The Tennessee ConserVOLiance

10 responses so far ↓

• 1 Rick Cantrell (4 comments) // May 22, 2009 at 8:47 pm

  OK. I am friendly. And, I am right minded. I voted for Ken Yager. Then, our TVA disaster struck on December 22, 2008. I will tell you this. He has been absent the whole time. People have asked him to be here. All he can say is that he is helping all he can. How do I know this? I have been there since day one. Ask anyone in this community.
  Mr. Yager even decided to sponser a bill that adds selenium to our waterways. Yeah, like we need that here in Roane County, to go along with the already elevated amounts. Oh, and according to him, it was a coincidence that it was introduced at the time of the disaster. Does anyone reading this know what selenium does to the fishing alone? If you fish, I’d suggest you research it.
  I know why he introduced the bull…I mean bill. Look who contributes to his war chest; the mining companies, developers, the coal companies. Did any of you even know that he actually thought adding selenium was a good thing for water? He had no idea. Now he is stuck with the bill and does not have the guts to say he was wrong and the bill should die.
  I will promise this. Next election, I will do everything in my power to see that his opponent is elected. Yes, I do not care if it is a Democrat, Republican, or Independent. And yes, I am a Republican. But, I live in Kingston. I have worked on our disaster since the beginning. I can honestly say he HAS NOT.
  Oh, and ask around. When I set my mind to something, I do get results.
  So, let’s see if you print this comment on your blog. I will be copying it for roaneviews. The good people there will know I commented.

  Rick Cantrell
  Kingston, TN

• 2 Blue (33 comments) // May 22, 2009 at 10:26 pm

  @Rick -

  Buddy, slow down before you burst a vessel …

  I counted at least half a dozen charges of serious malfeasance in your little screed. Fortunately for you, you chose to comment over here on the Right side of the aisle. We don’t play your sophomoric little games like deleting comments from trolls. We like to leave them up so people know your name and can read your ignorance all big and real-life and stuff.

  Truthfully, you almost had me. I had started to believe you when you began your argument. It seemed plausible … then, well, let’s just say you could have your picture as the definition of “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory”.

  I appreciate your effort, I really do. It takes a lot of work to do drive by commenting. But learn a few things that the rest of us who are serious about political dialogue already know.

  Statements in the vein of “I’m a life-long Republican” and “I’ve never voted for a Democrat” are code for “Look at me, fellow Lefties!! I’m over here at a Righty blog, commenting! How cool is that?! They’ll never know …” Ummm … we know.

  Calling yourself a Republican and then carboning the “good people” at RoaneViews, just so they’ll know you commented, is pretty much not the sort of thing a Republican does. Or your average adult, for that matter.

  Insulting me and my integrity and the purpose and atmosphere here at my home on your first visit while insulting Ken Yager while telling me you’ve lived in his community all your life is a major disconnect. Why should I believe you have the long term relationship which qualifies you to comment on Yager’s conduct when you treat me in the same shabby manner on your first visit here. Perhaps the only thing long term about you are the qualities of rudeness and ignorance.

  Finally, one must wonder what passes for rational thought in your little Lefty world. For instance, you excoriate Yager for representing the Coal and mining industry. Yet you fail to mention that those businesses, the jobs they provide and the people who hold them are also constituents of Yager’s. What would you have him do? Ignore them? At the most, the only thing Yager would be guilty of is supporting one constituency more than another.

  But you? You link to RoaneViews in your signature as your website, tell everyone that you’re friendly and right-minded and then proceed to be everything but. I believe it’s safe to toss your own words back at you … I know why you introduced this bull …

  Look what you support … RoaneViews, the opposite of anything Republican or Right of Center, bad manners, badly crafted arguments and contradictory and illogical statements.

  So go ahead and vote Democrat next time around. I don’t think Ken will be missing your vote. But unless and until you have some objective evidence to support your contentions on his “absence” and “lack of concern” for his constituents that doesn’t depend on me having to trust you for it to be true … head back to RoaneViews and tell them all what a good job you did at telling your sad, little fiction.

  Now stop annoying the adults. We have work to do …

• 3 WhitesCreek (2 comments) // May 23, 2009 at 5:29 am

  Blue,

  I can see by your statements that you failed factcheck 101. Rick is in fact a lifelong Republican and is one of many who will work to defaet Ken Yager from now on. At his recent town meeting in Kingston he received not one single positive statement from the people, and his most serious critics were, as Rick tried to tell you, “life long Republicans.”

