NOT AWARE HE VOTED FOR INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The Daily News Journal’s weekly columnist Sam Stockard asked Bill Ketron why he voted for Race To The Federal Trough along with every other Republican legislator from Rutherford County. Here is what Ketron said:
Asked if he knows what the international benchmarks are, state Sen. Bill Ketron said, “I do not. We were told they would come from the U.S. Department of Education. The thing was on a fast track,” Ketron said. “We barely had time to read through it. It’s voluminous.”
Yet Ketron and fellow Republicans, Sen. Jim Tracy, of Shelbyville, Rep. Donna Rowland of Murfreesboro, Rep. Joe Carr of Lascassas and Rep. Pat Marsh of Shelbyville, members of the Rutherford County delegation, voted for it. Only state Rep. Kent Coleman, a Murfreesboro Democrat, voted against it.
So Republican Senator Bill Ketron admits that he voted for a massive overhaul of Tennessee’s education system without knowing much of what it actually accomplished. He also admits that as a “conservative” Republican, he thinks its just great to beg for half a billion dollars in stimulus cash with strings attached - strings that could bind our teachers to international standards. Sounds like something Tennessee’s Tea Party crowd would really oppose, but they are deathly silent on the matter because the legislation was backed by their republican overlords Ron Ramsey and Glen Casada. Just more evidence that the Tea Party crowd are willing to ignore their own stated beliefs if republicans tell them to, just like they did when they gave George W. Bush free reign to plunge our nation into huge war debts and pass unfunded federal mandates like No Child Left Behind.
Caption reads, 'The scene is reminiscent of Judas joining hands in prayer with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane moments before the soldiers arrived to arrest him.'
Tim Rudd, Rutherford County Republican and Tennessee Republican Party Executive Committee Member, sees Rep. Jason Mumpower (R-Bristol) and Jesus (God’s only begotten Son, Savior of All Mankind, Member of the Holy Trinity) as equals, who were both betrayed by one of their own. Jesus was betrayed by Judas, condemning him to die a horrible death on the very cross he was forced to carry and had his side pierced by a Roman soldier’s sword while others cast lots for his clothing. Rep. Jason Mumpower (R-Bristol) was simply denied the Speakership of the Tennessee House when Rep. Kent Williams (R-Elizabethton) joined with 49 Democrats to elect himself Speaker.
Its all the same to Rudd, who compares Mumpower to Jesus and Williams to Judas in the following graphic, which he sent by email to his fellow Executive Committee members. Williams was denied membership in the Tennessee Republican Party for the move, and Rudd wants to keep it that way even though some are pushing for Williams’ return to the republican fold.
What Rudd has done is sacreligious, which is especially egregious during the Christmas season when Christians celebrate Jesus’ birth. Folks across the state are understandably upset with Tim Rudd for comparing their Lord and Savior to a politician. Here’s an example from Betsy Phillips:
Tim Rudd, sir, that you would even make something like this and send it to other people pretty much proves that you are a terrible Christian. And I don’t say that mildly.
Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus say, “Please, use my suffering to illustrate your petty political problems.” And really, Rudd, how dare you try to pressure anyone into feeling like not doing what you want is akin to standing against Jesus.
You are not Jesus. Jason Mumpower is not Jesus.
People who do things other than what you would like them to do ARE NOT BETRAYING JESUS.
And, frankly, it’s evil for you to suggest that they are.
Red-faced & Red-handed, County Mayor Ernest Burgess is caught with his hand in the power jar
In a shocking display of arrogance, Republican County Mayor Ernest Burgess is proposing to repeal the entire Private Act of Tennessee State Law governing the hiring of Rutherford County’s legal representation. The current statute puts power in the hands of Rutherford County citizens through their elected County Commissioners to decide who represents the taxpayer’s interest. But Burgess will seek to completely to do away with current state law tonight before the County Steering Committee, and even proposes to make decisions for Sheriff Truman Jones on who he can and cannot hire to represent the Sheriff’s Department.
