Free Republic

WASHINGTON - A Senate panel voted Tuesday to provide weapons to rebels battling the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the first time lawmakers have endorsed the aggressive U.S. military step of arming the opposition. ... "The greatest humanitarian crisis in the world is unfolding in and around Syria," said Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), the committee chief. ". . . The United States must play a role in tipping the scales toward opposition groups and working to build a free and democratic Syria." Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the panel's top Republican, implicitly criticized the Obama administration as he...

The Battle of Athens (sometimes called the McMinn County War) was a rebellion led by citizens in Athens and Etowah, Tennessee, United States, against the local government in August 1946. The citizens, including some World War II veterans, accused the local officials of political corruption and voter intimidation. Here is what happened: Following World War II in 1946, violence erupted when returning American soldiers discovered their Tennessee county had been taken over by political corruption. Their plan to take it back involved bullets—lots of bullets—and dynamite. Why Athens in McMinn County, Tennessee became a battleground was due to Paul Cantrell,...

Complete Headline: Michelle Obama Tells Grads: ‘I Could Take Up a Whole Afternoon Talking About’ Barack Obama’s Failures First lady Michelle Obama in her commencement speech at a high school in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday said she could “take up a whole afternoon talking about” her husband’s failures. “And then there’s this guy, Barack Obama, who lost – I could take up a whole afternoon talking about his failures, but – he lost his first race for Congress, and now he gets to call himself my husband,” she told graduates of Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School during commencement...

The fallout from the Internal Revenue Service targeting scandal is going to be felt in many other federal agencies and programs, including Obamacare and immigration reform, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker says. "This episode is going to have a big effect … There are multiple, multiple issues that have to be addressed,'' Corker told "The Steve Malzberg Show'' on Newsmax TV. "This is a wakeup call for all of those who see our large government and the way people can be coerced … For instance, as we move to immigration reform, just being aware … of judgments that take place within...

When a Tennessee lawyer asked the IRS for tax-exempt status for a mentoring group that trained high school and college students about conservative political philosophy, the agency responded with a list of 95 questions in 31 parts, including an ultimatum for a list of everyone the group had trained, or planned to train. 'Provide details regarding all training you have provided or will provide,' the IRS demanded. 'Indicate who has received or will receive the training and submit copies of the training material.' That question was part of the tax collection agency's February 14, 2012 letter to Kevin Kookogey. founder...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - ‘Bible Belt’ County Schools Promote Terrorism Against Jews?Posted By Laurie Cardoza Moore On May 9, 2013 @ 12:05 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 6 Comments The Holocaust did not happen in a vacuum. Germans and world leaders turned blind eyes to the growing anti-Semitism in Germany while Adolf Hitler incrementally executed his evil agenda. Despite annual reminders to “never forget,” schools across the United States, and specifically in the State of Tennessee, are once again oblivious to the anti-Semitic rhetoric that has infiltrated our schools.One such community is Williamson County, Tennessee that sits in...

The United States will "shortly" begin arming Syrian rebels, looking to boost moderate factions over al Qaida-affiliated extremists whose rise would be a national security "nightmare," the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee told CBS News on Tuesday.

A 61-year-old man was shot to death by police while his wife was handcuffed in another room during a drug raid on the wrong house. Police admitted their mistake, saying faulty information from a drug informant contributed to the death of John Adams Wednesday night. They intended to raid the home next door. The two officers, 25-year-old Kyle Shedran and 24-year-old Greg Day, were placed on administrative leave with pay. “They need to get rid of those men, boys with toys,” said Adams’ 70-year-old widow, Loraine. John Adams was watching television when his wife heard pounding on the door. Police...

Jeff Quinn ( http://www.gunblast.com ) discusses widespread price-gouging of guns and ammunition by unscrupulous dealers. -I've heard of people charging $70 for brick of .22lr and actin' like they were doing someone a favor.- -I've heard of 15 guys standing in line at 7:00am in Wal-Mart and buyin' 3 boxes of ammo apiece. Then they all go outside and put the ammo in the same vehicle. They're buyin' for some dealer who's gonna jack it up for 4 times what they paid.- -You walk into some place and some guy wants to charge you $2000 for a $800 AR, well,...

