Tag Archives: GOP

Check out the new ban at your local library

Expressing concern over the rising number of non-reports, County of K Mayor TB recently issued an executive order banning all sex offenders from public libraries.

Plans are underway to compare a list of registered sex offenders to the libraries 150,000 active cardholders, who would then be notified to stay away from the libraries. When asked about those offenders who don’t have library cards, or who may be homeless and can’t get a card because they don’t have an address, the mayor had no immediate response.

“I just don’t want them anywhere around our kids,” TB said. “The ultimate decision is how we pursue it.”

When asked where these offenders could go, TB said the local bookstores. They already handle banned books. Why not banned people, too?

A manager at a local bookstore, who asked not to be identified, responded that this was “another example of an unfunded government mandate.”

A library worker, when asked how she would identify a sex offended, said she didn’t know how she would identify a sex offender. “It’s not like they come up and self-identify.”

Under a new state law sex offenders can be banned from libraries and such identification could lead to jail time, which would simply lead to more overcrowding, which the County of K already has a problem with. Still, the County of K Mayor felt he needed to get out in front of this issue and issued the first such executive order for any of the major library systems of the state. As a Republican, you can never have enough moral government, he was heard to say. And it usually doesn’t cost much.

County of K sheriff of nodding ham, J Triple said, “I applaud the state of Tennessee for putting tougher regulations on these dirt bags who prey on our children.”

When asked about enforcement, J Triple said with cooler weather coming on, he plans to provide free sweaters to those sex offenders, many of whom may be homeless. The sweaters would have the scarlet letters “D-B” stitched into them in a way that his deputies, using infra-red night scopes on their rifles, will be able to easily see on the chests of the offenders. All the deputy will have to do, Triple J said, is point his rifle at the library entrance and he (or she) will spot the registered sex offender. An arrest would then ensue.

When asked what happens once the sweaters start getting swapped, worn by the wrong person, or even show up on Salvation Army Thrift Store shelves, Triple J grunted that he would let the courts sort that out. Innocent dirt bags were not his concern.

In a somewhat related issue, on the same day as Mayor TB announced his ban, County of K Commissioner AE (Always Embroiled in controversy to her close friends), announced that she had a benign tumor removed from her parathyroid gland. Though the symptoms of the tumor were fatigue, pain, fluctuating blood pressure, and insomnia – not untypical symptoms for any County of K Commissioner these days, she was glad the cause of her distress had been found and treated. Recovery time could take two or three months. When asked about the recent ban of sex offenders from libraries, AE reportedly muttered, she could only hope there was a similar tumor at the top of country government.

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Filed under absurdity, announcement, books, fun, GOP, government, humor, hypocracy, law enforcement, offenders, Republicans, satire, sex, words, writing

From the Government Department of Hypocracy Department

NASHVILLE, TN — In March 2011, the Tennessee state legislature passed the “Health Care Freedom Act,” in essence saying Tennesseans didn’t have to follow the federal health care bill passed the previous year. In short, they were saying our state can be different than other states.

In May 2011, this same legislature passed HB600, the state Senate, by a vote of 18-8 in favor of the bill and the the House by a vote of 73-24 the previous week. It now goes to the governor, Bill Haslam, last who has said he supports the measure.

What is HB600? A state bill overturn a legally passed Nashville/Davidson County Metro Government ordinance that said companies contracting with the metro government cannot practice discrimination against employees based on sexual orientation.

Those in state government who voted for the bill overturning the ordinance said things like: “When it comes to anti-discrimination practices, we need to have consistent rules across the state,” said Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Franklin.

But the state shouldn’t have to practice consistent rules with the federal government?

And I thought Republicans were supposed to be the party of less government intrusion. I guess when you’re in power, it’s okay to pick your intrusions.

I believe it was Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, who said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

With strong Republican majorities in both chambers of the legislature and with a Republican governor, I guess we’re seeing the true character of the state Republicans, and it looks remarkably hypocritical.

