Free Republic

Sen. Bob Corker: Donald Trump "delivered a very good foreign policy speech". Read the whole statement...

MT. JULIET, Tenn. (WATE) – A Middle Tennessee pastor is stirring up controversy from both supporters and those opposed to the transgender bathroom bill. Pastor Greg Locke of Global Vision Bible Church in Mt. Juliet’s video about Target’s new bathroom policy has received over 14 million views. In April, the Tennessee House sponsor of the bill, which would have require students in public school grades K-12 and higher education institutions to use the restroom that corresponds with their sex at birth. Shortly after the bill was pulled, Target issued a store policy that allows transgender customers to use the bathroom...

Updated | A Tennessee college student has apologized and a professor is “devastated” after an uproar began when six nooses of different colors arranged in the order of the rainbow found on Monday hanging from a tree on the campus of Tennessee’s Austin Peay State University (APSU) led to confusion and anger and were called “deeply disturbing and hurtful” by the university president—but on Tuesday an investigation found the display was a class art project. The display gained national attention after the Instagram account for the university’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) posted...

Last Thursday, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam vetoed HB0615/SB1108; legislation that, in the exact language of the bill, stated “The Holy Bible is hereby designated as the official state book.” Justifying his veto of a bill that passed with overwhelming support in both the House and Senate, Haslam wrote in a letter to the Speaker of the House, “In addition to the constitutional issues with the bill, my personal feeling is that this bill trivializes the Bible, which I believe is a sacred text. “If we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then we shouldn’t be recognizing...

On Thursday, Williamson County Circuit Court Judge Michael Binkley rejected pro-abortion advocates’ efforts to invalidate Tennessee’s Amendment 1, which clarifies that the state Constitution contains no right to abortion. Abortion advocates had challenged the law, which voters enacted in 2014, on an interpretation of the state requirements for constitutional amendments that claims the number of “yes” votes must be equal to or greater than the number of people voting for governor plus one, and therefore only voters who voted in the gubernatorial race should have their votes on the amendment counted. The state countered by arguing that Amendment 1 was...

NASHVILLE, Tennessee–Controversy is threatening to bring an early end to the regime of thirty-year-old Ryan Haynes, who was named chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party in April 2015. More than two dozen Republican members of the Tennessee House of Representatives signed an April 18 letter to Haynes demanding the immediate termination of his political director, Walker Ferrell, on the grounds that his wife, Taylor Ferrell, a paid consultant of the Tennessee Republican Party, is also being paid to defeat a number of incumbent Republican members of the House in primary challenges. The latest problem comes less than a month after...

GOP State Party officials caught in a huge conflict-of-interest. 27 GOP legislators call Haynes and staff on the carpet for “unethical” behavior. Wife of state GOP political director paid to defeat incumbent Republican officeholders. In the Pantheon of Dumb Political Operatives, these people deserve a special place of honor. Instead of us here at RTP rehashing today’s events, we provide our loyal readers (both of ‘em) the actual letter, delivered of course by (more than) one of our Merry Band of Tipsters. Letter 1 letter 2 Whew! There is already major fallout over this, what with everyone scurrying to cover...

SEC members say GOP executive director making “veiled threats” against signers of letter. Brietbart News posts major national story on the controversy. The fallout over the crass conflicts-of-interest and “insider trading” by the ethically challenged state GOP staff and leadership is only just beginning. Baghdad Brent After over one-third of the House GOP caucus sent a scathing letter to Chairman Ryan Haynes about the corrupt arrangement between the party’s political director and his political consultant wife, the immediate knee-jerk response came from the state party’s executive director, “Baghdad Brent” Leatherwood, who said that Haynes “would in no way allow his...

State Party Chair begs Legislators to take their name off letter. RTP says waverers and others may be begging to sign back ON to the letter once they hear about new revelations. GOP state party chairman Ryan Haynes, instead of spending his time correcting the sordid scandal enveloping state party headquarters, has decided to attack the messengers. In the meantime, we offer a friendly caution to those wavering legislators and others who have rushed to defend Haynes: RTP has been tracking down accusations of other misdeeds and questionable arrangements that will likely make letter-deniers pleading to get their signatures back...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/editorials/2015/10/06/editorial-ted-cruz-wrong-syrian-refugees/73486846/

On Tuesday, the Tennessee General Assembly declared it will sue the federal government over its refugee resettlement program on Tenth Amendment grounds. The State Senate passed a resolution authorizing that lawsuit in a 29 to 4 vote one day after it passed the Tennessee House by a 69 to 25 margin. “Today we struck a blow for Liberty by finally adopting SJR467,” State Senator Mark Norris (R-Collierville), the co-sponsor of the resolution who shepherded it through the State Senate, tells Breitbart News. “The General Assembly clearly understands the importance of public safety and state sovereignty as demonstrated by the overwhelming...