The proposed Legal Services Agreement stipulates that the County Attorney will decide who represents the Sheriff’s Dept. -
Section V. Subsection H- “…the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Dept. representation shall be handled by an attorney selected by the Sheriff, subject to the approval of the County Attorney, provided the hourly compensation for the attorney selected by the Sheriff shall not exceed $150 per hour”
It also stipulates that Rutherford County (aka taxpayers) will pay the bill if the County Attorney is sued for damages:
Section V, Subsection B - “…the County shall act in good faith to represent, defend, and pay liability claims against the County Attorney and associates”
In fact, County Attorney Jim Cope is currently a co-defendant in a lawsuit for his handling of the failed Bible Park. If County Mayor Ernest Burgess gets his way in grabbing the reins and implementing the Legal Services Agreement, will Mr. Cope be safe from liability and will taxpayers foot the bill?
UPDATE: The Daily News Journal’s Editorial Board is calling for revision of the Legal Services Agreement
Last month, we reported on the internal brawl of the Rutherford County republican party. Matthew Hurtt, former DNJ columnist/Rutherford young republican vice chairman and treasurer/conservative blogger, called for Lou Ann Zelnek to resign as Chairman of the Rutherford County republicans. Former Tennessee republican party communications director Bill Hobbs chimed in, criticizing her as a weak candidate with too much baggage.
Matt Hurtt followed up his call for a resignation with daily tweets:
matthewhurtt: 19 days since @LouAnnZelenik announced Congressional bid. When will she resign as Chairman of the RuCo GOP? This is a conflict of interest.
matthewhurtt: 18 days since @LouAnnZelenik announced Congressional bid. When will she resign as Chairman of the RuCo GOP? This is a conflict of interest.
matthewhurtt: 17 days since @LouAnnZelenik announced Congressional bid. When will she resign as Chairman of the RuCo GOP? This is a conflict of interest
Looks like Hurtt got his way, and its not surprising. Zelineck was already rejected by her own party in her own county when losing a mere state house primary, even though she outspent her opponent 4 to 1. It seems nothing has changed in the circular firing squad known as the Rutherford County republican party. Its no wonder Americans’ confidence in republican leadership is at a 25-year low.
CLAIMS FORMER GOP MAJORITY LEADER FRIST AGAINST FREEDOM
On her conservative talk radio show yesterday, Laura Ingraham and Republican Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann described Bob Dole and Bill Frist (R-TN) as “losers” who were against a “pro-freedom” agenda because he supports healthcare reform. Ingraham went so far as to suggest that Frist’s ideology was a “losing outlook”. Will the circular firing squad (otherwise known as the republican party) come to an end? Considering recent polling, let’s hope not…
The pair discussed recent statements made by retired GOP Senate Majority Leaders Bill Frist (TN) and Bob Dole (KS) in support of some type of comprehensive health reform.
Dole has called for Republicans to become engaged in the process, stating “we’ve got to do something” to solve the current crisis. Frist has endorsed the Senate Finance health reform bill, and has called out “people on the extreme” in his own party for falsely labeling President Obama’s health reform as “socialized medicine.” Clearly incensed by these comments, Ingraham and Bachmann traded barbs trashing the former Republican leaders for daring to veer away from a “pro-freedom agenda”:
INGRAHAM: Of course. God bless Bob Dole he just came on our show, I have great respect for the man. And also for Frist. But Frist presided over a pretty disastrous situation in the Senate.
BACHMANN: They lost.
INGRAHAM: They lost. And Bob Dole lost how many times on a national level? I guess I’ve lost count. [...] That Republican ideology and that Republican outlook has been a losing outlook. That’s why President Obama wants more of us to be like them.
BACHMANN: Because we want a pro-freedom agenda. And he’s trying to throw people around who he believes will increase a non-pro-freedom agenda.
A tracking poll conducted quarterly for the past 30 years has found that an initial rally by republicans earlier this year has been wiped away and replaced with the lowest confidence among likely voters that the GOP has faced since 1983. Chris Cilliza has the breakdown.
Less than one in five voters (19 percent) expressed confidence in Republicans’ ability to make the right decisions for America’s future while a whopping 79 percent lacked that confidence.
Among independent voters, who went heavily for Obama in 2008 and congressional Democrats in 2006, the numbers for Republicans on the confidence questions were even worse. Just 17 percent of independents expressed confidence in Republicans’ ability to make the right decision while 83 percent said they did not have that confidence.
