Tennesseefree.com

On the front page of the Tennessean today, is a story claiming that Nashville is among the nation’s worst carbon emitters. The source of the story is the liberal Brookings Institute. There is a possibility that this story is more about politics than anything else. I don’t know, but I do believe that the air quality in Nashville is not good.

When I used to get up at 5:00 AM and travel through Nashville, my eyes would literally burn some mornings, going down I40. Now this only happened in the mornings and only in the summer months. But it was so bad that I could not ride with the window down.

I never blamed lack of mass transit, air conditioners, or anything like that, like the article does. I just always assumed it was because the city is located in a kind of a bowl. When I first moved here, my allergies were terrible, and the doctor told me that was why. It makes sense that the same reasoning would apply to air pollution.

Yes, it seems that President George W. Bush was correct. Scott McClellan has integrity.

Scott McClellan is an American hero whose expose’ on the Bush administration - What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception - soared to #1 on the Amazon Best Seller list yesterday.

Now they are turning on him in typical Republican swiftboat fashion. When the guy finally comes out and reports that he had been spewing lies fed to him, the same guy who is lauded for his integrity, then becomes a ‘traitor’ in the land of Bushco. Bushco has used words to describe McClellan’s book like ‘total crap’… ‘not the Scott we knew’… ‘disgruntled’ and ‘puzzled.’ Suddenly, the guy Bush called “the best” is now “total crap.”

The most popular attack against McClellan is, “why didn’t he speak up at the time?” Yea right!! You would expect McClellan to speak up during a time in the Bush Administration when anyone who wasn’t a Bush ‘true believer’ was quickly ‘retired?’ (i.e. Gen. Shinseki and Colin Powell, Richard Clarke, etc…). Also, obviously McClellan was lied to, don’t these idiots get it? Obviously he didn’t know enough of the total picture at the time to betray his job of defending his boss.

Instead of considering what McClellan is saying might bear some kernel of truth, Bushco focuses on his ‘disloyalty.’ They have the balls to suggest that these were not McClellan’s words and that he’s saying these things just to sell books. What a disgusting bunch of crooks and liars. How could anyone at this point disparage themselves enough to participate in the swiftboating of McClellan and the support of a failed, corrupt, and lying administration? Actually, most Bushies are wisely keeping their mouths shut and ignoring this at this point, but … there are actually such authoritarians out there.

Here the most despicable examples I could find, and I couldn’t find many. These are the most revolting delusional individuals on the planet outside of the White House. Links to what they wrote below:

Webutante : “It helps to remember that McClellan was fired by the White House in 2006. He must be hard up for attention or money. Probably both. ”

Mark Levin: “I’m all for profit, but not when the price is betrayal — which is what I and several others smell here.”

Investors Business Daily : “this book is little more than a settling of scores by McClellan, who quite obviously felt abused by the White House.”

Doc at the Autopsy: “He certainly knows how to sell a book. Throw out an unsubstantiated bomb like that, and watch as the liberals run out and snatch up the book.”

Since Guitarzan brought it up, here’s a little Slow Hand. I wonder if the President was listening to this when he was chopping up those lines?

Chopping up lines? Or was he smoking it? Who knows?

Does Clapton jam or what?

Scott McClellan recalls a time when Bush specifically addressed the issue of his cocaine use. Based on Bush’s evasive answers on the subject, that he ‘didn’t recall’ whether he did or didn’t, later suggested to McClellan a pattern of evasive behavior where Bush would claim “he did not remember” - a lie disguised as a ’self-deception’.

Atlanta Constitution:

McClellan tracks Bush’s penchant for self-deception back to an overheard incident on the campaign trail in 1999 when the then-governor was dogged by reports of possible cocaine use in his younger days.

The book recounts an evening in a hotel suite “somewhere in the Midwest.” Bush was on the phone with a supporter and motioned for McClellan to have a seat.

“‘The media won’t let go of these ridiculous cocaine rumors,’ I heard Bush say. ‘You know, the truth is I honestly don’t remember whether I tried it or not. We had some pretty wild parties back in the day, and I just don’t remember.’”

“I remember thinking to myself, How can that be?” McClellan wrote. “How can someone simply not remember whether or not they used an illegal substance like cocaine? It didn’t make a lot of sense.”