On Tuesday, the Tennessee General Assembly declared it will sue the federal government over its refugee resettlement program on Tenth Amendment grounds. The State Senate passed a resolution authorizing that lawsuit in a 29 to 4 vote one day after it passed the Tennessee House by a 69 to 25 margin. “Today we struck a blow for Liberty by finally adopting SJR467,” State Senator Mark Norris (R-Collierville), the co-sponsor of the resolution who shepherded it through the State Senate, tells Breitbart News.

A Tennessee transgender bathroom bill has failed after a sponsor pulled the measure until next year. The move Monday comes after intense opposition from businesses and gay, lesbian and transgender rights’ organizations that called the measure discriminatory and amid questions of whether the state would lose more than $1 billion in federal education funds. …

Cellphone video shows members of a crowd jostling a police officer in Tennessee on Tuesday as he attempted to arrest a man suspected of assaulting a woman, authorities said. Shortly after 6 p.m., Officer Matthew Cammarn witnessed the alleged assault by 22-year-old Brian Shannon near the intersection of South 7th and Sylvan Streets, according to a statement from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. The suspect “aggressively walked up to the officer,” who told him to put his hands behind his back and attempted to take him into custody, the statement said. Shannon allegedly pulled away, grabbed Cammarn and pulled him...

Former State Rep. Joe Carr is challenging incumbent Tennessee Sixth Congressional District Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) 67% in the Republican primary. The vote will be in August. Carr, who narrowly lost to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) 19% in the 2014 Republican U.S. Senate primary in the Volunteer State, says Black is not a conservative. The winner of that primary is expected to easily win the Congressional seat in the heavily Republican district in November’s general election. “Millions of Republicans across the country have voted overwhelmingly to reject the business as usual ‘insider games’ in Washington. We have elected Republican majorities...

Gallatin Police Department officials have released body cam and dash cam video of a fatal officer involved shooting. The shooting happened Wednesday morning. Gallatin officers were responding to a call from assistance from Sumner County Deputies.

NASHVILLE, TN For the second day in a row, a Metro police officer has been injured in East Nashville. According to police, Officer Matthew Cammarn saw Brian Shannon hitting a woman at the James Cayce public housing development on Tuesday night. When the officer confronted Shannon about it, Shannon allegedly shoved Cammarn to the ground and began hitting him. Several bystanders recorded the incident on their cellphones. Shannon ran away but was later arrested. Police said they found four partial prescription Xanax bars in a plastic bag in Shannon's pocket. Shannon has a no trespassing waiver at the James Cayce...

Gun maker Beretta USA is opening a new factory on Friday, the culmination of generous land and tax offers in Tennessee and restrictive gun laws at its old Maryland location. Beretta USA is holding a ribbon cutting ceremony at the recently built facility in Gallatin, Tennessee, on April 15, having moved all manufacturing from Maryland. The new factory is 160,000 square feet, compared to 115,000 square feet if left behind, said Gabriele de Plano, vice president of defense marketing and operations for Beretta USA. "We've got plenty of space to expand as well," he said.

YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS! CRUZ SUPPORTERS ATTEMPT COUP AT EAGLE FORUM! Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly has been a national leader of the conservative movement since the publication of her best-selling 1964 book, A Choice Not An Echo. She has been a leader of the pro-family movement since 1972 when she led the fight to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment. Phyllis Schlafly is 91 years-old. On March 11, 2016 conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly endorsed Donald Trump for President at his St. Louis rally. But not everyone in her organization, Eagle Forum – or her family – agreed with Phyllis Schlafly’s...

I’ve often found myself wondering about the bias I see at the Catholic News Service(CNS), which seems to gloss over many of the serious problems in the Church. Today, my friend Michael Hichborn at the Lepanto Institute has a story on CNS Director and Editor in Chief Tony Spence that may help shed some light on the bias of the USCCB’s official news and information service: Tony Spence has been the head of the Catholic News Service since 2004.  Over the last few weeks, Spence has been publishing statements on his own twitter feed, identifying him as the head of CNS, speaking...