Ronnie Barrett plays the victim at the legislature.
It's amazing what a little negative publicity can do. The legislature would love to help out Murfreesboro arms merchant Ronnie Barrett--a big political contributor, NRA hotshot and boyfriend of Republican Rep. Donna Rowland. All he wants is a state law just for him to force the Transportation Department to knuckle under to his demands for a new road to his ammo factory. But after a few pesky newspaper stories raised questions about this very special legislation, it's suddenly running into trouble. As it turns out, lawmakers will go only so far to help a political pal no matter how much money he's giving their campaigns.
At the urging of Speaker Kent Williams, who made a surprise appearance to oppose Barrett's bill, a House subcommittee has just delayed voting on it. The sponsor, Rep. Charles Sargent, R-Franklin, acknowledged "there's been a lot of name calling on this," but he defended the bill as an economic boost.
It would force TDOT to allow the extension of a county road along Interstate 24 to give Barrett better access to his factory. The subtext of Sargent's remarks: No matter what a few silly reporters are claiming, this has nothing at all to do with the fact that Barrett's our dear friend and ATM machine.
With shocking images of the worst case of equine abuse in Tennessee history still fresh in the public mind, our state lawmakers are about to kill Rep. Janis Sontany's bill to strengthen penalties against cruelty to farm animals. This is surprising to ordinary reasonable people who inhabit this planet. But to anyone familiar with the wacky world of the Tennessee General Assembly, it's all too depressingly familiar.
The Tennessee Farm Bureau sent its minions in droves to the Legislative Plaza today as the bill came before the House Agriculture Committee for the first time. It would make livestock cruelty a felony instead of a misdemeanor. The Farm Bureau claims this would give animal lovers the right to harass poor farmers for branding their cows or some other common agriculture practice.
The show of force was unnecessary. Unbeknownst to the public, the bill died the moment House Speaker Kent Williams assigned it to the Agriculture Committee rather than Judiciary where it should have gone if anyone in the House leadership was really serious about passing it. The Agriculture Committee is dominated by farmers who would like to laugh Sontany right out of the room. The committee heard testimony today, but ran out of time to vote.
After a weekend of listening to friends who doubtlessly were telling her exactly what she wanted to hear, Susan Lynn is talking up her candidacy to unseat the previously unrivaled kingpin of Mount Juliet politics, Mae "Boss" Beavers. Sure, you can knock off Beavers, these supporters told Lynn, no prob! We're behind you 1000 percent. Her spirit renewed, Lynn made this statement on her blog: "My initial response is that the only ethical decision is to continue my candidacy for the state Senate."
Lynn expressed a different view about running for the Senate back in 2004. This came after Beavers accused Lynn of scheming behind her back to take her seat even as Beavers was undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. It's this little bit of reputed treachery that's at the heart of the Beavers-Lynn feud. In the Lebanon Democrat, here's what Lynn said then:
"I have always said [Beavers] is the only one, the only Republican who could have ever won that district - I have always said that. I honestly don't think I could win that district. I literally still pinch myself every day because I can't believe that I actually won [her House race] the last time, and I'm really not so vain to think that I could move up into that position. I'm not. I'm just not."
Do you think this quote might make its way into Beavers' reelection campaign literature?
For a lesson in the ways state politics can affect an issue as seemingly inarguable as animal abuse, read Christine Kreyling's excellent cover story in this week's Scene -- which describes the tussle over a proposed bill that would make the aggravated abuse of livestock (including horses) a felony in Tennessee instead of a misdemeanor.
Kreyling writes that the legislation fight has exposed a wide gap between animal-rights advocates -- who urge an end to animal abuse in all its forms -- and the powerful state Farm Bureau, which doesn't want urban outsiders (especially the Humane Society) telling its officers and members what constitutes abuse.
Just as illuminating is the debate that has erupted in the article's comments section online. Perhaps the most surprising is the amount of sympathy commenters show for the accused abusers who allowed more than 80 horses to starve and dwindle on their Cannon County farm.
So let me get this straight. We're supposed to believe that women exist in Tennessee who are savvy enough to use eBay to buy breast milk, but stupid enough to give anonymous unscreened breast milk to their kids? And that Tennessee women are desperate enough to sell their breast milk on eBay?