“So I think he meant what he said in that conversation about cocaine. It’s the first time when I felt I was witnessing Bush convincing himself to believe something that probably was not true, and that, deep down, he knew was not true,” McClellan wrote. “And his reason for doing so is fairly obvious — political convenience.”

In the years that followed, McClellan “would come to believe that sometimes he convinces himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment.” McClellan likened it to a witness who resorts to “I do not recall.”

“Bush, similarly, has a way of falling back on the hazy memory to protect himself from potential political embarrassment,” McClellan wrote, adding, “In other words, being evasive is not the same as lying in Bush’s mind.”

Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson remarked about McClellan: “This is not someone standing off in a corner, he [McClellan] knew the president intimately.” Further noting that McClellan was in a small group of Texans that then-Governor Bush trusted and rewarded with jobs in his administration.

Meanwhile… the swiftboats have been launched, just as they had been against other Bush insiders that have told the truth like Richard Clarke, Paul O’Neil, and Matthew Dowd.

UPDATE: Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) member of the House Judiciary Committee, calls for McClellan to testify before Congress.

(RS) Wexler says McClellan needs to tell Congress the full story about potential White House conspiring around the leak of a CIA officer’s name and propaganda efforts that preceded the invasion of Iraq.

Read more »

Gift of gaffe, maybe?

Dan Collins titles this pshop “Sir Baracky Receiveth the Sword of Hopeyness from teh Watery Tart“. And that was before I added M’chelle.

(Oh, the dullard to Barry’s left? I’ve added none other than John Edwards, and given to him an uncharacteristically penitent pose, with (gasp!) his hair, covered. Oh, the indignity!

Because I really shouldn’t be neglectful of any of the members of Barry’s…posse. I guess since Uncle Ted’s in such a bad way, I should expand my outreach. I won’t have any problems with that…Obama can certainly attract some real winners, eh?

;D

Doc at the Autopsy (aka Captain Brainstorm) and I had a discussion about McClellan’s new book when excerpts were first made public last November.

Here is a textbook example of how Bushie authoritarians resort to abject denial when facts are confirmed that upset their delusional world, Doc comments on McClellan:

He certainly knows how to sell a book. Throw out an unsubstantiated bomb like that, and watch as the liberals run out and snatch up the book. If it was just a book about how he was a good little soldier of the Bu$hitler, he’d sell maybe 14 copies. But put a juicy little blurb in there about Bush’s treason, and you’re guaranteeing some big sales.

What’s the most annoying aspect of the whole thing is the sudden belief in McClellan by the rabid left.

Right Mikey… only the “rabid left” would believe the Bush Administration ever did anything dishonest. I found this level of denial such a fine case study for the Bush-cult authoritarian movement that I did a post on Doc back then. Of course he throws Scotty under the bus. From my earlier post:

You’ve heard about this level of authoritarianism. “Doc” is a stunning example. Denial is an essential part of the culture of authoritarianism as clearly documented in the case of Bush. The demonization of all enemies (i.e. :”the rabid left”) is another clear aspect of the psychological profile of religious right wing authoritarians.

Yea… none of it is true, he just stabbed his old boss in the back, a sitting president, just for fun and to sell books.

Former Senator Phil Gramm, a general co-chair of Senator John McCain’s campaign, lobbied Congress on behalf of financial giant UBS to try and stop legislation aimed at installing industry regulations that could have prevented the current mortgage foreclosure crisis.

MSNBC:

At the same time he was giving that advice [to McCain], federal disclosure forms reviewed by Countdown show that Gramm was simultaneously being paid by UBS to lobby the US Senate about the mortgage crisis… opposing government regulation… helping to kill a 2006 anti-predatory lending bill that would have tightened consumer protections, and might have mitigated the current crisis…As recently as Dec. 31st of last year, still working for Swiss bankers specifically to help kill the “Emergency Home Ownership and Mortgage Equity Protection Act” and the “Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy Act,” a bill that would have let bankruptcy judges adjust mortgage terms so American families facing foreclosure could repay their loans, and keep their homes.

As Senate Banking Chairman, Gramm consistently weakened federal regulations… his deregulation of energy commodities first helped his wife’s employer… then killed it.

In 1999, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which McCain voted for, broke down the decades-old wall separating commercial banks, heavily regulated… from the wild and woolly world of investment banking… a wall erected in 1933 to prevent a repeat… of the Great Depression.

