February Meeting: Dr. Paul Crilly

CANCELED DUE TO WEATHER!

For our February meeting, we will have Dr. Paul Crilly, the GOP member of the Knox County Election Commission. As usual, our meeting will be at 7:00 PM in the library of the Karns Middle School on Tuesday, February 3rd. Dr. Crilly will speak about the role of the Election Commission. We look forward to seeing you there.

Book Recommendation: Capitalism and Freedom

First publilshed in 1962, Capitalism and Freedom is a classic book by the renowned economist Milton Friedman. As we move forward in this uncertain time, Friedman is a great source to understand the balance between government and individual freedom. Friedman was writing in the shadow of FDR and the dawn of LBJ and yet forshadows the rise of Ronald Reagan.

January Meeting: All Business

For our January meeting (Tuesday the 6th), we are planning to have a business meeting to discuss and prepare for the New Year. As usual, we will meet at 7:00 PM in the library of Karns Middle School.

We encourage your to come join us whether your a new member or long-time Karns GOP'er. Bring your ideas and help us make 2009 a successful Republican year.

See you Tuesday night!

P.S. We are planning to meet at Gatti's in Karns at 6:00PM prior to the meeting. We hope to make this casual precursor to our regular meeting a regular event.

Race for Governor

The race for Governor in Tennessee became very interesting on Monday as former U.S. Senator Bill Frist announced that he will not run as reported in the Knoxville News Sentinel. See article.

Many GOP'ers have been waiting in the wings to see what Frist would do. Now that he's officially out, the anticipation is that Knoxville's Mayor, Bill Haslam, will run. Haslam may even make an announcement as early as Tuesday. See article. Other prominent GOP gubernatorial candidates include both Zack Wamp and Bill Gibbons. Wamp is an eight-term U.S. Representative from Chattanooga. He serves the third Congressional district of Tennessee, which includes Oak Ridge. From the west side of the state, Gibbons is District Attorney for Shelby Count, which includes Memphis.

As an interesting side note, rumors have swirled since 2006 that the country music star Tim McGraw may through his hat into the governor's race for the Democrats. Stay tuned, y'all!

Book Recommendation

In Founding Brothers, Joseph Ellis eloquently peals away the onion-and thus the often glossed over mystery-of the forming of our nation. Ellis tells us in this Pulitzer -Prize winning book how a group of ordinary men-ordinary in that they possessed mortal flaws as any other man-pulled together extraordinary compromises as they ushered our republic, the United States of America, through its early days. Ellis goes beyond the grandeur that we most often associate with men like Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Adams to reveal new insights.