On the generic ballot question, 51 percent of the sample said they would cast a vote for a Democratic candidate in their congressional district next fall while just 39 percent said they would opt for a GOP candidate. (As late as this summer, Republicans had seemingly narrowed the wide generic ballot lead Democrats enjoyed for much of the last two election cycles.)
And, perhaps most troubling for GOP hopes is the fact that just 20 percent of the Post sample identified themselves as Republicans, the lowest that number has been in Post polling since 1983. (No, that is not a typo.)
The poll was conducted by conventional and cellular telephone from Oct. 15 to 19 among a random sample of 1,004 adults. The margin of sampling error for the full poll is plus or minus three percentage points.
Matthew Hurtt, Former Rutherford County Young Republican Vice Chair & Treasurer, Conservative Blogger, Former DNJ Guest Columnist
SAYS ZELINICK’S BID FOR CONGRESS INCOMPATIBLE WITH PARTY RESPONSIBILITIES
ARLINGTON, VA - Former Rutherford County Young Republican Vice-Chairman and Daily News Journal columnist Matthew Hurtt suggests today that Rutherford County Republican Party Chairman Lou Ann Zelenik should resign her position following her announcement Tuesday that she would seek the Republican nomination for Congress in Tennessee’s 6th District against incumbent Democrat Bart Gordon.
In a post on MatthewHurtt.com today, Hurtt wrote, “My advice now is that [Zelenik] immediately and without hesitation resign her position as Chairman. Continuing in this role is in clear violation of what I would consider political professionalism. Zelenik absolutely must remove herself from the party leadership.”
Hurtt cited the conflict of interest in Zelenik’s chairmanship due to the fact that other Republican candidates filed to run. “Lou Ann is not the only Republican in this race,” Hurtt said. “Dave Evans,a Major General in the U.S. Army Reserve, filed to run for Congress long before Zelenik’s announcement. It seems to me that an unfair advantage exists for Zelenik due to apparent support by the Rutherford County Republican Party based on the fact that she serves on the Executive Committee.”
Zelenik, who served as the Vice-Chairman of the Rutherford County Republican Party at the time, unsuccessfully ran for State House in 2008 against Joe Carr in the Republican primary. Hurtt notes, “Zelenik’s candidacy in 2008 caused great turmoil among the Rutherford County Republican Party. Rumors were spread that were detrimental to the successful candidate, Joe Carr.”
It wasn’t hard to predict that Rutherford County Tea Party Leader Lou Ann Zelenick would have a hard time convincing her own party to vote for her.
Given the fact that Lou Ann is also the Rutherford County Republican Party Chairwoman, you’d think her party would be enthusiastic about her recent announcement to run for something.
Lou Ann’s own Republican Party rejected her primary bid against Joe Carr to represent the 48th District in the Tennessee State Legislature. Rutherford County Republican voters literally voted for a crook rather than sending Lou Ann Zelenick to represent the county in the House of Representatives.
Republicans knew better and probably wouldn’t trust Lou Ann as a dog catcher. Now Lou Ann’s own party is coming out to remind voters who the real Lou Ann Zelenick is, and it’s worth reading.
With all due respect to Dave Evans, his campaign isn’t catching fire and few people I have talked to think he can beat Bart Gordon. With all due respect to Lou Ann, the GOP isn’t going to beat Bart with someone who has been around politics for a long time, and who lost a state house primary, and who is not a “fresh face” in politics.
Lastly, I am concerned about the history of Zelenik’s political aspirations. She jumped into a Republican primary as a member of the RuCo GOP Executive Committee in 2008, running against Joe Carr – and she ran a nasty, nasty campaign. Now, she’s jumping into a Republican primary as a member of the RuCo GOP Executive Committee in 2010 against Dave Evans. Whether or not her campaign will be nasty is yet to be seen. Is she running to further the goals of the Republican Party or is she running to further the goals of Lou Ann Zelenik?
It’s easy to see how Lou Ann Zelenick comes to the conclusions she does when you read her latest brilliant analysis of an article that appeared in Roll Call today.
In the Roll Call article, Rep. Bart Gordon dismissed the notion that race played a major part in Obama losing the 6th District instead suggesting it was more due to Obama being too “urbane” for voters.