Rep. Susan Lynn has met with reporters to respond to today's startling development that her archrival Mae Beavers is running for reelection in the Senate. Guess what? She feels "amazing peace" even as the vengeful Beavers bears down on her like a Mack truck. Lynn kept saying, "I'm filed to run for the Senate." But it sounded to Pith like she might let Beavers shoo her out of the GOP primary.
"It's astonishing," Lynn told reporters. "I really am astonished. ... I had no reason in the world to think she wasn't sincere in her plans to run for county mayor. ... Having an opponent isn't the end of the world. Right now, I'm filed to run for the Senate. I am astonished but I really do have amazing peace. You know, I'll be OK no matter what."
Lynn acknowledged more or less that Beavers hates her, but Lynn claims she herself holds no ill will toward the senator. There was a lot of innocent batting of the eyes from Lynn during this presser and chortling from reporters. Here's the transcript:
It's like Godzilla vs. Mothra in the Battle for Earth.
Sen. Mae Beavers has just completed her press conference in which she made the surprise announcement that she's not running for Wilson County mayor after all but will instead seek reelection and try to beat the crap out of her nemesis Rep. Susan Lynn in the political grudge match of the century.
Despite persistent questioning from reporters trying to force the senator to say that she hates Lynn's guts, Beavers kept to the high road during her media event and came across as polite and genteel and not at all like the vicious, spiteful banshee of her public image.
In attendance at the presser were A.J. McCall, who dropped out of the GOP Senate race for Beavers' seat earlier, plus 10 Republican state senators and Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver. In Weaver's hand, you could almost see the bloody knife she had plunged into Lynn's back. Here's the Pith transcript:
The bill titled "Ben Nelson Act to Ensure Political Integrity" is so stupid everyone assumed it's a joke. But it turns out, Rep. Bill Dunn, the sponsor, is serious about it. Why are we ever surprised when our lawmakers are serious about doing something stupid?
The bill would make it a illegal--a Class A misdemeanor--for any public servant to trade votes for special budgetary exemptions or fiscal benefits for his or her district. That's a slap at Nelson's "Cornhusker Kickback," the deal he cut for Nebraska's Medicaid exemption in the health care reform bill. Basically, this bill criminalizes politics itself. It's unconstitutional and completely unenforceable.
But with a straight face, Dunn stood before a House subcommittee this afternoon to make his case:
Anyone who takes a driver license exam in German will risk the wrath of Shipley.
Two of our favorite legislative characters are back in the news, creating lots of buzz for finding new and innovative ways to embarrass Tennessee. We're talking about Reps.Tony Shipley and Eric Watson, either of whom gives the public cause to demand minimum I.Q. requirements for elected officials.
Recall that Shipley, known affectionately as Capt. Apocalypse within the Capitol press corps for his tendency to publicly blow his gasket, thinks God might pick up Tennessee and drop us into the ocean for being too lenient to gay people.
And Watson last session worked himself into knots trying to figure out how not to appear racially insensitive while also killing a resolution expressing regret for slavery. In the process, not only did he invent an entirely new species -- the Hispaniel -- but he raised long forgotten concerns about the "yellow man's" involvement in slavery.
Mountaintop removal is an environmentally devastating method of coal mining. Yet our politicians--both Democrats and Republicans, including Gov. Phil Bredesen--refuse to lift a finger to stop it. Legislation to bar coal companies from blowing up Tennessee mountains fails year after year. In the governor's race, Zach Wamp claims mountaintop removal is good for wildlife, and Ron Ramsey denies the tops have been blown off mountains in this state. We guess no one's shown them pictures like this one of Zeb Mountain in Campbell County.
Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, must have felt like he was touching down on an alien planet yesterday when he came to Nashville to attend legislative hearings on mountaintop removal. Lawmakers agree to hold these hearings each year only so they can pretend to actually care about this issue. Typically, some of them will doze off right in their chairs as scientists use overhead projectors to show pictures of decapitated mountains and fish deformed by toxic selenium released by coal mining.
In January the Department of Justice put out a report (pdf) in which they found about one in four kids at Woodland Hills Youth Development Center had been the victim of some type of sexual misconduct. All of this misconduct, the report found, was perpetrated by staff members on juveniles.
