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Under Tennessee Law, permit holders may now bring their guns to restaurants that serve alcohol.   As allowed under the new law, some restaurants in ....Nashville.... have decided to ban guns.   Please reply to this blog entry by listing restaurants in the ....Nashville.... area that have decided to ban guns.   As supporters of the Second Amendment the Libertarian Party of Metropolitan Nashville is calling on all Libertarians and lovers of freedom in the ....Nashville.... area to boycott establishments that now ban guns.  

We have had an exciting summer. LPMNDC lead the way to get Bob Barr on the ballot in Tennessee. Since the LP convention we have had a number of outreach opportunities. We have started the Nashville Bob Barr Meetup to handle events specific to promoting the Barr/Root Presidential campaign. Lisa Leeds (LPMNDC vice Chair and candidate for Tennessee House 58) has been named the Bob Barr Tennessee Coordinator. Two of Barr's eleven electors are from Davidson County and a third is from Middle Tennessee and a member of the Nashville Bob Barr Meetup. LPMNDC members have protested Karl Rove, Wesley Clark, underage drinking, and the hotel/motel tax increase. We also have begun to diversify our local political party. We have started a provisional chapter of Outright Libertarians. We have started young Libertarians of Middle Tennessee and Libertarian Women of Middle Tennessee. We recently held a Libertarian Pizza night. We also held a voter registration event. Having done all this over the summer, are we ready to take a rest? No way, we are just getting warmed up for the election. I will be traveling to Clarksville on September 26 to participate in the NAACP U.S. Senate debate. My campaign is getting ready to order some yard signs. Lisa is going full speed ahead with her campaign as well. Of course we are also working on the Bob Barr 2008 campaign mainly through the Bob Barr Meetup. As we are doing all of this we are also trying to improve our web site. We have set up quite a nice page relevant to the 2008 election. It is your portal to everything related to the election. The most exciting new feature added to our web site is the ability to make online contributions. I know you here about the need fro contributions from everybody, but please consider supporting your local Libertarian party. From the contribution page, you can link directly to our budget and see what we will be doing with your money. If you like you can even designate gifts to a specific purpose. One of the things we need to do is purchase Bob Barr materials. The campaign WILL NOT give anything to us. Please consider making a contribution for that specific purpose. Finally let me tell you about an exciting opportunity we will be having in October. Outright Libertarians of Nashville and Middle Tennessee are sponsoring a booth and team for the Nashville Cares Aids Walk visit their page at https://www.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=273868&team=2981720 to contribute or join the team.

I hope those of you in the Nashville area can help out Bob Barr by joining our new Nashville Bob Barr Meetup http://bobbarr.meetup.com/26/ Also consider joining the Nashville Libertarian Meetup if you have not done so yet http://libertarian.meetup.com/322/ Both groups will bee meeting Saturday June 7: Bob Barr at 11 and the Libertarians at noon. Both meetings are at Dunn Brothers coffee in downtown Nashville, see the groups for more details.

Sat. Apr. 12 11:30 a.m. meet at Dunn Brothers Coffee Shop 401 Church St, Nashville, TN 37219 to attend the National Fair Tax Rally. The Rally starts at Noon at 100 1st Ave. N. at Broadway Nashville, TN. At 2:30 the rally will march to the state capitol.

Tue. Apr. 15 from 5 – 10 p.m. Tax Day Rally at the Main Nashville Post Office 525 Royal Pkwy. Nashville, TN 37230 Anyone interested in promoting Liberty in the Nashville are should attend. As always we welcome the serious activist and merely curious.

Sat. May. 3 at noon will be the LPMNDC May monthly meeting. We will meet at
Dunn Brothers Coffee Shop 401 Church St, Nashville, TN 37219. This will be our last meeting before the national LP convention. We will be electing officers.

May. 22 – 26 will be the 2008 Libertarian National Convention at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Denver Colorado. The 2008 Libertarian National Convention promises to be a lively and important event in the history of the LP. Delegates will determine the LP platform and choose our parties Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates as well as some LP officers.

