Pretty Pol Palin Pushes Populist Power

Palin's rogue Republican reputation has become so popular that a military base feared one of her book signings there would become a platform for massive protesting against the administration of the Commander-in-Chief. Like many conservatives, I am somewhat ambivalent in my attitude toward Palin and her version of why the McCain camp fell apart, and why she did not take the press to task while they were trashing her ostensibly for her lack of knowledge on foreign affairs and her affinity for expensive clothes, when in reality the left was destroying her because they were absolutely terrified of her populist appeal. Palin may not be the next Ronald Reagan, but she is the only politician out there right now standing up for the "God and Gun" crowd. Contrary to Newsweek's comment that Palin is "bad for the GOP", I tend to believe that anyone that stands up for our first amendment rights to assemble and worship as we choose, and anyone that stands up for our second amendment right to bear arms, and anyone that stands up for the sanctity of life, is...well, since no one else is doing it...is....Sarah Palin.

Poll Shows Obama Taking Us Down Wrong Track?

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows that a majority of Americans think the country is going down the wrong track. The poll is surprising considering other indicators that the economy is pulling out of recession. I believe what the poll is showing is that even though some indicators are slightly improving, they are minuscule in comparison with the massive amounts of government money recently injected into the economy, thus many economists are uncertain about the longevity of the recovery. As taxpayers we don't seem to be getting a lot of bang for the buck. Unemployment remains near 10%, and the health care bill has stalled, endangered not by the minority Republicans as much as by bickering between moderate and liberal Democrats.

9/11 Community Fair Celebrates Local Government

The Rutherford County Sheriff's Department pulled off another great 9/11 festival. Citizens got to check out displays from a variety of government agencies. Lavergne's police department always has the coolest vehicles and equipment, but then again, being right across the state line from the 'hood, they probably need all of it. The US Army National Guard had a fully operational helicopter that took off for the spectators, as well as Vanderbilt's hospital wing chopper. To remember the 9/11 victims, local mayors and state legislators individually rang a bell while a huge contingent of motorcycle riding POW/MIA's looked on. This is one of my favorite community events, where we get to see how our tax dollars are spent and, though opposing the massive expansion of useless federal government, can appreciate the protection of the U.S. military and the practical amenities afforded by local and state government that impact us every day. And while the MPD might have had a problem with one of its canines last week, I must say that the mounted patrol's horses were some of the most docile mounts I've seen. Kids were walking all around them and petting all over them, and they seemed to like all the attention. The county also had some of their search and rescue German Shepherds that were kid-friendly.

Opah Greek Grill

I visited this establishment and freely recommend it to anyone. The sandwiches are huge and delicious. You'll get fat, hot pita bread filled with tasty meat, onions, peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, feta cheese, and cucumber or ranch dressing, accompanied by rice, hummus, Greek salad or fries, all for a low combo price. Located near the Old Fort Wal-Mart, try it out. This strip mall is located in a part of town that has been developed for a long time, so it's a smart growth choice for Greek cuisine.

From "White Only" to "No Gun Owners"--Restaurants Poised to Discriminate

The restaurant industry in Tennessee, having lost out after lobbying the legislature not to lift restrictions to the hangun carry permit, now plans to pressure restaurants to post "No legal guns" signs on their doors. Not only does the posting of this sign make permit holders feel like African-Americans walking by a restaurant that has a sign that reads "White Only", but restaurants that follow their lobby organization's desires will stand to lose thousands of dollars in revenue. In this time of economic uncertainty, when so many American families are cutting back on the luxury of eating out, can restaurants really afford to tell a large segment of the population, "You aren't welcome!"?

Guns Banned on the Greenway

Well, this was really a nonevent, wasn't it? Murfreesboro is an anti-gun town, a Franklin "wannabe" full of new Southerners bringing in liberal views to impose on the backwards South like a wave of 21st century carpetbaggers. The bickering back and forth will actually make the parks safer. Permit holders will watch the parks and the Greenway zealously for any news of crime so they can nail the opponents of handgun carry to the wall. The anti-gunners, which include the majority of the municipal government, will vehemently seek to beef up security in the parks to make sure that doesn't happen. The mayor and council took their stand, so don't think they aren't taking the necessary "CYA" contingencies up with the Murfreesboro Police Department. With both sides of the issue watching like hungry hawks and hounds, criminals will stay away, and we all benefit. It's a win-win situation for park users.

Restaurant Parking Lot Robberies to Continue. Thanks, Bredesen!