From the Brady Campaign, which takes criticism for keeping up with such things, we learn about two more killings by licensed gunmen. In Houston, some guy in a fit of road rage shot a 13-year-old girl in the head. And in Ohio, a drunk shot a woman after she asked whether his gun was loaded. "Let's see," the drunk replied. Then he pointed it at her, fired and hit her.
Our politicians don't want anyone to know it, but there have been killings by handgun permitees in Tennessee too, of course. As the Brady Campaign points out:
Despite stories like these, state legislators in Tennessee, Arizona, and now Virginia are expanding the places people can legally carry weapons. As we allow firearms to permeate our entire culture more and more, we can unfortunately expect to see more and more of these stories.
Ronnie Barrett with his big gun designed to kill people from 6,000 miles away.
We've been pestering the state Transportation Department to talk about this little embroglio involving Ronnie Barrett, the Murfreesboro maker of humongous guns, and all his political friends in the legislature. But TDOT has refused to comment, citing the old excuse that there's pending litigation. So naturally Pith in the Wind, tireless advocate of the people's right to know, made requests under the state's open records law for the whole damn TDOT file. We're looking at it now.
Whoa! What's this on the very top of the pile of documents? Why, it's a letter from House Speaker Kent Williams to Transportation Commissioner Gerald Nicely on behalf of Barrett. "My hope is that we can reason together to resolve this issue," Williams writes on Jan. 28.
Check out this waterfall. That's Cummins Falls, the highest privately held waterfall in Tennessee. Now, imagine it with houses all along the bank. You might not have to use your imagination soon. It's one of many scenic gems now for sale to developers all over Tennessee.
The state of Tennessee can't buy any of this land to conserve it because we don't have the money. To make ends meet, legislators have been emptying the state's land funds. Here's my story about it in The City Paper today.
For once, you can't blame the legislature. I'm as green as Aldo Leopold, but even I wouldn't squirrel away money for land conservation when I'm cutting health care for the poor and laying off prosecutors and public defenders. Unmet needs are mounting. Even once the economy recovers, land conservation never will become a high priority. Until we reform the tax system and make the wealthy pay their fair share, we may have to say goodbye to beauty spots like Cummins Falls.
I swear, the Children and Family Affairs Committee is more entertaining than three quarters of what's on television right now. Last Tuesday, we had a disgruntled ex-spouse of a country singer trying to air all his dirty laundry in public.
Then, yesterday, Rep. Johnny Shaw finally straight-up asked Rep. G.A. Hardaway the question on everyone's mind: whether there's a personal motive behind his ... shall we say ... over-enthusiastic interest in making sure men can get out of paying child support as easily as possible. (For more on one of his more interesting attempts, see Steve Ross.)
You can watch it yourself here, starting about 55:40 or you can read my transcript after the jump.
Channel 4 joined lawmakers on the firing range today and posted this footage of the legislature's play date. We don't think they'll care for the way Channel 4 opens the segment:
Some of Tennessee's lawmakers neglected their legislative duties Tuesday to visit a rifle range in Tullahoma, Tenn., and shoot firearms at the state's National Guard training site.
Sen. Jim Tracy wouldn't talk to Pith yesterday but he did comment to the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal about helping out Ronnie Barrett with his troubles with the state Transportation Department.
"I favor it; it's about jobs," Tracy said, sticking to the talking point Barrett's buddies are repeating to try to trick people into thinking they're not really making a special law for a big campaign contributor. We don't think anyone is fooled. Since when does this legislature care about jobs?
Barrett says, "This is all up-and-up and it's good work." All over Murfreesboro, people are snorting over their Sugar Puffs as they read their morning paper.
Also in the DNJ, Sam Stockard quizzes legislators about this afternoon's gun shoot. Rep. Joe Carr, not the sharpest knife, admits he's going on this legislative play date, and it sounds like he's planning to collect his per diem too. You may recall Carr ran into a little trouble last year for taking a lot of per diem even though he only lives 30 miles from Nashville and could easily drive home every night.
"I can't believe they're doing it during legislative time, as angry as people are right now (at elected officials)," Rep. Kent Coleman says in the article. "To my knowledge, it's their fascination with shooting guns. There's no legislative intent I know of."
Here's Sen. Doug Jackson with his little buddy Ronnie Barrett and Rep. Donna Rowland at a Second Amendment rally.
We've spent some of our day checking into why Sens. Doug Jackson and Jim Tracy would tag-team legislation to benefit a single dude--Murfreesboro firearms manufacturer Ronnie Barrett--and we now can officially report that it's a very touchy subject.