Sat May 31 LPMNDC will once again host an Operation Politically Homeless booth at the annual Nashville Pride Festival. Nashville Pride is held in Centennial Park. The hours of the festival are yet to be announced. We will also use this event to gather signatures to gain ballot access for our Presidential candidate.

Sat. Jun. 8 at noon will be the LPMNDC June monthly meeting. We will meet at
Dunn Brothers Coffee Shop 401 Church St, Nashville, TN 37219. This meeting will mark the kickoff of our official Campaign season in Nashville.

All across Tennessee homeschoolers opposed HB 2795! Rep. Windle's assistant reported their office had received 4000 calls opposing HB 2795.

A HUGE Thank You to all the homeschool families, Dads, Moms, children, graduates & all, leaders of Church-related schools and Church-related school organizations, who took the time to come to Nashville today in the ice, snow, tricky road conditions and very cold weather!

There were homeschoolers from all over the state at the Capitol. A family from Sevierville came and spent the night in Nashville. There were homeschoolers from Memphis, who also spent the night, others came from Goodlettsville, Columbia, Spring Hill, Hohenwald, Franklin, Murfreesboro, Cookeville, Crossville, Fall Creek Falls, Livingston, Kingston, Brentwood and, of course, Nashville.

The estimate, with help from Mike Bell, is that there were 80 - 90 adults and 30 homeschool students. It was a great turn-out for a day with such awful weather! Again, thank you, for coming!

OK, So what happened?

They gathered and waited out in the hallway of Legislative Plaza, outside LP 16, for the House Education Committee to conclude their business. As you know it was scheduled to end at 11:45, but they went until 12:20! And while they continued to meet, the opposition numbers continued to grow and grow! Everyone was very, very patient with the whole situation!

Rep. Hardaway came by and went into the Committee room for a short time to observe their activity; he returned to the hallway and let us know he wanted to talk with us about the bill. So in groups of 10-12 or more, we gathered around him in the hallway and the lobby at the foot of the escalators to dialogue with him about his reasons for the bill and our reasons for opposing it.

Waiting in the hallway, speaking with Rep. Hardaway, we were then greeted by Special Initiatives sub-committee Chair, Rep. John Mark Windle, who came out of LP 16 to check on us, to assure us that even if the bill was not voted on today he would let homeschoolers speak, recognizing that we had come from far and wide. He returned to the LP 16 and the Committee meeting.

At 12:20, as the full House Education Committee finally concluded, the flat screen TVs which show the activity in LP 16, changed from "House Education" to "Special Initiatives sub-committee", we started into the room, motioning to others in the hallway that finally it was time for the Special Initiatives Sub-committee!

It was then announced that the order of the sub-committees was being altered; the Higher Ed sub-committee would meet first, and afterwards the Special Initiatives sub-committee. One thing you learn at the legislature, stand your ground, but about certain things, be flexible and patient!

Thankfully the Higher Ed. sub-committee was a brief one as they promised and Special Initiatives began at 12:45. The sub-committee quickly went through their list of bills, rolling (moving to future dates) some of the bills, moving quickly down their agenda (also called a calendar) to HB 2795.

Sub-committee member, Rep. Tommie Brown, D-Chattanooga, made a motion to consider HB 2795. Discussion was then allowed. Rep. G.A. Hardaway, D-Memphis, so much a freshman that this is his very first February as a lawmaker, elected in a special election to fill the seat of Rep. Kathryn Bowers who was indicted in the Tennessee Waltz sting, was recognized to speak to the sub-committee.

He has told us since January, as Mike Bell has spoken with him about this terrible bill, that he believes the Gateway, end-of-course tests are unfair to the public school students who many times, while making good grades during the school year are not allowed to graduate just because they make poor scores or fail the Gateway end-of-course tests required for graduation.

Somehow he thinks the solution to this problem is to now require all private school students in Tennessee to take these exact same tests! He says he is trying to highlight the unfair plight of the public school students who miss graduation or eligibility for the Hope Scholarships because of their poor scores on the Gateway tests.