One month after Gramm knocked that wall down, UBS bragged to investors that his bill would “liberalize restrictions.”

UBS bought Paine Weber the very next year… and hired Gramm before he even left the Senate.

Gramm’s deregulation helped set the stage for an explosion of banks slicing up subprime mortgages, bundling them with other mortgage slices to hide the credit risks, and selling mortgage stew to other investment firms.

That gave lenders powerful incentive to make as many loans as possible, regardless of risk… because they could turn around and sell those mortgages almost immediately.

With this type of economic advise, you can see what type of regard McCain would have for the struggling American homeowner. This is how Republicans do business: help big business at the expense of average Americans.

What’s surprising about these revelations?

• Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the [Iraq] war.
• the Iraq war was not necessary.”
• [T]he White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.
• [T]wo top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them
• [A]fter Hurricane Katrina, the White House “spent most of the first week in a state of denial,”

Only their source: Bush loyalist (until now, apparently) Scott McClellan

No wonder R. Neal was impressed with the following excerpt from an interview with Mike Huckabee. The Huckster is advocating that Republicans become Democrats.

Republicans need to be Republicans. The greatest threat to classic Republicanism is not liberalism; it’s this new brand of libertarianism, which is social liberalism and economic conservatism, but it’s a heartless, callous, soulless type of economic conservatism because it says “look, we want to cut taxes and eliminate government. If it means that elderly people don’t get their Medicare drugs, so be it. If it means little kids go without education and healthcare, so be it.” Well, that might be a quote pure economic conservative message, but it’s not an American message. It doesn’t fly. People aren’t going to buy that, because that’s not the way we are as a people.

Oh God, this makes me so sick. I just puked all over my desk.

He is right about one thing, Republicans need to start being Republicans. Let me re-phrase that. Republicans need to start being conservative.

The only problem is, Huckabee doesn’t have a clue what that means. This so called “new brand of libertarianism” the Huckster speaks of, is actually the same old conservatism practiced and preached by Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, William F. Buckley, and Milton Friedman. THOSE PEOPLE, MR. HUCKABEE, WERE CONSERVATIVES. YOU SIR ARE NOT!

Huckabee, as usual, sounds like a Democrat. Why in the hell doesn’t he just become one? It would certainly make more sense.

Huckabee represents everything that is wrong with the Republican Party today. Rather than proclaiming that government is the problem, not the solution, these new Democrat-lites like Huckabee, believe government is the answer to everything. Like I said, they may as well just switch parties.

Tom Coburn, a true conservative, gets it. We need a Republican takeover of the Republican Party, and “social conservatives” like Huckabee are not the ones to do it. They are the opposite of conservatism. They are not the answer. They are the problem.

McCain refused to show up and support the new GI Bill because he has said that it will encourage more people to leave the military after they have completed one enlistment.

However, the Congressional Budget Office issued a report that stated any reduction in retention would be made up for by an increase in high quality recruits:

Educational benefits have been shown to raise the number of military recruits. Based on an analysis of the existing literature, CBO estimates that a 10 percent increase in educational benefits would result in an increase of about 1 percent in high-quality recruits. On that basis, CBO calculates that raising the educational benefits as proposed in S. 22 would result in a 16 percent increase in recruits.

Sen. John Warner (R-VA) has said that despite a reduction in retention, the new bill will induce more qualified people to join. “It should be a tremendous incentive for recruitment,” he said.

A far bigger threat to military retention are the military contractors who pay employees up to 10 times the amount that our soldiers are paid to do similar work. The Bush administration always tend to side with the contractors instead of the troops, since they are war profiteers.

UPDATE:  I excluded McCain from the previous accusation of war profiteer.  That is more the territory of the Bush family.

The Democrats are crafty when it comes to politics. They propose a bill, any bill, having to do with helping veterans, and they do so on Memorial Day Weekend. As expected, Dummies like this fall for it and scream “See George Bush and John McCain hate the veterans.”

The reality is, McCain has his own proposal and Bush supports that bill.

