Tennesseefree.com

It is always good to see a company post a profit, especially one that provides such an important service as extracting oil out of the ground. As expected, those who hate capitalism and instead love government, are a little upset over this company making money. Not having a basic understanding of supply and demand, and how the future’s market works, the intellectually challenged are accusing this company of price gouging, which in itself is a questionable term. You see in capitalism, every deal is a win win. If you are willing to sell something for a certain price and somebody is willing to buy that something for that price, both parties win. Prices, by the way, are determined by the supply of a product and how much demand there is for that product. I apologize for speaking to you all as if you are fifth graders, but apparently some of us are not quite sure how capitalism works, and would prefer we have a command economy.

Amazingly, we live in a time when the leading Presidential candidate for one of the two major parties has threatened to confiscate oil company profits. Yes it’s true. Believe it or not, the person who may eventually represent the Democratic Party in the Presidential race, has actually promised to “take” a private company’s profits. And we thought that Marxism had been proven a failure.

There is no shame in Berkley. 

Apparently the people on City Council were stoned when the Constitution was being taught in Junior High School. In fact not only are they ignorant of the Constitution, they give a special parking place to Code Pink so it is easier to protest against those they disagree with.

But when the big earthquake comes will they accept help from the National Guard? Or will they stand by their principles?

Hey-hey, ho-ho, the Marines in Berkeley have got to go.

That’s the message from the Berkeley City Council, which voted 6-3 Tuesday night to tell the U.S. Marines that its Shattuck Avenue recruiting station “is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders.”

In addition, the council voted to explore enforcing its law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation against the Marines because of the military’s don’t ask, don’t tell policy. And it officially encouraged the women’s peace group Code Pink to impede the work of the Marines in the city by protesting in front of the station.

In a separate item, the council voted 8-1 to give Code Pink a designated parking space in front of the recruiting station once a week for six months and a free sound permit for protesting once a week from noon to 4 p.m.

More proof that Bush has weakened America

This is the strategy: we get rid of Saddam while going after WMD, don’t find any so we go after ragtag bombers and al Qaeda destroying Iraq’s infrastructure in the process. We create a civil war killing hundreds of thousands, and now take on the enormous financial burden of rebuilding that country with contractors that have shown a history of waste, corruption and mismanagement… and tie up our military and reserves in a continuing quagmire. While the wingnuts are congratulating themselves on the success of ‘the surge,’ US deaths are going back up again in Iraq. January was the worst month for US troops since Sept. and Afghanistan is not getting any better.

Now, thanks to this strategy of GW Bush, America is safe, right?

A report from the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves says:

(AP)

The U.S. military isn’t ready for a catastrophic attack on the country, and National Guard forces don’t have the equipment or training they need for the job.

This stress on our military is shown by the fact that US soldiers now have the highest suicide rate on record.   A weaker America, the result of cowboy diplomacy . . . thanks Dumbya.

Read the story

(And the GOP front runner McCain wants to stay in Iraq for 100 yrs).

Tgirsch has posted on the lack of a need for Voter ID laws. After telling us how rare voter fraud is, he says,

….requiring a photo ID to vote could disenfranchise nearly 10% of the eligible population, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. In other words, it would potentially inhibit 1,000,000 times as many legitimate voters as fraudulent voters.

I have never understood this argument. Is there really 10% of the population Read more »

I think he’ll be hearing more about this should Barack Obama win the Democratic nomination:

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was the most liberal senator in 2007, according to National Journal’s 27th annual vote ratings. The insurgent presidential candidate shifted further to the left last year in the run-up to the primaries, after ranking as the 16th- and 10th-most-liberal during his first two years in the Senate.

The reality of Barack Obama cannot live up to the myth. So far no one has called him out on his actual policy positions, and thus most Americans are not aware of how far to the left he is. As the election season progresses that will change.

Cross posted at Appalachian Scribe

Kevin of Lean Left links to a very interesting article by Ezra Klein of the American Prospect.

In that article, Klein reveals that Reagan wasn’t nearly as conservative as the myth makes him out to be.

This is a guy who raised taxes six years in a row, sat down with the Soviet Union with no preconditions, passed a massive amnesty bill, wildly increased the size of the federal government, exploded the deficit, saved Social Security by instituting a large payroll tax, retreated from Beirut after a bombing, and expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit.

All of this is true. Reagan did not accomplish nearly as much as he would have liked. One obvious reason is that the legislative branch remained in the hands of the Democrats during both of his terms. But Reagan is much more important though for his leadership in a movement and the way he transformed fiscal and regulatory policy, laying the groundwork for future changes.

