tennessee
Nay TN-1 Roe, David [R]
Nay TN-2 Duncan, John [R]
Nay TN-3 Wamp, Zach [R]
Yea TN-4 Davis, Lincoln [D]
Nay TN-5 Cooper, Jim [D]
Yea TN-6 Gordon, Barton [D]
Nay TN-7 Blackburn, Marsha [R]
Yea TN-8 Tanner, John [D]
Yea TN-9 Cohen, Steve [D]



While I congratulate Rep Cooper (and the Republicans) for his vote for Tennesseans rather than being whipped into line by Nancy Pelosi, I am not running against Rep. Cooper. He is not my Representative.

The 111th Congress is shaping up to be one of the biggest spenders ever, the most partisan ever, and this is likely to only get worse. There is literally nothing to stop Reid, Pelosi, Frank, Murtha, and Obama from doing anything they want. The Blue Dog Democrats are mostly falling in line with the New York Elitists, the California Dreamers, and Chicago Machine.

The only hope of rational thought and opposition to the far left was the Blue Dog Democrats and they are acting like dogs beaten by their Master, Speaker Pelosi. We may have voted against the "change" Obama promised, but we voted to send him a rubber stamp in the form of our Representative. And if the Blue Dog Democrats don't start opposing the whims and whips of the far left, we are in for some seriously rough times.

Representative Gordon, you're a good man from all I can tell, but if you can't withstand the orders of Speaker Pelosi, Representatives Frank and Murtha, you have the option of endorsing me as your replacement. For the good of the Nation, the good of Tennessee, and the good of the district, we need a Representative that will tell the far left of your party, "NO!"

Saturday, January 24, 2009

The Never Ending CEO Bailout Debacle

Well, the people of Tennessee and the people of the United States told Washington that we were against TARP, the CEO Bailout Bill. They passed it anyway and we've been paying for it on a daily basis. The Representative of the 6th District voted for it twice, in both its long and longer versions.

In short, Congress made a mockery of the people and the people were confused, purposely by The Party. I'm not running against President Bush, nor against President Obama, but they were both part of the debacle. I'm not running for Senate nor did I think we had much of a choice in that race. In fact, there is only one member of our current delegation that I could fully endorse. There are others that I would fully oppose and still some that I would half-heartedly support.

But that's a different subject for a different day. Today, it's the TARP and the myriad of Economic Stimuli Packages we've witnessed. These are only getting worse by the day. The absolute power of the The Party (DNC) is producing horrible results of partisan hubris. The next package is snowballing into the greatest piece of pork ever witnessed.

Meanwhile, we are still learning of new excesses afforded by the DNC sponsored TARP/CEO Bailout Bill uniformly supported by the Democrats (minus one) and opposed by the Republican Representatives (minus one) of the State of Tennessee. None were voted out of office for their hubris. This video expresses the sentiment of many of our citizens:


Still, we must shake things up in 2010. We cannot afford the absolute power of The Party given them in 2008, and the "Blue Dog Democrats" have not presented the opposition needed to the out of control spending of the Far Left Leaders Pelosi, Frank, Murtha, Reid and Others we had hoped. Hope is all we have and it is being dashed on the rocks of voting records.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Corrections & Acknowledgements

Chris Baker dropped in to make a few corrections to my perceptions of his campaign:
"I laud your efforts and courage to step up to the plate. However, I would like
to take a moment to clear the record. I did have a website for my campaign, I
did have a nominal amount of money (hence the website), and I did do some
campaigning. Your article paints me to be total ghost candidate. Admittedly, I
did not have the exposure which I wished to have, but money speaks louder than
words. Not having name recognition or the backing of a major party did not help
matters much. People are reluctant to donate to unknown candidates. In
hindsight, many things could have been done differently. Being the first time I
have ever ran for public office, I say I did well for myself. I'm sorry that my
message did not find you during this past election season. I have the letters
and emails of those persons who were able to find my information. Therefore I
can say with certainty that my message did reach voters from across the
district. Unfortunately, it was not enough. Good luck to you in your future
political aspirations. God bless and thank you for your service to our country. "


I would return his email personally but that does not seem to be an option. The comment was left on my introduction here at this website.

Let me apologize to Mr. Baker for any misperceptions that I or any of my contacts may have. I in no way wish to disparage him in his campaign. If there is anyone that understands the difficulty in running a campaign as an independent, I'm sure he does.

The fact that I was unable to find ANY real information on his positions highlights the realities of poor media coverage. I found more information on a write in candidate than did I on Chris Baker who was actually on the ballot.

It is my position that when a correction to the record is made that it be made with a minimum of the same level of exposure as was that which was incorrectly stated. And my apology to Mr. Baker for misperceptions of his exposure deserves a full article. Perhaps, if his positions had been more widely disseminated by the press, we would now be discussing Representative Baker rather than Candidate Baker or Representative Gordon.