Governor Bredesen vetoed the restaurant carry bill. Erroneously called the "guns in bars" bill by the liberal media, the bill would allow people with handgun permits to carry into establishments that serve alcohol. As the law stands now, I have to walk in and out of restaurant parking lots unprotected, leaving my gun unsecure in my locked vehicle, where it is apt to be stolen. I am incensed by the left's semantics, so for the record, let us reflect on the "bars" in Tennessee that we take our kids to all the time-- O'Charley's, Applebee's, Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill, Pizza Hut, Chili's, Outback Steakhouse, etc. These are family restaurants with kids' menus that just happen to serve alcoholic drinks. Most of us patronize these restaurants without drinking alcohol. Yet the left with its "guns in bars" hysteria has us thinking of people carrying guns into topless nightclubs at 2AM. People wanting to do that, I dare say, probably don't even know what a legal gun permit is. This was a common sense addendum to our established handgun carry program and a modification available in most other states with concealed carry permits. Let us hope cooler heads prevail in the legislature and Bredesen's veto is overridden. Only then will it be safe to go out to eat in Memphis.

County Was Right to Reject New York Developer on Bible Park!

Modern day carpetbagger Armon Bar-Tur attempted to bring a theme park to Rutherford County but was rejected when he failed to achieve a two-thirds vote on a rezoning appeal. Now the county is enveloped in a chain of lawsuits from property owners and the developer over alleged unconstitutional acts. The developer's lawsuit is nothing more than "sour grapes" whining--"I didn't get my way, so I'm going to sue". Ever since the Kelo v. City of New London decision, developers like Bar-Tur feel that they can strongarm local governments into complicity with large scale developments that enrich their financial enterprises while devastating the property values of others. Theme parks are about as financially rewarding and beneficial to a community as an enclosed mall. Two Tennessee venues come to mind--the Mall of Memphis and Libertyland. Come now, Rutherford County, we all know that we are better off without eyesores like those in our community. The county should have denied the application, and we are all better off without the park, but we would not be in the litigious mess we are in if not for the 12 commissioners who voted for the proposal. The rezoning application should have been a unanimous vote "NO". Thus we would not be fighting over the two-thirds rule. I wonder if some of the 12 who voted for a theme park in the already congested and overbuilt Blackman area in truth wanted it to fail and, knowing that 9 would oppose it, chose to play politics with the two-thirds rule. That type of thinking now has us in hot water. Wilson County apparently learned from Rutherford County's mistakes. Lebanon's hostile stance was obviously so united that Bar-Tur quickly withdrew his plans without any lawsuit threats.

Obama Reaches Out to Socialist Dictator Chavez

Obama gave hearty handshakes to Hugo Chavez and accepted a book blaming the U.S. for all of the ills south of the border. Hugo Chavez engages in a style of socialism known as Bolivarianism and has been lauded with honorary degrees from Russia and China. I guess Obama counts accepting the ideas of Chavez as the "change we need." In a time when Mexican drug violence is spilling across the border, Obama should be chastizing our southern neighbors and threatening to invoke the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, but instead has nothing but good to say about the Latin American states. Mexico had the audacity to claim earlier this month that the cartel violence was due to the U.S. ending its ban on "assault weapons", and Obama paralleled their effrontery by waffling on the issue instead of calling the Mexicans to task for their pitiable and lamentable job of securing their country and their grossly hypocritical views on the porous American border. I hope the GOP leadership is taking notes. All of these photo ops will be great four years from now.

American Waffle Company--Smart Growth!

I had an opportunity over the weekend to visit the new American Waffle Company on Church Street. This new eatery opened in an abandoned Cheesesteak Factory location in an old strip mall with multiple vacancies (Why are we currently building new strip malls in the 'boro, then?) It is within walking distance of the Summerlake and Indian Park apartments. It is pretty much the same fare as you'd get at Waffle House. The waffles smelled really good, but I hardly ever buy breakfast out as I can do a superior job with that meal at home. I hope the restaurant is able to make a go of it. With the apartments so close, it offers a "green" choice for eating out, because you don't have to drive to get there. With the offices and banks nearby, they should do a respectable lunch business, although nearby Sonic offers some stiff competition for affordable burgers. I plan to visit them again, especially in the summer when I'm off.

EU Shows Obama No Love!

Well, now that Obama is in the White House, all is well with U.S.-European relations, right? Wrong. Contrary to what Europeans and liberal Americans claimed during the election, it wasn't the Bush administration that Europeans disliked--it is our nation itself with its vast freedoms and the opportunities we afford ALL of our citizens that they view with an ardent jealousy that borders on hatred. (I'm not sure why so many people feel that the U.S. should just bow down and lick the boots of Europe anyway. Thomas Jefferson was a great diplomat in Europe, but he believed in U.S. independence and sovereignty!) Thus it was no surprise when Czech president Mirek Topolanek bashed Obama, calling his economic plan a "road to hell." So Obama is now being criticized by the liberal socialists of Europe as well as the fiscal conservatives in America. Hmm. Maybe Europe didn't fall in love with the U.S. again like the Dems promised. But, hey, maybe I like Europe again.