Links:
News Sentinel

The Tennessean

City Paper

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Filed under absurdity, government, hypocracy, Nashville, politicians, politics, Republicans, state

Don’t touch those “bath salts”

NASHVILLE, TN. In an effort to curtail drug crime in Tennessee, on April 18, 2011, the Tennessee state Senate unanimously approved a bill prohibiting the possession or sale of methcathinone, presently sold legally as “balt salts” or sometimes “Molly Plant Food.”

Law enforcement says abuse of this psychoactive stimulant, which is considered addictive, is on the rise.

Man in shades offering bath salts for sale

Hey lady, don't run away. I got just the bath salts you need.

In passing the bill, the state Senate joined the state House of Representatives, which had already unanimously passed HB457.

But the new law, which awaits the governor’s signature, only makes it a misdemeanor to posses or sell this addictive stimulant.

Why wasn’t it made a felony? Reason: the projected costs of incarcerating those convicted caused the switch from originally being a felony to being only a misdemeanor with no mandated jail time.

One can only hope the state legislature will be so considerate of the incarceration costs should they wind up with the power to regulate a woman’s right to choose. See “Oh, how they torture the language so,” previously in this blog.

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Oh, how they torture the language so

From the desk of tortured logic and tortured words, we humbly submit this political flimflam and falderal:

NASHVILLE, TN: The Tennessee state Senate recently voted 24-8 to amend the state constitution giving future state legislatures the right to enact laws putting new restrictions on abortions in Tennessee.

Why?

Because in 2000 the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution gave Tennesseans, and particularly Tennessee women, greater rights in this area than the U.S. Constitution.

Now, the Tennessee bicameral legislature is majority Republican in both the Senate and House of Representatives, and the House is expected to also vote for this resolution.

I thought Republicans were for giving individuals the rights to determine their lives and here is a case where the state constitution gives individuals more rights, more individual power than the federal constitution. After all, one must remember that this is the same legislature that recently voted to allow Tennesseans to refuse to follow the new federal health care laws.

This amendment would read:

“Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion. The people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or when necessary to save the life of the mother.”

There was an unsuccessful attempt by Senator Roy Herron, Democrat from Dresden, TN, to amend the amendment to protect the right to an abortion in the case when the mother’s life is in danger. According to Herron, the amendment, as drafted, says “the Legislature can protect you if they will or harm you if they want.”

In response to this, Senator Mae Beavers, a Republican from Mount Juliet, TN, said adopting the amendment would “convert the Supreme Court into a roving constitutional convention.” She went on to say that the amendment “is about returning to the people, through their legislators, the right to enact reasonable regulations to protect the health of women and the unborn.”

But the Tennessee Supreme Court has already ruled that the Tennessee Constitution, as presently written, gives the people, including women, more rights than the federal one to regulate her health and even that of her unborn child. It doesn’t say a woman has or should or is required to have an abortion. It says it’s not the government’s business.

Shouldn’t this be something Republicans should cheer, hold dear, almost sacrosanct?

But the Republican-controlled state Senate and House, the party of small government and fewer regulations, the party that believes that people can better regulate themselves than government, has decided here, the individual can’t be trusted to regulate herself, and wants to give that power to the state legislature, because in this case they know better. They want to be the roving constitutional convention, roving over individual rights as they see fit.

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Filed under absurdity, GOP, politicians, politics, Tenessee legislature, Tennessee Constitution, U.S. Constitution, words

Ripped from the Headlines, no. 2: GOP carrying for wildlife

Congress just voted for a Republican amendment to cut all federal funding from Planned Parenthood health centers, one of the most trusted providers of basic health care and family planning in our country.

And if that wasn’t enough, Republicans are pushing to eliminate all funds for the only federal family planning program. (For humans. But Republican Dan Burton has a bill to provide contraception for wild horses.)

So, if you’re a wild horse and you sow wild oats, there’s help from the GOP; but if you’re human, well that’s a different bucket of oats.

I didn’t know the GOP cared so much for wildlife.

Or maybe they just want to make sure there’s more cannon fodder for the war machine.

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Filed under Commentary, Planned Parenthood, true story, wild horses