That brings me to my main point. Just as conservatism was not completely tried during the Reagan years, liberalism was most certainly not tried during the Clinton years. For the most part, the Clinton administration was a continuation of the Reagan revolution, not the end of it. In our last Democratic President’s defense though, government was just as divided in the 90’s as it was during the eighties.

If I were the Republican nominee and Mrs. Clinton was my opponent, I would make it a point to highlight the fact that a second Clinton administration will be nothing like the first. In fact, I might even compliment Bill for being such a pragmatist and a moderate, and then contrast his ideas with hers.

Modern liberalism can not survive without victims. It’s always about the poor, the minorities, the women, the children, the old people, but when you get right down to it, its really just about government. If it were about any of those poor hopeless groups, libs in Tennessee would support doing away with the sales tax on food, rather than oppose the idea. They would have opposed the lottery, instead of supporting it. The would support school choice for inner city kids, instead of opposing it. Also, they would support ending or cutting taxes on capital gains and dividends, instead of opposing them.

But no, all of those things would promote liberty and empower the individual against government, and they can’t have that.

Sometimes, even when there aren’t any victims, libs create them in their head. Take this post from Archcrone about how Bush is supposedly screwing over the wealthiest demographic of Americans, that group we call the elderly.

If anybody is screwing anybody, it is the elderly screwing us. In spite of the fact that they are the wealthiest demographic, they still won’t give an inch on Social Security or Medicare cuts. They love to play that “poor old person” BS, but the truth is, as a group, they are far from poor.

They should be commended though for saving and creating wealth in their old age, but they ought to be ashamed of the way that they are living it up at the expense of their children and grandchildren.

Rob Huddleston, Adam Groves, and David Oatney are all reporting that Bob Corker has come out against the fiscal stimulus plan. Bob Krumm also points out that Democrat Jim Cooper voted against the Stimulus Package. Cooper’s not my representative. His district ends a few miles down the road. My rep is Marsha Blackburn, who appears to be less fiscally conservative, as a Republican, than Cooper is as a Democrat. Kind of embarrassing.

I am watching the debate right now and can’t believe the BS I’m hearing. Huckabee says he supports a federal abortion amendment, a gay marriage amendment, and then in the very next sentence says he is a small government conservative.

Then later He and McCain, the two most anti-federalist candidates ever, both claim to be federalists. Huckabee even went as far as to say that Hamilton was wrong and Jefferson was right.

What a joke! Compared to the Huckster, Alexander Hamilton was a damn Confederate!

More from:

Rob Huddleston- “It’s ironic that the debate last night was held in the Reagan Library, because the Republican establishment has turned its back on Reagan conservatism and this general election is going to have Reagan-like results. Only it won’t be the Republicans who are celebrating.”

Sean Braisted- “I don’t care all that much about the Republicans race, but I do have to say one thing. Even though I think McCain is the best of the GOP candidates, I do think he is wrong about Romney’s position on the Iraq war.”

Sadcox- “Seriously, are these ass clowns the best we can muster up to represent us?“

Like other Bush environmental initiatives with deceptive names like “Clear Skies” and “Healthy Forests” … the promise of “clean coal” looks like another Bush Administration lie in their unprecedented war on the environment.

Bush touted clean coal technology in 2006, when he insisted that the United States is “spending quite a bit of money here at the federal level to come up with clean-coal technologies.” During Monday’s State of the Union address, Bush said, “Let us fund new technologies that can generate coal power while capturing carbon emissions.”

Yet, just 24 hours after his SOTU declaration, Bush’s Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman indicated the White House was pulling the plug on the ambitious FutureGen project, a clean coal plant that was touted as “the cleanest fossil fuel fired power plant in the world.”

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today issued the following statement in reaction:

“…Secretary of Energy Sam Bodman has misled the people of Illinois, creating false hope in a FutureGen project which has no intention of funding or supporting. In twenty-five years on Capitol Hill, I have never witnessed such a cruel deception. For five years, the Department of Energy has urged our state and others to pursue, at great expense and sacrifice, this critically important energy project.”

What else is new? This is the way BushCo does business. If you are a Republican reading this and have any regard for the environment, you are either 1) ignorant of the Bush Administration’s environmental misdeeds; 2) you are in denial of these misdeeds; or 3) you don’t really care much about the environment.

Which is it?

Try this: do a Google search on these words: “Bush” & “environment.”

About the only good news you’ll get is from ‘WhiteHouse.gov.’