No one in the private school or the homeschool arena can understand this rationale.
As Rep. Hardaway addressed the sub-committee, he didn't spell out his reasoning in quite this detail to the Special Initiatives sub-committee, though he did say the Gateway tests were unfair because they are preventing public school students from graduating and receiving scholarships, ruining their future.

He did turn and look at the audience, the homeschoolers, thanking us for coming, acknowledging that government is of the people, by the people and for the people as demonstrated by our presence there today and by our calls!! OK! He also said that the purpose he has in this legislation is to begin a dialogue with homeschoolers and private schoolers, which he believed had begun today. All of this is very confusing!

He said the bill was in a state of change, that it was not in its final form, but that since the dialogue had begun, he would rework it and return with a new and better piece of legislation.

Rep. John Mark Windle took the committee into recess so that homeschoolers and others from the audience could speak to the committee. Homeschool father, Dr. Carr spoke well on behalf of homeschoolers, bringing up the concern of the issue of control, explaining that course-specific (or end-of-course) testing and granting of diplomas based on those test results, will dictate our curriculum choices and control our education, eliminating private education in Tennessee.

Another homeschool Dad, Mr. Hoffman, made a very good presentation about his family's home schooling. He mentioned that HSLDA has warned that this is the worst legislation in the 23 year history of the modern homeschool movement in Tennessee. He spoke of his own homeschooling and of his children's, giving a brief explanation of their standardized achievement testing. He pointed out that this legislation will force end-of-course tests on homeschoolers to our harm. He then offered, that they consider the fact that homeschooling is doing well and suggested that they remember the saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!!"

A representative of the Department of Education's Testing/Assessment Division, a Dr.Opie, spoke to the Committee about the DOE's testing requirements. He gave a good deal of detail about the tests required by the TN DOE and then those mandated by No Child Left Behind. He then informed the sub-committee that the TN DOE has altered their requirements regarding end-of-course tests; that no longer is passing the Gateway and end-of-course tests required for graduation. Instead these tests scores are calculated as 25 % of the course grade; indicating that this is a fairer way to handle the end-of-course tests. ( We just have to ask at this point, Isn't this the intent of Rep. Hardaway's bill? Hasn't he achieved his goal? What is the need for the bill to continue forward now that this goal has been met? To our complete amazement, no one on the sub-committee addressed this point to Rep. Hardaway!!)

Debbie Landers, Executive Director of the Tennessee Association of Non-Public Academic Schools, TANAS, an organization of church-related schools, 50% of which umbrella homeschoolers, also addressed the sub-committee, explaining the testing required by their schools; that they are nationally-normed standardized tests. She also explained that homeschoolers regularly take these nationally-normed achievements tests such as the Iowa Test of Basic Skills or the Stanford Achievement Tests and that all of the homeschoolers going to college after high school take the ACT or SAT College Entrance Exams. Her testimony precisely answered the specific questions the committee had on how this bill would affect the TANAS church-related schools and the homeschoolers affiliated with them.

Committee member, Rep. Tommie Brown addressed us, homeschoolers in the audience, telling us that she has always supported us, that she is very open to us, referring to the fact that we should realize this because the TN legislature has granted us the freedom to home educate. She added that she knows the nuclear intact family is a powerful force in children's lives and makes a profound impact on their futures. She wanted all families to have the nurturing environment that homeschoolers typically have.

As Claiborne understood it, it was her take on this bill that Hardaway was clever to sponsor this bill because it encouraged the legislature to be aware of the problems and inequities of Tennessee public high school graduation procedures, with the requirement that students pass the high school proficiency, Gateway and end of course tests in order to graduate.

She said she wants the public schools to improve to the point that homeschoolers will want to enroll our children. In a very simple response to this, I just have to say, that we have such differing views of the whole matter of education that at one level we really are speaking different languages.