Obama “seemed to be too urbane” for 6th district voters, Gordon said. “If you’re from some of those small counties, [Obama was] some guy from Chicago that speaks differently than you.”
Gordon acknowledged that racism was also a factor in Obama’s performance in the district.
“Unfortunately, there was probably a little bit of that, but it was more just being urbane,” Gordon said.
Addressing Gordon’s charge of racism, Zelenik said, “I cannot imagine what would lead a Congressman to insult his constituents in this manner. The idea that Tennesseans vote based on race is a suggestion I reject entirely. The suggestion that Tennesseans are racists is particularly disturbing when it comes from a person who is supposed to represent our values.
Perhaps Zelenick would care to explain why she doesn’t know the difference between “urbane” and “urban” and apologize to rural voters for thinking we couldn’t figure it out. Bart Gordon has never lost a single county in the 6th District, while Ms. Zelenick was rejected by her own party for a mere state house seat that included only a small part of her own county. It’s easy to see why.
A 52-year-old state law stipulates that the Rutherford County Commission, not the mayor, should have chosen defense attorneys to handle a lawsuit filed by the family whose rezoning request for Bible Park USA was rejected.
According to the “Private Acts of 1957 Chapter 67″ charter between the state and the county, “no official, agent, department, branch or board of said County shall employ other attorneys to be paid out of the public revenues of said County without the approval of the Quarterly County Court (now called the county commission) of said County in advance of such employment.”
Mayor Ernest Burgess, however, made the decision after consulting with County Attorney Jim Cope behind closed doors.
“That’s an out-of-date statute, and we’re going to update it in the next legislative session starting in January,” Burgess said during an interview from his office at the County Courthouse.
How many more embarrassing and expensive mistakes is Mayor Burgess going to dump on the tax payers of Rutherford County? The law the Mayor claims is “out-of-date” is the law, and even the former chair of the Rutherford County Republican Party says what every law-abiding citizen knows.
Commissioner D.C. “Jim” Daniel wishes the 21-member commission had made the call on hiring the attorneys to defend the county.
“I believe we ought to follow the law,” said Daniel, a retired attorney. “The law is the law. Otherwise, you have chaos if you run around contrary to law.”
Chaos is exactly what the tax payers are paying for under Republican County Mayor Ernest Burgess, and we’re all paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in higher taxes for it thanks to Mayor Burgess. Rutherford County deserves a County Mayor and a County Attorney with the moral compass to uphold the rule of law. It is up to the voters to decide whether the criminal behavior of Republican County Mayor Ernest Burgess and bad advice of our county attorney represents the best interests of our community or the selfish interests of a men who think the law doesn’t apply to them.
Read more about Mayor Burgess’s costly lapses of character and judgment:
Rep. Joe Carr (R-Lascassas) told Channel 4 today that he is refusing a request by voters to return thousands of dollars he recently told the Tennessean he “inadvertently” took from the tax payers and now claims he’s “entitled” to it.
Rep. Carr also told Channel 4 he took over $18,000 (more than any other lawmaker) in expenses to pay for hotel rooms, but no one seems to understand why he’d need that much money when he lives less than an hour from the state Capitol.
In the video above, Rep. Carr couldn’t explain how he “inadvertently” drove himself to the bank to “inadvertently” cash 13 weeks worth of bogus meal and hotel expense checks.
Joe had the nerve to challenge his fellow big spending county Republicans to join him in not accepting anymore expense claims for the entire calendar year after we caught him with his hand in the tax payer’s pocket.
Rep Joe Carr: I didn't know I took all that money.
Rep. Carr must think Rutherford County voters are stupid enough to believe he inadvertently requested expense money, inadvertently signed for the check and inadvertently drove himself to the bank to cash them.
This weekend’s Tennessean focused more on Rep. Joe Carr (R-48) out spending every single lawmaker in the House when it came to requesting $171 per day for hotel and meal expenses.
Rep. Carr had the nerve to tell the newspaper that he “inadvertently” requested more money for hotel and meal expenses than lawmakers who live in Memphis and Knoxville. Rep. Carr lives only 30 miles from the Capitol, and no one seems to know how he could have run up so many expenses.