As we wrote this morning, Tracy's amendment to Jackson's bill, which whizzed out of the Senate Transportation Committee on a 9-0 vote, commands the Transportation Department to drop its opposition to extending a county road in front of Barrett's ammo factory so he can expand his business. These senators wouldn't do this just because Barrett--the boyfriend of GOP Rep. Donna Rowland--is a big political contributor, would they?
If you gave it any thought, you may have wondered what Schelske has been up to this week that might have alarmed Evans.
It turns out that Schelske was testifying before the Family Justice Subcommittee of the Children and Family Affairs Committee. You can even watch his testimony (it starts about 18:30).
Schelske appeared in support of HB 2916, which seeks to establish equal parenting time as the default custody arrangement in divorce cases.
Hat tip to the sharp-eyed Matthew Hurtt and Nashville247.tv for catching this bit of political backscratching in the state Senate. In this video he snagged off the legislative website, the Transportation Committee amends a bill to fix a little problem for Ronnie Barrett, the Murfreesboro firearms manufacturer and big election campaign contributor. He's been fighting the Transportation Department to extend an access road that runs in front of his plant. If this bill becomes law, he wins.
The Transportation Committee chairman is Jim Tracy, who's running for Congress with a little help from Barrett. This week, legislators will go on a field trip to a firing range to shoot machine guns courtesy of Barrett Firearms. In the video, Sen. Doug Jackson doesn't mention any of that. In brackets, we took the liberty of adding what he was thinking as he spoke.
"This is a company that's providing important jobs in the middle of the recession, a company that made an investment in Tennessee [and a company whose owner makes really big campaign contributions and lets us play with his guns] and I think this is a reasonable accommodation."
State Sen. Andy Berke last week was the only "no" vote when that body passed
its most recent right-wing do-nothing piece of legislation--the Tennessee Health Freedom Act. Lawmakers in several states with too much time on their hands and too little gray matter in their heads are wasting legislative time with bills like this one, a dubiously constitutional effort to allow the state to opt out of federal healthcare reform that includes an insurance mandate.
In a compelling op-ed in the Memphis Commercial Appeal Berke defends his vote, decrying the bill as the latest example of "grandstanding and political gimmicks" that "won't change what is happening at the federal level, nor will it stop anything from occurring if a health care bill passes."
"We face an increasingly important choice: Are we going to cater to the margins, invoke political stunts and try to appeal to those who yell loudest by passing do-nothing bills? Or are we going to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work, by engaging in a discussion together about how we help...middle-class families across Shelby County and the rest of Tennessee?....We lawmakers should be asking ourselves whether we are making access to quality and affordable health care easier for individuals with pre-existing conditions, not whether we have made a political statement against Washington."
Here's an idea: Let's legalize machine guns mounted on our pickups
The New York Times printed another story today about the rush to loosen gun laws around the country and, for once, Tennessee didn't get top billing. In part, that's because some states are only now catching up with what our legislature did last session in the Year of the Gun in Tennessee. But we have to admit it--some legislatures are ahead of us in finding new and innovative ways to let gunmen prowl unimpeded around their states.
Too bad the Times didn't know about our legislature's upcoming "machine-gun shoot." We do merit notice in the article along with Montana for our Firearms Freedom Act. A first-of-its-kind-law, it purports to exempt this state from federal firearms regulation (but doesn't really because that's unconstitutional).
For cutting-edge gun laws, though, Arizona and Wyoming are the hands-down winners. Their lawmakers are considering letting residents carry concealed weapons without any permits at all. Now that's firearms freedom!
At last year's play date, Ron Ramsey pretends he's a bad ass.
Our hard-working Tennessee legislature is getting excited about taking a little time off from the people's business to go play with guns next week. Yes, it's the legislature's annual play date with firearms courtesy of Hero-Gear and Barrett Firearms. Last year's event was perhaps the most successful yet. No fewer than 75 lawmakers interrupted their all-important work at the Capitol and made a mad dash for the firing range where they shot various kinds of weaponry and acted like tough guys.
Last week, Jeffrey T. Malotte, Esq., the House Judiciary Committee research analyst, sent an email to members posing this question: Since just about everyone's going on this field trip, why bother to schedule a committee meeting to vote on stuff? Here's his email:
Removing references to gay people and the outcasts of society made Weinberg's resolution acceptable to some Republicans.