Probably the most bracing aspect of Ira Katznelson's new history of the New Deal, Fear Itself, is his portrait of the marriage of progressive domestic policy and white supremacy. I knew the outlines of this stuff, but for a flaming commie like me, the extent of the embrace is hard to take: Far more enduring was the New Deal's intimate partnership with those in the South who preached white supremacy. For this whole period -- the last in American history when public racism was legitimate in speech and action -- southern representatives acted not on the fringes but as an...

During a hearing into the constitutionality of voter identification laws enacted across the country, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) tore into claims by the Department of Justice that those laws were racially discriminatory. In the space of five minutes, Gowdy knocked down the claims, one by one, that a voter ID law passed in South Carolina in 2011 discriminated against African-Americans or was dissimilar to laws the Justice Department had cleared in a variety of other states. Gowdy began by noting that, when the Palmetto State’s voter identification law was passed, a third of the state’s congressional delegation were African-American; former...

The FBI has alleged 45-year-old Paul Kevin Curtis was the sender. FBI Special Agent in Charge Daniel McMullen said Mr Curtis was arrested at his apartment in Corinth, near the Tennessee state line about east of Memphis. Authorities are still waiting for definitive tests on the letters sent to President Barack Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi. An FBI intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press said those two letters were postmarked Memphis, Tennessee....

A proposal that would allow school districts to hire individuals with prior law enforcement experience to handle security is headed for a full Senate vote. The measure sponsored by Republican Sen. Frank Niceley of Strawberry Plains passed the Senate Finance Committee 6-2 on Monday. The companion bill is set to be heard on the House floor on Tuesday....

Three people found asleep in a tent with the corpse of a slain man in a homeless camp are suspects in three killings that occurred in the span of a few hours Tuesday, Knoxville police said Friday...

The Republican plan to block debate on Senate Bill 649, which requires background checks on almost all gun purchases and transfers, failed spectacularly Thursday morning when sixteen Republican Senators joined almost all of the Democrats to vote in favor opening debate on the bill. Among those voting to defeat the filibuster were 9 Democrats with “A” ratings from the National Rifle Association, and 12 A-rated Republicans (out of 16 Republican “ayes”). Two Democrats, Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK), joined the majority of Republican Senators who tried to prevent debate, much less a vote, on the bill....

KINGSPORT, TN (WJHL) - Three women testified against former Mount Carmel Vice-Mayor William Blakely, graphically recounting times he exposed himself while driving. News Channel 11 had the only reporter in court for Thursday's preliminary hearing in Kingsport. "I was scared that I was gonna wreck, he was gonna cause me to wreck," witness Deborah Sturgill said. "It seems that every victim would tell the same story. But I knew all the victims did not know each other," Kingsport Police Detective Terry Christian said. Personal accounts in Thursday's testimonies started the same - Blakely allegedly waving to get the drivers' attention,...

Hikers using part of the Appalachian Trail are being warned about a stomach virus. The U.S. Forest Service released a warning Tuesday to hikers traveling from Hot Springs north to the Tennessee border to be aware of a stomach virus, the Asheville Citizen-Times is reporting. That section of the trail goes through the Appalachian Ranger District in Pisgah National Forest. .....The article is excerpting one from the Asheville paper that hates FR and doesn't allow linking. If you click the article you'll see a link to the Asheville article. This is the time of year when through-hikers start out from...

When 14-year-old Katelyn Norman learned that her bone cancer was going to take her life, she drew up a list of her final wishes - a slow dance, a last kiss, a date to prom. But as her friends gathered at a venue in LaFollette, Tennessee on Tuesday night to throw the prom in her honour, Katelyn was airlifted to hospital after struggling to breathe. So classmates and relatives brought the party to her bedside instead, bringing balloons, music and her smartly-dressed date to make sure she didn't miss out on completing her bucket list. Katelyn has been fighting osteosarcoma,...

In her tragically short 14 years of life, the young girl spread more hope than most people do even until old age. She had been fighting bone cancer for two years when her doctors told her that her diagnosis was terminal. Despite this heartbreaking news, Katelyn's winning smile rarely left her face as she compiled a "bucket list," determined to appreciate every day as much as she could.

Is Fox News going soft? That is what a number of Tea Party activists are saying and they are organizing a boycott to protest the conservative station’s coverage, especially what they view as the network’s relative silence in investigating the attacks on a diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. “Particularly after the election, Fox keeps turning to the left,” said Stan Hjerlied, 75, of Fort Collins, Colo., and a participant in the boycott. He pointed to an interview Fox News CEO Roger Ailes gave after the election in which he said that the Republican Party and Fox News need to modernize,...