Time magazine’s Jay Newton-Small has written an article entitled “Why Edwards Never Caught On”. In that ridiculous piece of journalism is this quote.

But even Edwards’ boundless optimism and energy has his limits…

Edwards? Boundless optimism? Are they kidding. So a guy that runs around screaming “America sucks” is considered optimistic? I’d hate to see how the author defines cynicism?

As for the title/question, the answer is simple. He never caught on because it isn’t the Great Depression.

At least two Tennessee liberal bloggers are a little upset with Shelby County Democrat John Deberry for this state law proposal.

From Sean Braisted:

John DeBerry is the House sponsor of a bill that would, “[prohibit] any individual who is cohabitating in a sexual relationship outside of a marriage that is valid under the constitution and laws of this state from adopting a minor.”

Now obviously the law doesn’t just discriminate against homosexuals, but anybody “cohabitating in a relationship outside of marriage”, but we know what this is about.

As John Hutchison put it,

Of course…screw the children. So what if they are wilting in orphanages or wards of foster parents only in it for the money. God help us if they actually have to hang around GAY people.

I understand the idea of trying to put children in the best situation, but isn’t it better for a child to end up with a gay relative than with a stranger? Also, with all of the abuse that goes on out there and the bad homes so many children are forced to grow up in, shouldn’t we be happy when a child is in a safe place, even if the adopted parents are not as moral as we would like? We do need to look out for the children, but this isn’t the way to do it.

Dang homophobic Democrats!

Of course she can, she says.

Uh, never mind.

Much has been to do about the nothing this week that was Ted Kennedy endorsing Barack Obama for the White House. Neely Tucker of the Washington Post penned this recent piece absolutely soaked in leftist dreamer drivel, in which he anointed Obama as “Camelot’s new knight.” After I finished dry heaving from the drama laced in every word, I decided to take a little time and ponder all the hullabaloo.

“Over the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wish they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president,” Caroline Kennedy told a cheering throng of students at American University. “This longing is even more profound today. Fortunately, there is one candidate who offers that same sense of hope and inspiration, and I am proud to endorse Senator Barack Obama for president.”

This was nearly note perfect. Inspiration and hope and longing, the touchstones of the American Dream. And what, you’re going to tell her she just doesn’t know the America of that time or her own dad? The little girl in gloves and a short dress, holding her mother’s right hand and following her father’s coffin out of St. Matthew’s Cathedral that chilly day in November, just a few days before her 6th birthday — you’re going to tell her she got it wrong ?

Yup. I just might. I would never downplay her loss, as any child hates to lose a father, especially under such circumstances. However, we all have to be honest.

The Socialist left looks to JFK as Conservatives view Ronald Reagan. Jack Kennedy is the bulwark that so many on the left run to when all those damnable Conservatives get their way. Kennedy’s life of course ended far too soon, so we’ll never truly know what “Camelot” was to be. However, much like liberalism today, it looked pretty, had no track record of success, and was mythologized by the extreme socialist wing of the Democratic party.

That’s right folks. “Camelot” was a myth. It did not exist but for a short while, and we can not know if the “Kennedy ideal” would have helped or hurt America. Kennedy did plant the seeds that LBJ had the misfortune to harvest, but that’s not mentioned by many on the American left. In reality, “Camelot” was nothing more than a man with a beautiful wife and children, who was snuffed out too soon…a brief moment of sunshine, with no context through which to truly give it applause or harsh critique.

We will simply never know.

If the same standards were applied to today’s administration, “Crawfordtopia” would be an abundant, safe America with the majority of its armed forces at home.

And now, Ted Kennedy, socialist of socialists gives the nod to Obama? Two uber socialist-liberals now patting each other on the back? JFK….Ted…..Obama……..It is as if Augustus passed the torch to Caligula, and now Caligula taps…….

?

Hopefully we shall still never know.

Rudy Giuliani, long time Republican front-runner, has dropped out of the race and endorsed John McCain. It’s a shame to see him go. I’ve always been a big fan of Rudy and think he would have made a great president. His record in New York was nothing short of amazing and that was long before 9/11. Sure he’s a bit of a nanny-stater and a little questionable on civil liberties, but really, what Republican isn’t these days? Anyway, he took a gamble and it didn’t pay off. Whoever ultimately takes the White House (assuming it’s a Republican) would be wise to consider Rudy for a cabinet position.