Rep. Hardaway was called back to the podium. Mr. Hardaway promised everyone again (?) that the bill was going to be reworked, reworded and that he would be back with a new bill. (?) Rep. Les Winningham, D-Huntsville, long-time Chairman of House Education Committee, and not a supporter of homeschooling, really made it clear that he was not happy with the way Rep. Hardaway had managed the bill, creating the firestorm among us, disrupting the work lives of legislators and their staff with our distress calls and e-mails. He suggested in a very strong manner that Rep. Hardaway consider letting the bill die (he didn't use that word, but that idea), or that if he decided to roll it to a future sub-committee date, that he first rewrite it, then a week before it comes to the sub-committee meet with and discuss with those impacted by the bill, to make sure there would be no new firesto rm.

Sub-Committee member, Rep. Joe Towns-D-Memphis, arrived at the sub-committee meeting as Rep. Hardaway was at the podium this second time. Mr. Towns jumped right in. He learned from Rep. Tommie Brown that the bill needed a second to stay alive, so he supplied the second and very sadly, gave this bill continuing life. Rep. Hardaway said he wanted to roll the bill for three weeks, so we face negotiations with Rep. Hardaway. (End of report)

As you can see we still need to continue for the next three weeks to let these legislators hear from us. Also, if you will go to this link you can see the bill in it--s entirety as it stands now. http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/bills/currentga/asp/WebBillInfo/BillCompanionInfo.aspx? BillNumber=HB2795 THANK YOU to all of you who took the time to get this information out to the families you serve and for taking the time yourself to make phone calls and write e-mails.

Contacts for the House Education Committee may be found at:
http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/house/Committees/hcommemb.htmedu

Texting while driving is probably not a good idea, but making it against the law is even a worse idea. Just hold people responsible for what they do. If someone causes an accident while texting then that is criminal negligence on their behalf and perhaps worthy of an extra fine, but a fine for just texting and not actually creating a dangerous situation is absurd.
The fine proposal limit of $50 just allows judges to issue the fine without the benefit of a Jury. "No fine shall be laid on any citizen of this State that shall exceed fifty dollars, unless it shall be assessed by a jury of his peers, who shall assess the fine at the time they find the fact, if they think the fine should be more than fifty dollars." Tennessee Constitution Article VI, Section 14.
This is just another perfect example of government trying to use force to change behavior rather than persuasion. It is also a ploy for the state to generate more revenue, while giving the false impression that they are actually doing something worthwhile. A number of activities in a car could cause partial attention for drivers. These might include looking at maps, using cell phones, if the sun is in the drivers eyes, it could be anything. The legislature cannot possibly make all of theses activities illegal, yet they all can be dangerous.

This last Saturday night I had a chance participate in my church's Room in the Inn ministry. For those of you not familiar with Room in the Inn, it is a private ministry that provides shelter, food, and clothing to homeless men in Nashville during the cold winter months. Each day, the 12 to 14 churches offering shelter that night are listed on a large board; most churches are asked to provide shelter one night a week. As homeless people report to Room in the Inn for shelter, they are entered into the computer system, which assigns them to one of the churches at random. Each church provides transportation, a hot evening meal and breakfast, and a warm, safe place to sleep. Because the churches bear the nominal costs, Room in the Inn gets along with a staff of two and an annual budget of about $60,000.

It is completely a voluntary charity system and works great. Granted some churches may do a better job than others, but overall I sense that the homeless of Nashville appreciate what Room in the Inn provides for them. All of this is being done without tax dollars or the force of government. Room in the Inn is a wonderful example of how much good can be done without government welfare programs. Room in the Inn shows that it is feasible and possible to replace current government welfare programs with more efficient and effective privately run programs. Please consider contributing to Room in the Inn, they may be contacted at:

Room in the Inn
Father Charles Strobel, Director
606 Demonbreun St.
Nashville, Tenn. 37219
(615) 254-7666

By next fall's election Tennessee may be able to get rid of its current paperless voting machines. The legislature is considering a bipartisan bill that calls for Tennessee to switch over to optical scan voting machines by 2010 at the latest, and this year if the Federal Government (taxpayers) will foot the bill. The goal of having verifiable ballots in Tennessee is a good idea, but should it be done by force?