A group of Tennessee lawmakers is preparing to issue an ultimatum to the University of Tennessee-Knoxville – either defund the first-ever “Sex Week” or they will defund the university. Lawmakers, alumni, and taxpayers are furious that the university allocated nearly $20,000 to fund a week-long salute to sex that included a poetry-reading lesbian bondage expert, a campus-wide condom scavenger hunt and seminars on—among other things – oral sex and lesbian erotica. “We should be teaching these children what is important to learn so they can get jobs,” state Sen. Stacey Campfield told Fox News. “I don’t know what jobs they...

The University of Tennessee is set to spend $20,000 of student funds on a “sex week” beginning April 7, which will feature a “Golden Condom Scavenger Hunt” and an “interactive workshop” from self-described “lesbian BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Sadism, and Masochism) expert” Sinclair Sexsmith. A flyer for the University of Tennessee's "sex week" that is set to include a lecture entitled "How Many Licks Does it Take…." The Golden Condom Scavenger Hunt is described on the event’s official website as a campus-wide search for a golden condom.

**SNIP** The email is designed to look like a fundraising pitch for Judd from Democrats. "Ashley Judd needs your help. Despite the fact that she lives in Tennessee, Judd desperately wants to run for Senate in neighboring Kentucky. I know what you're thinking: how can a person who has said "Tennessee is home," that San Francisco is "my American city home" and that she "winters in Scotland" run for Senate in Kentucky?" the email reads. "Well, that's where you come in.," it says. Littered with links to "donate" to Judd's campaign, the email also includes photos of the Versailles, Kentucky...

When Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch announced in late January that the department would no longer use the .40-caliber Glock pistol that officers have carried since 2002, he didn’t mention any problems with the gun. Rausch said the replacement gun, a .45-caliber Sig Sauer, had more stopping power than the .40-calibers. Testing among officers also revealed they were more accurate using the Sig Sauer, he said.

<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Gov. Bill Haslam says Tennessee won't participate in a partnership with the federal government in establishing a health insurance exchange.</p>

Georgia state lawmakers are once again contesting their border with Tennessee in an effort to siphon Tennessee water across the state line. The Georgia General Assembly began work on a resolution earlier this month which, if passed, would lead to a proposal to Tennessee government: You give us access to the Tennessee River at Nickajack Lake, and we'll acknowledge the current boundary as the official border. Tennessee lawmakers are dismissive of the latest ploy in Georgia's ongoing quest to tap into the river. "I don't think anyone's taking it seriously," said Tennessee House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga. But for...

NASHVILLE — A bill letting Tennessee’s 375,000 handgun-carry permit holders store firearms in vehicles parked on most public and private lots sailed through the state Senate Judiciary Committee this afternoon despite objections voiced by businesses. The measure’s next stop is the Senate floor. Eight Judiciary Committee members, including Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, voted for the National Rifle Association-backed bill, sponsored by Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey of Blountville. A lone Democrat, Sen. Ophelia Ford of Memphis, abstained. Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Bill Ozier told lawmakers that large and smaller businesses continued to have concerns about the legislation,...

<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Senate Finance Committee has advanced a proposed constitutional amendment to explicitly ban a state income tax to a full floor vote.</p> <p>The panel voted 9-1 on Tuesday to advance the measure sponsored by Republican Sen. Brian Kelsey of Germantown that would also ban a state or local payroll tax.</p>

Viking Range Corp.'s new owner is laying off one-fifth of the company's workers. Middleby Corp., based near Chicago, said it laid off about 140 of Viking's 700 employees Thursday. --snip-- Viking cooking schools in Ridgeland, Miss., and Memphis, Tenn., will close...

Elton, the "Gay" Dog, Spared the Gas Chamber A dog in Tennessee whose owner dumped it at a shelter because he thought it was gay was saved from euthanasia at the last minute by a kindhearted animal lover. The dog was left with a rabies control shelter in Jackson, Tenn., this week “not because he’s mean or tears things up… But because his owner says he’s gay!” the group Jackson TN Euthanasia, which tries to find homes for dogs in kill-shelters, posted on its Facebook page on Wednesday. “He hunched another male dog so his owner threw him away because...