Mr. Baker, I can tell you that I influenced at least 3 votes in your favor, if that is any consolation. Good Luck in all of your endeavors. Please accept my apologies for any misperceptions on my part.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Legislated Political Correctness

Well, The Party is largely continuing their record of voting the whims of Pelosi and Rep. Gordon is no exception. This time, the subject was political correctness. Many things sound good on the surface but aren't so practical when put into legalese by Congress:

(B) The bona fide factor defense described in subparagraph (A)(iv) shall apply only
if the employer demonstrates that such factor
(i) is not based upon or derived
from a sex-based differential in compensation; (ii) is job-related with respect
to the position in question; and (iii) is consistent with business necessity.
Such defense shall not apply where the employee demonstrates that an alternative
employment practice exists that would serve the same business purpose without
producing such differential and that the employer has refused to adopt such
alternative practice.

What are the repercussions? We've all seen people who used their "victimhood" to avoid repercussions of their poor work ethics. The Unions in particular protect this behavior.

According to current legislation, an employee had to prove there existed discrimination before the employer could be prosecuted and punished for it. The above clause changes proof of guilt to proof of innocence.

If the H.R. 12 is passed, an employer is considered guilty of sexual discrimination unless he proves himself innocent. The burden of proof is now on the defendent, the employer, given this legislation supported by Rep. Gordon, in accordance with Speaker Pelosi's dictates.

It is sad that The Party, including our Representative, has been whipped into line by the politically correct Idealists from California.

TNTaylor©2009, TennesseeTaylor, all rights reserved.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The Next Stimulus Package?

The President-Elect is talking up another Trillion Dollar stimulus package. Unlike the UAW Bailout Bill and the CEO Bailout bill supported by Rep. Gordon, the next bill, even if huge and 1/3rd of annual tax collections may actually have some positive parts to it.

It will add 10% to the National debt, a debt that has taken us 200 years to accumulate, but it may actually have spending that positively effects the economy, the citizens, and is in the purview of the government, even if it is mostly in the state or local realm of government.

The President-Elect is talking about tax cuts (which he campaigned against) and spending on infrastructure. In the former, it appears that it was simply rhetoric, campaign promises he knew he would break, or was too naive to know that it wouldn't work. At any rate, tax cuts are generally a positive thing. The more of your money you get to keep the better.

Unfortunately, I expect more out-of-control spending, rather than the correct and necessary spending cuts to go along with the tax cuts that are needed.

As to the 2nd part, infrastructure spending; this may be beneficial, though the amount he's talking about is worrisome. Already California and New York are lining up their pork projects and bailout bids. Though the TVA flooded my ancestral lands, burying them under lakes, the fact remains that it put Americans to work.

If, and that's a big if, this package is done right, it can have a significant effect on the economy and employment, beginning with the construction trades. It may just be the package needed. I'll withhold judgement until we see it.

The problem remains that in a 12 month period over two calender years, Congress, including our Representative have added 20% to the National Debt, not including the Annual Budget and first 10% was squandered on nationalizing banks and bailing out the very organization that strangled the American Car companies.

The problem is we have the same credit cards in the same college kids hands in this Congress as we did the last. They are following the dictates of Speaker Pelosi en masse. Corrupt Chicago Politicians, NY Elitists, and California Idealists continue to attain the rubber stamp of The Party, including our Blue Dog Democrat. Representative Gordon, you must break from the dictates of the far left. Please demonstrate that you are a free thinker and a true Representative of the Common Sense Citizens of Tennessee, not a lackey of Pelosi, Reid, and Obama, not a lackey of New York CEO's and Washington lobbyists.

Tennessee Taylor©2009, TNT, all rights reserved

The 111th Congress Saga Begins

Well, Congress is back in Session and it looks like Pelosi is setting up a dictatorship. It's little surprise that the Speakership was a straight party line but not one member of The Party stepped out of line. She has them firmly under her control and the most any of them would do is not vote at all and not many of them even dared that means of resisting her whip.

Not really much has happened. They passed the new rules for the House, defeating the minority party's instructions, again, along straight party lines. While the record of what The Party prevented from being admitted to the record is not yet in the record, the revision to the rules are on the record.

Our "Representative" was there and voted The Party line and the revision to the rules not only give "The Speaker" greater powers, and make expanding the National Debt easier but also made the rules "politically correct" right down to the statement saying that one gender means both genders. No more the "use of the masculine pronoun also means feminine."

Why does that matter? Who cares if it says his, hers, or "of the Sergeant-at-Arms?" Sure, it lengthens the rules document and hence means using more paper, but does it really change anything legally? In the manner that they did it, yes. There exists a significant difference, legally, between "a designee" and "his designee."

Possessive pronouns (his, her, their, its) have a distinctive definition that is cumbersome to replace in a politically correct "gender neutral" form such as "of the Representative" or "of the Chairman," make that "of the Chair." But the authors of the new rules were lazy and didn't always use that cumbersome language.

This is not simply nit-picking. It is the kind of thing that lawyers, (most of which our "Representatives" are) are paid to notice and exploit. I don't know for sure why the minority party voted against the new rules in unison, but I do know that the laziness of the authors of The Speaker's new found political correctness rules and power has significantly changed in a negative way.

Nor are the bills associated with House Vote 5 & 6 out yet, though again we find The Party voting lock step while the minority party seems to have voted on their opinions of the merit of the bills. The Republicans voted both for and against the later bills.

Tennessee Taylor©2009, TNT, all rights reserved