The great debate of the legislative session heads to the House tonight. Will lawmakers thoughtfully deliberate how best to help families in need in the great recession? Of course not. No, Republicans and Democrats will duke it out over whether to honor the ACLU's Hedy Weinberg with a proclamation.
In the Senate, the resolution passed 26-0 with four Republicans abstaining. But that came only after the sponsor, Sen. Joe Haynes, agreed to delete phrases offensive to some senators in the original resolution and substitute it for this one. As Tom Humphrey reports, they couldn't abide references to the ACLU's "gay and straight" membership or Weinberg's defense of the "outcasts of society" or her campaign against racial profiling.
Even after Haynes tossed all that, some Republicans weren't sure what to do. The electronic vote board sparkled like a pinball machine, with five senators--including Ron Ramsey--pushing different buttons as they wrung their hands over the political consequences of honoring Weinberg for a quarter-century of public service.
In the House, Republicans already have bumped the resolution from the consent calendar, where such measures are usually adopted unanimously. It's on tonight's House agenda for a separate up-or-down vote. Fireworks are likely.
Update: The House postponed voting on the resolution at the request of the sponsor, Rep. Brenda Gilmore, D-Nashville. There was no debate.
Here's a great image for the new "Friends of Coal" license plate.
Lawmakers want to make new special license plates for hummingbird awareness, solar power, teachers, drunken drivers, the sandhill crane, firefighters and paramedics, a cave salamander, Johnson City's Children's Hospital, the Appalachian Trail, the Cherohala Skyway, the Church of God in Christ, Habitat for Humanity, Fisk University, and Lion's Clubs, just to name a few of the ideas.
But of all the proposals--and there are roughly 150 of them by Pith's count--our favorite is the one by Rep. Jon Lundberg, R-Bristol, and Sen. Mike Faulk, R-Kingsport, for a "Friends of Coal" plate. Under their plan, the proceeds would go "to Tennessee surface mine reclamation fund to be used for reclamation and revegetation of property affected by mining and exploration operations."
That's right, now you too can help pay to clean up the environmental damage inflicted by King Coal. Is that a hand up or a hand out? Who cares? It's good for business.
Just when you thought Tennessee's senators finally surrendered utterly to absurdity and brainless grandstanding, they screwed up the courage to honor the ACLU's Hedy Weinberg. Only one senator voted against the meaningless Health Freedom Act today, one of many silly actions over the past year in the upper chamber. But 26 Democrats and Republicans gave us all a little hope for the future by saying yes to Weinberg's deserving resolution. No one voted against it, and only Beavers, Black, Southerland and Tracy refused to vote at all.
It's one of those all-too-common sad commentaries on our political culture that it takes courage to vote to honor someone like Weinberg, who has worked tirelessly for 25 years to protect our true constitutional liberties. Already, there's a backlash from the pro-life crowd.
Update: Republicans pulled the Weinberg resolution off Thursday's House consent calendar, meaning it'll have to pass a separate vote later. Predictably, the GOP attacked Roy Herron for voting for the resolution in the Senate.
"ACLU-TN and most 8th District voters are at odds on every issue in the political arena. Weinberg and her organization support removing God from the public square; banning the death penalty; restricting the 2nd Amendment right of Tennesseans to keep and bear arms; and allowing abortion-on-demand & gay marriage. But Roy Herron voted to 'honor and commend' that agenda, anyway."
See Humphrey on the Hill on the partisan controversies surrounding resolutions lately.
Our lovable lawmakers have stuck their finger in the federal government's eye again. Hah! The state Senate this morning enacted yet another meaningless piece of legislation that would be struck down immediately if anyone ever took the trouble to contest it in court. It prohibits President Obama and the Democrats in Congress from mandating that Tennesseans buy health insurance.
Right after the vote--an amazingly lopsided 26-1-5 (where were the Senate's Democrats?)--Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey held a press conference in the hopes of boosting his stock with Republicans in the governor's race. Appearing with the sponsor, Sen. Mae Beavers, Ramsey declared:
"All I'm saying is I don't see how the federal government, or any government, can mandate that you have to buy anything. ... That just goes against everything the government has stood for for years and years and years."
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