Knoxville, Tenn., known for being the home of Dolly Parton and the Tennessee Valley Authority, was named number one on the American Bible Society's "Most Bible-Minded Cities" list. With research conducted by the Barna Group, the ABS' recently released findings were based off of seven years' worth of telephone and online interviews with a random sample space of 42,855 adults. After Knoxville, the other nine cities on the top ten list in descending order are: Shreveport, La.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Birmingham, Ala.; Jackson, Miss.; Springfield, Mo.; Charlotte, N.C.; Roanoke and Lynchburg, Va. sharing the number 8 spot; Huntsville, Ala.; and Charleston,...

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported the new process for licenses is being piloted at the Hamilton County Clerk's office, as well as two driver service centers in Sumner and Robertson counties. It will involve checking the identity of people who apply for or renew their licenses, and means people will leave with a paper interim license while their photo is run through a database and checked against 12 million other images. A plastic laminated copy of their driver's licenses will be mailed to their address. Lori Bullard, assistant commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, said...

US-based Hemlock Semiconductor said Monday it planned to shed 400 of the staff at its Michigan and Tennessee production plants due to an oversupply in the polysilicon industry and an expected drop in orders from China. Hemlock, a joint venture of US silicon-based materials maker Dow Corning, Japanese Shin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd (TSE:4063) and Mitsubishi Materials Corp (TYO:5711), makes polycrystalline silicon for the production of semiconductors and solar cells. The company is suffering from the expanding trade dispute between the US and China in which the Asian country launched anti-dumping and anti-subsidy probes into polysilicon imported from the US, the...

The following incident happened at a high school only minutes from my home in East Tennessee. I am sure that no one outside of our immediate region has ever heard the story, because the only person who was shot-and killed-was the gunman. These types of stories don’t fit the narrative of those who want “gun-free zones” and so are ignored by the national media. In this case an armed Security Resource Officer, Carolyn Gudger, became a local hero and saved an unknown number of lives by holding the gunman at bay until backup arrived. The text below is drawn from...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A U.S. soldier who left his family farm in Tennessee to volunteer for the Korean War is finally coming home more than six decades later to be buried next to his mother and father, authorities said on Friday. With the help of DNA samples provided by his siblings in 2004, the U.S. military identified remains recovered in North Korea as Private First Class Glenn Schoenmann, who was 20 when he died in December 1950. Schoenmann was among the nearly 8,000 U.S. troops unaccounted for from the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 until 1953. His remains are...

If you watched Obama’s comments this afternoon you would not be remiss to think it was actually a campaign event. Obama came out, flanked by ‘middle class Americans’ or what Twitchy aptly referred to as a “human rainbow,� and played the blame game all while reminding Americans Republicans that he won the election. Oh, and the “middle class taxpayers� repeatedly applauding when Obama took shots at Congress for its inaction thus far really helped set the pep rally vibe, too. GOP lawmakers weren’t thrilled with the comments, either: Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said President Obama likely lost votes for the...

Leading Democrats are putting together fallback proposals if Washington fails to reach a deal on the “fiscal cliff” that would allow the party to cast itself as seeking to cut taxes. “Of course, I’ve got a backup plan in the event that we don’t succeed here,” Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Friday. “I’m sure the White House has one too.” Tax rates are set to expire on most households in January if Congress does not act to extend some of the rates, something some Democrats have long seen as giving their party an advantage....

Two suspects, one armed with an "assault-type rifle," robbed a Cocke County bank and disarmed a responding police officer at gunpoint before making their escape this afternoon, authorities said. The robbery was reported about 3 p.m. at the Tennessee State Bank, 107 Epley Road, in Newport, according to Marshall Stone, supervisory agent with the FBI's Knoxville division. A nearby Newport Police Department officer was the first to respond to the holdup alarm, entering the bank while both suspects, dressed in black, still were inside, said Newport Police Chief Maurice Shults.

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NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam announced Monday the state will not operate a state-based healthcare exchange under the federal Affordable Care Act. Haslam made the following statement on the issue: “Tennessee faces a decision this week about health insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act. “I'm not a fan of the law. The more I know, the more harmful I think it will be for small businesses and costly for state governments and the federal government. It does nothing to address the cost of health care in our country. It only expands a broken system. That’s why I’ve...

In Tennessee last May, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam appointed Samar Ali as international director of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD). Attempts to connect her to stealth jihad have been ridiculed. Yet when one connects the dots between Ali and several organizations and individuals, a number of troubling relationships arise, especially regarding the phenomenon known as Sharia-compliant finance (SCF).