“Among area lawmakers, Carr, a first-term lawmaker, claimed the most in per diem expenses in the first quarter of 2009, filing for $9,234 in charges. Carr said he inadvertently ran up the per diems while preparing for his first session in the state legislature.
“Because the state finances were in such a mess, after the election and before the session, I took several trips to Nashville,” Carr said. “I didn’t realize that every time I came to the legislature, they did a per diem.”
Carr said he did not become aware of the extent of the charges until media attention was called to it in the wake of Williams’ letter. He pledged to claim fewer days in the future.
During the last legislative session, Rep. Carr tried to deny extended unemployment benefits to residents in his district, but then he made bogus expense requests for hotels and meals he never purchased and got his own unemployment stimulus check compliments of Tennessee tax payers.
Now that the media caught him with his hand in the tax payer’s wallet, Rep. Joe Carr has promised to claim fewer bogus expense requests in the future. That must make the voters of Lascassas feel much better.
“Mr. Carr seems to be talking out of both sides of his mouth on this issue,” Forrester said. “Back home he rants about taxes, but he sure comes to Nashville often to collect his per diem, which reimburses lawmakers for their expenses while doing official business.
“Speaker Kent Williams even sent a letter recently to House members encouraging them to limit use of expense money they collect from the state.”
It must be embarrassing for Rep. Carr to know voters pay attention to these things. For months, Rep. Carr ignored his own party’s leadership warning him and other free -loaders to stop using per diems as his personal unemployment check, but that’s exactly what he’s done.
What’s worse is Rep. Carr doesn’t feel he owes anyone an explanation.
Like many of his constituents, Rep. Carr has fallen on hard times in this 1 1/2 year long Bush recession. But instead of trying to help his district recover from the results of 8 years of failed conservative economic policy, Rep. Carr drafted legislation demanding Gov. Bredesen deny extended jobless benefits to the growing unemployed in Lascassas when they needed it the most. Rep. Carr told listeners on 1450 WGNS that extending their unemployment benefits “would cost too much of the tax payer’s money.”
Now we find out that Rep. Carr, who has no job himself, has been taking his own personal stimulus check directly from tax payers through bogus $171 a day per diem requests meant to pay for hotel and meals for out of town legislators. Rep. Joe Carr claimed more than $18,000 for hotels and meals, even though he lives 30 miles from Nashville. More than $7,000 of that was since July when nothing is going on at the Capitol!
Lascassas deserves an honest, hard working Representative who doesn’t spend as much tax money as Memphis legislators who actually need hotel rooms. The voters ought to ask Rep. Carr what on earth he did with their money.
And now they’re back. They don’t want Nissan to have $1.6 billion in government auto loans to hire 1,000 workers to build the electric car of the future. They don’t want local construction companies bidding on local ARRA road projects to have a dime of their tax money. They don’t want enhanced health care for our veterans. They don’t want extended jobless benefits for our county’s growing unemployed or the millions being invested in our roads and schools.
What they want is to keep the status quo for the insurance companies because that’s worked so well for our families. Oh yeah, and they want to see the President’s birth certificate. That about sums up their plan to lift us out of their 8 years of failed ideas and policies.
Murfreesboro’s Tea Party organizer Christian Hidalgo made Keith Olbermann’s ‘World’s Best Persons’ tonight for being what Keith called “another tax protester who’s actually just a tax dodger.”
NOT AWARE HE VOTED FOR INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Last month, we reported on the 
CLAIMS FORMER GOP MAJORITY LEADER FRIST AGAINST FREEDOM
A tracking poll conducted quarterly for the past 30 years has found that an initial rally by republicans earlier this year has been wiped away and replaced with the lowest confidence among likely voters that the GOP has faced since 1983. Chris Cilliza has the 
Zelenik, who served as the Vice-Chairman of the Rutherford County Republican Party at the time, unsuccessfully ran for State House in 2008 against Joe Carr in the Republican primary. Hurtt notes, “Zelenik’s candidacy in 2008 caused great turmoil among the Rutherford County Republican Party. Rumors were spread that were detrimental to the successful candidate, Joe Carr.”
In the video above, Rep. Carr couldn’t explain how he “inadvertently” drove himself to the bank to “inadvertently” cash 13 weeks worth of bogus meal and hotel expense checks. 