The current touchscreen machines mandated by Bush's Helping America Vote Act of a few years ago do not have verifiable ballots. Two counties in Tennessee use optical ballots. Most counties went with machines that do not give verifiable ballots. One possible problem with the optical scan ballots is that an error can occur when they are read by a computer, but the can be verified by a hand count. Like any new technology, optical scan ballots are likely to experience problems once they are implemented on a widespread scale.

New Jersey Representative Rush Holt is pushing a bill through that will make funds available to states to switch back from the touchscreen machines to optical scan machines. This all is arising due to a former Federal mandate. This bill also caries wit it the typical problems with government mandates funded with tax dollars. The basic problem is that the Federal tax funds had to be taken from the people in the first place. It would be much better if the Federal government kept the tax funds in the counties from the beginning. Also each county should be allowed to make their own choice as to how they want votes to be cast. Even the state of Tennessee's role in this should be very minimal. Their only real concern should be making sue that elections are honest and that voters have confidence in the voting process. It is interesting to see how the free market is working to provide a better voting experience, but this effort is being slowed and hindered by state and federal intervention in the process.

The next type of voting made available in Tennessee will hopefully be an improvement over what is currently being used, however we must recall that government has a knack for providing solutions that are far worse than the original problem. Once the voting process is improved, we can move on to improving the content of ballots in Tennessee.

Current ballot access laws in the Tennessee make it virtually impossible for for minor or new political parties to get a named ballot line–that is, for candidates to be identified on the ballot as being members of the Libertarian, just for example, rather than as "independent." The "independent" is both deceptive and a real disservice to voters. The Libertarian Party of Tennessee has a process a candidate must go through to be considered a Libertarian candidate. Voters cannot distinguish a Communist "independent" form a Green "independent" from a Constitution "independent" or from a Libertarian "independent."

A recent court case in Ohio ended with the Federal Sixth Circuit Court declaring that Ohio's law, which is actually less restrictive than Tennessee's, is in violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution. The Libertarian Party of Tennessee has joined with the Green Party of Tennessee and the Constitution Party of Tennessee in filing a lawsuit to overturn Tennessee's ballot restrictive ballot access law, and we have every reason to believe that the decision will be handed down in time for the November election. Last year sever comities in the Legislature considered a law that would have created a two tiered party system of major and minor parties. It is very likely that a court case victory, will result in such a law change. As long as the two parties have a monopoly of the political system, how e vote will actually make little difference. It really won't matter much if McCain, Clinton, or Obama get in the white house. The policies will bring us more government and less freedom. A vote for the lesser of two evils is still a vote for evil, even on a verifiable paper ballot.

The Tennessean is reporting that the Republicans are fighting the pre-K expansion proposal http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080207/NEWS0201/802070417/1009/NEWS Rather than fight the expansion of the program, the legislature should scrap the entire program. Gov. Phil Bredesen has asked for a $25 million expansion of pre-K classes in next year's budget. An ultimate expansion would be to a universal mandated pre-K program. When one looks at actual universal pre-K programs in action, in Quebec, Georgia, and Oklahoma, one can see that pre-K costs far outweigh the benefits; in Quebec pre-K was even found to have had a negative impact on some students. In any case, it's no secret that the good effects of pre-K tend to fade out in grade school. Shifting education discussion to pre-K programs is a tactic to divert attention from the serious problems faced by government run K-12 educational programs.

Tennessee is currently ranked 16th among the states for its government run education programs. Tennessee lags behind other states in national math and reading achievement tests. Of course, these statistics compare public schools with public schools. In general America's government run schools are in peril. Scholastic Aptitude Test scores of students graduating from American government schools dropped from 978 to 890 between 1963 and 1980; scores then recovered slightly, rising to 904 by the mid-1980s, but have remained flat since then. About 25 percent of U.S. college freshmen are taking remedial math courses, 21 percent are taking remedial writing courses, and 16 percent are taking remedial reading courses. A recent survey of 200 major corporations found that 22 per- cent of them teach employees reading, 41 percent teach writing, and 31 percent teach mathematical skills. Those supporting government run schools, argue that K-12 academic achievement will improve with the implementation of expensive government run pre-K programs.