Cross posted at Appalachian Scribe

John Edwards has dropped out of the presidential race. A bit of a surprise. I suspected he would stay in and earn a few delegates in the hopes of playing kingmaker at the Democratic convention. But I suppose he saw that he was unlikely to win enough to even do that. We shall see who he endorses.

I can’t say I’m sad to see Edwards go. Of all the major candidates of either party, he was my least favorite: a former ambulance chaser and economic populist whose entire campaign was built on negativity and divisive rhetoric about “two Americas.” Good riddance.

Cross posted Appalachian Scribe

Who the hell would want to attend a college that hosted a half billion dollar “G.W. Bush Library and Museum?”  What a curse it would be for all who call Southern Methodist University their alma mater.

The SMU Seminary, the Perkins School of Theology is fighting the Bush library. Rev. William K. McElvaney is professor emeritus of preaching and worship, and Susanne Johnson, Ph.D. is associate professor of Christian education at the School published commentary that stated their opposition to the Bush Library:

Do we want SMU to benefit financially from a legacy of massive violence, destruction and death brought about by the Bush presidency in dismissal of broad international opinion?

What moral justification supports SMU’s providing a haven for a legacy of environmental predation and denial of global warming, shameful exploitation of gay rights and the most critical erosion of habeas corpus in memory?

Today’s story in the NY Times points out that even though the Council of Bishops has approved the project, church rules require that an agreement be submitted to the 290 elected delegates of the church’s South Central Jurisdiction for ratification. Opposition looks strong, 11,200 have signed a petition against the library.

This statement by Aunt Bee really says a lot about the way liberals think.

…white Democratic men will be in the unprecedented position….of choosing between their race and their gender!

No it’s never a choice between the best candidate, or the best person to lead the country. Libs always have to divide people up into these little groups and then analyze things from there. What a strange bunch of people. They are the exact opposite of how they view themselves.

UPDATE: Case in point.

AC Kleinheider has posted the total delegate count up to this point. Before yesterday, Romney had been leading and this is the first time that McCain has led so far. In spite of that, the media have been pouring their adorations on “the Democrats favorite Republican”, basically crowning him the nominee. We have a long way to go though folks. McCain still needs 1,000 delegates to win this thing.

I understand the criticism of Romney, by people like SayUncle, but you all have to understand that this is a two man race now. Like it or not, Mitt is the best option.

I am not a paleo-con, but check out this comment at VV from somebody who is.

Paleocons better get behind Mitt Romney at this point, whether they like him or not.

….McCain would be a “Bush-on-steroids”, much worse than George Bush.

Interesting.

Mr. “I apologize for most all of my votes and condemn everyone else who voted that way”, John Edwards, has finally quit. It’s about time. Now which candidate will likely get his supporters? That’s easy. Isn’t every Edwards and Obama vote, really just an anti-Clinton vote?

More from the following:

John Rodgers- “How could this affect next week’s primary in Tennessee? Bob Tuke, Sen. Barack Obama’s Tennessee political director, said yesterday that Obama’s poll numbers in Tennessee would benefit if Edwards withdrew.”

Pesky Fly- “Little John For AG.”

Donald Sensing- “Well he’s only been running for the Veep spot anyway.”

Say Uncle- “Edwards is taking his hair and going back to his America. He didn’t endorse which is a way of saying Can I be your Veep?“

Southern Beale- “I am supremely sorry to see Edwards gone. I liked his populist ideas, and with him in the race I think he effectively kept Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the progressive tact.”

Thaddeus Matthews- “With John Edward finally doing us all a favor and getting out of the race for President,whose the better choice for President. Barack Obama or Bill and Hillery Clinton?“

R. Neal-”It’s a very sad thing. I’m glad I waited to vote, though. This makes it a lot easier.”

Sean Braisted-”I’ve been curious for a while what his actual strategy was, seeing as after South Carolina, it was pretty evident that he wasn’t going to be able to win a state.”

Jim at Music City Bloggers- “Very cool that he’s going to devote some time volunteering at Habitat.”

TGW- “Uh-oh. That means there will be only two in Thursday night’s debate. And I think we all know who the kick-ass debater is.”

Lean Left (Kevin)- “I was hoping that Edwards would stay in the race longer. I realize, despite his being my first choice, that he probably could not win. But he dragged the Democratic race much further to the left…”

Aunt Bee- “…white Democratic men will be in the unprecedented position….of choosing between their race and their gender!”

GoldnI- “To me, dropping out now makes absolutely no sense. Super Tuesday is less than a week away, and even if he has no money left to campaign, he’d still likely get some delegates, maybe even enough to truly sway it.”

Also Volunteer Voters.