  You and I can disagree on basic political philosophy but we both ought to be able to spot a crooked politician when we see one. Check Yager’s legislative offerings alongside his donor list and it should be obvious.

  A serious blogger shouldn’t insult people who go to the trouble to bring the truth. You might want to apologize to Rick.

  Steve

• 4 Rick Cantrell (4 comments) // May 23, 2009 at 7:51 am

  Maybe if you and others read roaneviews every now and then, you might see that there are many comments from every walk of life. There are opposites on almost every blog. And, it is the most informative site for our county that I have ever visited.
  So, until you can look at his record in a neutral perspective, then come here and see what he hasn’t done, you are not informed enough to make the comments you did. Go ahead and blast me, criticize me, whatever. I have been hit from all sides since December 22, 2008. I research and inform the public about our disaster more in one day then Mr. Yager has since it happened. Do your homework before you criticize. It might make you look a little more intelligent.
  I don’t expect an apology from someone who is simple minded and afraid to seek the truth. But, there are some very good people on roaneviews you should apologize to. They have open minds and know how to think.

• 5 Blue (33 comments) // May 23, 2009 at 8:37 am

  Boys …

  You clearly don’t spend as much time as you think you do getting out and around. Your assumptions that I don’t know what I’ll find at Roane Views are touching, but out of touch.

  I have no problem with the folks at Roane Views personally. They are all fine husbands, fathers, wives, and so on. It’s their politics that are destructive and damaging to both our state and our country.

  Perhaps I do owe Rick Cantrell an apology. I’m getting older and I keep forgetting that it is not about the party in power, it’s about the principles and the policies in power. Thus Rick can still be a Republican and still hang out with the openly self identified Liberals and Progressives at Roane Views without contradiction. After all, look at Specter and company. They are, or were, Republicans, too!

  I’ll stand by the rest of my comments. If one reads your comments at RoaneViews about your activity over here, you are walking-talking proof of my contentions.

  If one reads at Roane Views for any length of time whatsoever, you do find good people. No one here has ever questioned that. But their values and their premises are wrong. Open minded they may be. That merely gives all manner of bad ideas the opportunity to take root.

  As just one example of why I say this, I offer the following. Rick, the life-long Republican, has thrown off all of the valuable principles normally associated with the GOP - low taxes, limited Government, individual liberties, individual success as the foundation of national success and on and on - all because he doesn’t like the way Ken Yager has behaved in one matter.

  I haven’t spent hours looking for all of Rick’s offerings on the matter but I wonder a couple of things. Considering Yager is a first term Senator and Rick wants to hold him responsible for all the problems, how much has Rick written about the 30 years of Democrats in charge of the disaster area? How much expose of their mismanagement of the situation for decades has he done? Why did he not reference it as support for his GOP credentials if it exists?

  It’s not my lack of familiarity with RoaneViews and the people there that cause me to respond to Rick as I do. It is precisely because I understand them that I respond as I do.

  It looks to me as if Rick needs to remember a lesson most of us knew before we saw the Karate Kid. He complains of being hit from all sides. He should pick a side then and cut his losses in half.

  But choices have consequences. If he truly is a life-long GOPer, and he chooses the Left, he’ll have to drop that stubborn streak. The Left loves defectors for their publicity value and nothing more. If he retains any nominally GOP values, he won’t be permitted to criticize his new friends as he has Ken Yager. It’s only on the Right that open disagreement is permitted.

  I can hear your howls of protest now. Spare me. Joe Lieberman is all the example I need to offer …

  Enjoy your new friends, Rick. When you come to your senses, we’ll still be here. Working from within to change the problems we find. It’s the way the adults do it …

• 6 WhitesCreek (2 comments) // May 23, 2009 at 10:10 am

  Well it looks like Yager picked the right group to adore him. Now if he would only move to your district, we could get someone who would represent his constituents instead of the big coal companies.

  And just in case you want to think about something, Ken’s bill (SB 1331) is based on misrepresentation of a report that Ken calls good science, only the scientist that wrote the report says half the fish in his study would die if Ken’s bill becomes law. It’s stunning that you back Ken’s corruption as a conservative value. I thought conservatives like to fish.