The GOP attacks Rush

In the last 3 days the national news have highly publicized the GOP's disapproval of Rush Limbaugh. AOL put on its website the headline "Does Rush speak for the Republican Party?" What the liberal media chooses not to talk about, however, is that the real question is not whether Rush speaks for Republicans, but "Does the Republican Party speak for conservatives anymore?" Any conservative that has followed politics closely for the last couple of years is not surprised at all that the GOP is choosing to turn away from Rush as they have seemingly turned a deaf ear on all conservatives. The party has chosen to turn away from one of conservatism's greatest communicators because the party verily is no longer speaking for the average conservative. The current GOP is Democrat Lite, Diet Democrat, whatever you want to call it. The party gets away with it because of the resurgence of the Democrats' left wing, making THEM to voters seem like Communist Lite or Diet Socialists.

Saturn a Victim of Its Own Success and Poor Attention from GM

Everyone knew that GM had too many brands, even after killing Oldsmobile several years ago. Few thought that Saturn would be killed, though. After all, the Saturn concept sought to challenge the Japanese in the 80's by making cars in America that were fuel efficient, reliable, affordable, and as fun to buy as they were to drive. The SL series that was introduced during the Reagan administration was an ugly car by anyone's standards, but Saturn's anti-Detroit attitude toward manufacturing and no-haggle pricing caught on with customers. As Saturn developed over the years, though, they seemed to become victims of their own success. The best ideas from Saturn were quickly taken and put into other GM brands, especially Chevrolet. For example, the Cobalt is a rebranded Ion, the Equinox is a VUE, and nearly all the GM brands have something based on the Aura. The customer favorite Ion (descendant of the SL) was discontinued and replaced by the ugly hatchback Astra; thus if you want an Ion you now had to buy a Chevy Cobalt. Saturn models were moved from Spring Hill so that GM could bring struggling models like the ugly crossover Traverse to the Tennessee plant's productive work force. This was a turnoff to Saturn consumers who expected their car to be made in Spring Hill, TN. While GM was busy rebranding Saturn vehicles, it neglected to rebrand any GMC or Chevrolet pickups for Saturn dealers, which hurt them immensely. As for no-haggle pricing, it was adopted by many dealers of all manufacturers, as the modern consumer with Internet access in his pocket no longer fears getting taken by an unscrupulous salesman. My last vehicle purchase was a full size Ford pickup I got at a no-haggle price, which is itself a reflection on the reasons for Saturn's demise. The question now is whether or not current Saturn owners will support GM or switch to Japanese brands. I suppose our next family car could come from Nissan's Smyrna, TN plant.

Obama's Chance and the Impending Rebellion in the GOP

As Obama takes over, his charisma and resonating populism hearken back to 1981 when Ronald Reagan brought true change to Washington and his party. Hopefully Obama will be the best Democrat since JFK in the White House. His Democratic predecessors (LBJ, Carter, and Clinton) left a lot to be desired--horrible legacies that will be easy for Obama to eclipse. I do think that he will make some tough decisions that will anger some even in his own liberal Democrat Party, perhaps even the very people like Feinstein and Pelosi that were cheering for him yesterday. When Clinton became President, the country was still in good enough shape that we conservatives could take joy in making fun of Slick Willie while we watched him screw the country up royally. With this election, things are different. We are in such a precarious position now that if Obama doesn't get it right, there won't be that much of a country left for the GOP to take back in four years. I choose to be an optimist and think he'll get it right. The feeble economy and unrest in the Middle East also now control his agenda, rather than Obama setting his own. It will be hard for Obama to veer into left field and meddle with current social policies when he's supposed to be working on the economy and the wars in the Middle East.

The Republican Party can now take stock of the damage that has been inflicted over the past decade or so. Social conservatives have been gradually losing power in the party since Reagan left in 1988. Throughout his tenure Bush revealed that "compassionate conservatism" was nothing more than Nixon style repackaging and strategizing of moderate to liberal Republican thinking. The current GOP watched as the liberal media trashed Sarah Palin for, let's face it, two reasons: she believes in God, and she owns a gun. These are the two core wedge issues of the social conservatives, yet they are not supported by today's GOP leadership. Nowhere do you see the division and growing animosity between constituency groups in the GOP more clearly than here in Tennessee, where the Democrats joined with a Republican to appoint renegade Kent Williams as the Speaker of the House. Williams announced today that abortion restrictions and expansion of gun rights was at the top of his agenda. I wonder if we would have heard the same thing from Jason Mumpower if the "real" GOP nominee had been chosen. During the next four years, the GOP needs to face the fact that once again, moderate Republicans have ruined the country and the Party. Only returning to hard core, blue collar social conservatism can restore the GOP.