Expansion of pre-K programs, like the one in Tennessee, are promoted as "a very fiscally wise decision," because students who do better in school because of early education will be less likely to be held back, to need special education, or commit crimes later in life. Statements such as this are completely full of faulty logic and erroneous conclusions. Firstly, research has proven time and time again that any gains achieved by early childhood education programs are usually lost my the time a child completes elementary school. In other words by the time children complete elementary school, no academic achievement difference can be seen between students who received early childhood education and those who did not. Secondly children are held back in school because they do not successfully complete the requirements of a given grade level. This could happen for one of two reasons, or perhaps a combination of both. Some students have disabilities of learning styles that make success in traditional educational settings difficult for them. When these children are placed in anon-traditional setting which offers much one-on-one attention, they can succeed. Another, and perhaps the most common cause of academic failure, is a defect in teaching methodology. A case and point of this is reading instruction. Sight word methods of reading instruction do not work, especially with special needs children. Traditional phonetic reading instruction presented with repetition and rote memorization of phonetic sounds works even with special needs children.

The real difference between a successful education and one that is not depends upon parental involvement, not funding. Furthermore, some parents are attracted to religious schools and preschools because they believe the discipline and values taught in a religious school can mean the difference between success and failure. Quality education requires discipline. Discipline is one of the important contributing factors to the success of Asian education. Asian education is based upon the premise that everyone can learn anything if they put sufficient effort into the learning process.

Republicans oppose the expansion of Tennessee's pre-K program because they don't want it to become an entitlement program for middle-class students. Republican's do not acknowledge that the entire government run school system is an entitlement program. Government run schools routinely receive an increase in funding, especially if they are not performing well or delivering a quality education. This trend totally balks against the free market competition requirement of providing quality services to stay in business.

Advocates claim funding pre-K is a small expenditure that will save taxpayer dollars in the long term. Nothing could be further from the truth. Government run schools and pre-K programs will never be a success, and they will always ask for more funding. This is the history of government run education in America.

The best thing Tennessee could do is scrap the government run pre-K program, and offer a tax credit to parents who want to seek market sector pre-K programs for their children. Such tax credits should be extended to parents who seek K-12 educational opportunities in the market sector. Since government run schools on average cost twice as much as government run schools, the state could offer each parent a tax break equivalent to half the cost of government run schooling in their county for sending their child to a market sector school or home-schooling their child. For each child doing this the government will cut its expenditure on education in half. Let us give parents a choice in how their students are educated and lets make government run schools compete for students and funding, then education will really improve.

The Constitution Party of Tennessee, Green Party of Tennessee, and Libertarian Party of Tennessee collectively filed a lawsuit on Thursday, January 24, 2008 in U.S. District Court against the State of Tennessee for unfair ballot access laws and regulations. The suit challenges several provisions of the State Election Laws including signature requirements and the timing of petitions for establishing 'new' political parties in Tennessee. In 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected similar laws in Ohio, stating the regulations placed an undue burden upon third parties seeking ballot access. The State of Tennessee is also in the Sixth Circuit Court district with Ohio. "While the Libertarian, Constitution, and Green Parties have differing political philosophies, we share equal discrimination under the current laws," said Tony Wall, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Tennessee. "We are all nationally organized political parties and are entitled to equal representation in the ballot booth. Our respective supporters should be able to identify our candidates in the same manner as the two major political parties." "Fair and open elections are basic to a free society," added Katey Culver, Green Party of Tennessee Representative to the Green National Committee. "With this lawsuit, we hope to bring that right to the people of Tennessee."

For more information, please contact
the Constitution Party of Tennessee at 901-624-3884,
the Green Party of Tennessee at 931-589-6513, or
the Libertarian Party of Tennessee at 888-960-1776.