• 7 Rick Cantrell (4 comments) // May 23, 2009 at 10:43 am

  Actually, you must not have researched all I have said about this disaster. I have called for investigations to begin to date all the way back to 2003 when TVA chose to put a bandaid on the dam. When it comes to this, I am not Dem or Rep. I am a citizen of Roane County trying to do my part. So if you have looked up what I have said on roaneviews, then also go check what I have said in the papers, on the Knoxville News Stations, and interviews all over the country. Oh, and you might want to talk to some of your people here too. They might just inform you as to exactly what I have been doing, and will continue to do. Sorry, but I cannot choose a side when it comes to helping people. They cannot afford for me to cut my loses. I don’t forget where I live, unlike others.
  It’s sad that somebody would start a blog, then criticize the people who respond the opposite as to what you want them too. But, it’s also funny that I do not see any responses that support your man.
  Oh well, it takes all kinds to make the world go round. You have a wonderful day!

• 8 Blue Collar Muse (15 comments) // May 23, 2009 at 11:32 am

  @WhitesCreek -

  One of the things that must happen here is that the discussion has to take place around facts, not your opinions or accusations.

  You say Yager misrepresents a report which the author himself discusses. You provide no link for objective analysis.

  You condemn Yager for carrying the bill and claim his doing so is an affront to his constituency and assert he is just a stooge for the Coal industry but ignore that the people who benefit from the presence of the coal industry are also his constituents. I see no dealing with the results those folks would have to endure if you get what you want.

  No one anywhere has said that Yager, or any pol is to be adored. Check your premises. But to assume that because you disagree with any pol on a single vote or issue, especially when you are not forthcoming on all the details, that others should take your view of the matter is both foolish and disingenuous.

  You do not write about or include a single reference to Yager’s support for and fighting for the citizens who elected him. The rest of the world has Google, too. Ken’s record is publicly available where he, as a local and state official, has fought for the citizens you both claim to represent.

  You won’t allow that the light of day because there’s an R after his name.

  Your tactics are despicable and reprehensible. Their deception is illustrated by the current top story at Roane Views. You have a picture of one naval academy grad and his family who are proud to be associated with Obama. Of course such people exist. No one doubts that at all. But to extrapolate from that specific to the notion you’d like the rest of the world to come away with - that Obama is beloved by members of the military - is such an outrageous attempt at manipulation and deception that one must wonder how you can, with a straight face, accuse Yager of misrepresenting anything.

  Again, as an example … you beat up on Yager for his legislation. But you fail to mention that, in the Senate, the bill passed 26-6. 7 Democrats voted for it, including the normally reliable Ophelia Ford and Thelma Harper. If this is such a bad thing for Tennesseans, why couldn’t you convince your own people of its danger?

  You may have some legitimate issues to raise regarding the matter. But you seem to be far less interested in the actual issue than you are in flaming Ken Yager. That’s the bottom line. Say all you like, do all you like, comment all you like … you have an agenda. Nothing wrong with that, we all have one.

  But if you disguise yours as being all about the safety when it’s more all about getting Progressives and Liberals elected regardless of their voting record that isn’t a good basis for any sort of discussion moving forward.

• 9 Rick Cantrell (4 comments) // May 23, 2009 at 3:14 pm

  And you failed to see that I have given the same criticisms to Democrats as well as Republicans on SB 1331 and their lack of help on OUR disaster. Representative Ferguson has taken the same road Senator Yager has around here; AWOL. Maybe if you paid us a visit, you would see the same thing.
  What you and others fail to realize, this isn’t a Kingston disaster. It isn’t a Roane County disaster. It is even bigger than a Tennessee disaster. This is the biggest disaster of it’s kind in the history of our nation. Have you offered help? I doubt it.
  Ken Yager is not good for the Republican party. He will not be an asset in 1012 for the Republican nominee for Governor in Roane County.
  I will vote for whoever says they will help with this disaster, whether it be Republican, Democrat, Independent, liberal, or conservative. You see. I have a purpose; a goal. And that is to help our county survive the biggest disaster of its kind ever, try to help those that need it regardless of party affiliation, and help see that this wonderful community comes out better than ever.
  So I’ll ask this of both our state Senator and our Representative. What have you done for us lately? Answer…nil, nada, nyet, nothing.
  Now I can move on to more important issues other then this onesided blog.

• 10 Blue Collar Muse (15 comments) // May 24, 2009 at 6:53 am

  @Rick …

  Let me see if I understand you correctly.

  Ken Yager is the devil. Ken Yager is the devil. Ken Yager is the devil. Ken Yager is the devil. Ken Yager is the devil. Because of the ash spill. And this is a one sided blog.

  That about right?

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