While searching through the plastic containers full of screws and bolts at McGinnis Hardware, John Ashworth stopped, picked up a 1 ½-inch metal flat washer and showed it to employees. "I don't know where else you'll find something like that," said Ashworth, 79, who has been a customer for the last 40 years. For Ashworth and other longtime McGinnis Hardware patrons, the days of driving to the Collierville Town Square to pick up tools, plumbing equipment and other home repair items soon will come to an end. McGinnis Hardware will close its doors at 99 N. Center St. Dec. 22,...

Just had a rather strong and lengthy earthquake here in East Tennessee. The event started with a sudden shake, then a pause, then a lengthy quake of significant magnitude, I would estimate to be in the range of 3 to 4. Is this event connected to shaking in other areas? How is that mountain side in the Azores(?) which is capable of sending a massive tsunami toward the East Coast fairing? Ant word from other freepers out there?

SNIP Appearing on his weekly segment of the "Jay Cutler Show" on WMVP-AM 1000 on Monday, the Bears quarterback was asked by co-host Tom Waddle about his voting preference: Mitt Romney or Barack Obama. "That's a touchy subject," Cutler said initially. "Yeah, I have been following the debates and everything. I do live in Tennessee. I'm voting for Mitt (Romney) this election season." Cutler then quickly asked co-hosts Waddle and Marc Silverman their voting choice. "I'm voting for Mitt Romney, as well," Waddle said. As many in attendance at Tommy Nevin's in Evanston booed, Waddle added: "That's what this country...

In the United States, Nevada has produced the same outcome as the national results in every presidential election beginning in 1912, except in 1976, thus voting for the winner 96.0% of the time. Ohio is the second closest with a match rate of 93.1%. Missouri, often referred to as the Missouri bellwether, was for many years the best match of the national results, but since 2008 is now third closest with a 92.6% match rate. The American bellwether states (with respect to presidential elections) currently are: Nevada - 1 miss (1976) from 1912 on (96.0%, slightly "too Republican"). VERY SLIGHT...

The Tennessee Democratic Party is trying to take full advantage of news accounts detailing extra marital affairs of Republican Congressman Scott DesJarlais. The party chair now sees dethroning the freshman representative as a political parting shot.. Over the weekend, the Chattanooga Times Free Press published the story of an anonymous woman who says she dated DesJarlais and that they smoked marijuana together. Even the newspaper said it couldn’t confirm all the details. The DesJarlais campaign issued a statement questioning the factual accuracy but not denying the decade-old affair.

Rev. Al Sharpton addressed a group of community and political leaders in Downtown Memphis Thursday morning, calling for fair elections and expressing his hope for a high voter turnout in Shelby County. Sharpton flew in from New York at the request of Gregory Grant, president of the Memphis chapter of Sharpton's group, the National Action Network, to encourage the formation of a volunteer poll watcher's brigade to staff all 222 polling places in the county. "We just want an honest election. We want the process to be right," Sharpton said. Sharpton said he was excited about the prospect of a...

'Let the savage, rioting masses know we will not bow to the lunacy of Islam' In 2010 filmmaker and Daily Kos columnist Eric Allen Bell was harvesting all the fruits of an American leftist in Hollywood: connections, lucrative contracts, rising fame and fortune and especially the paternal nod of approval of the powers that be. His peer and co-worker Michael Moore was piling up the Oscars, and all was right with their little version of the world. And then came Bell’s documentary project “Not Welcome,” concerning a Bible Belt backlash against the construction of a 53,000 square-foot mega-mosque. In the...

NASHVILLE — Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey says there's a good chance Democrats will be left with just seven seats in the Tennessee state Senate after the Nov. 6 election. House Speaker Beth Harwell's most optimistic Republican scenario has the minority party with just 24 representatives remaining. They and other Republican leaders say there's virtually no doubt that the GOP will hit a new high-water mark in the 2012 elections by gaining a two-thirds "super majority" in both chambers of the Legislature. There is considerable confidence in Republican ranks that they will go beyond that to what some are calling "a...

Breaking with a long tradition of endorsing Democratic candidates for president, The Tennessean (the state of Tennessee's largest daily newspaper) endorsed Mitt Romney today. The normally left-leaning editorial page cited Obama's ram-rod approach to healthcare reform and inability to control spending as reasons to deny the president a second term. For all his efforts, ranging from the stimulus package to green-energy development, to bring us out of recession, he has never found the key. He has generally made poor choices of the people needed to get the job done, such as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. And the number of jobs...