As Bill Kristol said when discussing some New York Times excrement,

They make it seem as Bush and McCain are these flinty-hearted, horrible people who want to deny our veterans any benefits when, in fact, there is an alternative Bill that the administration supports, that John McCain and Lindsay Graham have introduced that I think in many ways is superior on the merits. But it is amazing that the editorial doesn’t even acknowledge that there is an alternative bill with an alternative argument. Senator Reid, the majority leader, did not allow a vote on the Republican Bill. He used various parliamentary maneuvers to get the up and down vote only on the Jim Webb Bill.

You dipsticks are so easy. No wonder the Democrats have been so successful with their demagoguery over the years. They sure play you guys easy.

A few months ago, I was working with a couple from New Jersey. Both were retired, and like many northeastern liberals that fail to understand how their moving down here proves the failure of their liberalism, they were relocating because they couldn’t afford the taxes up there. For some reason, they inserted politics into our conversation, which is something I always try to avoid when dealing with people shaped like dollar bills. Both were Hillary supporters and they made the remark that the country probably was not ready to elect a woman President. While not letting on that I had any interest in politics, I politely disagreed. I said that the people in this country are indeed ready to elect a woman, but there is a good chance that they are not ready to elect this woman. Read more »

Barack Obama on Memorial Day.

On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today.

Yes, he really did say that.

Sharon Stone has had a few too many. She thinks the earthquakes in China were the result of bad Karma.

Or more realistically too many martinis.

Well you know it was very interesting because at first, you know, I am not happy about the ways the Chinese were treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else. And so I have been very concerned about how to think and what to do about that because I don’t like THAT.

And I had been this, you know, concerned about, oh how should we deal with the Olympics because they are not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who is a good friend of mine.

And all these earthquake and stuff happened and I thought: IS THAT KARMA… when you are not nice that bad things happen to you?

And then I got a letter, from the Tibetan Foundation that they want to go and be helpful. And that made me cry. And they ask me if I would write a quote about that and I said, “I would.” And it was a big lesson to me, that some times you have to learn to put your head down and be of service even to people who are not nice to you. And that’s a big lesson for me…

If the extremists liberals have their way you will.

Madness that starts in England often comes to America. Will San Franpsycho be first?

You do want to save the planet don’t you?

Every adult should be forced to use a ‘carbon ration card’ when they pay for petrol, airline tickets or household energy, MPs say.

The influential Environmental Audit Committee says a personal carbon trading scheme is the best and fairest way of cutting Britain’s CO2 emissions without penalising the poor.

Under the scheme, everyone would be given an annual carbon allowance to use when buying oil, gas, electricity and flights.

… While the President pays tribute to those troops he sent to be killed.

75 Senators showed up to vote for the new GI bill - expanding educational benefits for vets. 25 Senate Republicans broke ranks with Bush/McCain to support the measure, giving the bill a veto-proof majority. McCain couldn’t be bothered to even show up, he was too busy raising money for himself.

Reacting to the President’s Memorial Day tribute, Vet Bob Geiger wrote:

The Chickenhawk-in Chief says a lot of things that make this Vet’s blood boil but stuff like saying that he prays “…that our country may always prove worthy of the sacrifices they have made” is almost vomit inducing.

This statement comes from the same man who himself began dishonoring the sacrifices of all Veterans in such huge ways in March of 2003, when he invaded Iraq behind a veil of lies and deceit and started spilling barrels of military and civilian blood to start a war with a country that posed no threat whatsoever to our national security.
“These courageous and selfless warriors have stepped forward to protect the Nation they love, fight for America’s highest ideals, and show millions that a future of liberty is possible,” continues Bush’s proclamation. “Americans are grateful to all those who have put on our Nation’s uniform and to their families, and we will always remember their service and sacrifice for our freedoms.”

The words Bush puts forth are true — it’s him being the one to say them that I find so sickening and personally offensive.

It is positively nauseating to have George W. Bush ever talk to us about “America’s highest ideals” when his administration has started a bloody war for no reason, imprisoned those suspected of being “terrorists” without trial or benefit of legal counsel, tortured prisoners in America’s name and done everything but grab the original U.S. Constitution from the National Archives and run it through a paper shredder.

I also don’t believe for one minute that the majority of the planet now holds our country in such extreme contempt because we’re right and they don’t understand our “highest ideals.” This Veteran will go to his grave believing that the years 2000 through 2008 were a dark time in our history when much of what I believed when I served in uniform was made invalid and debased.

Vet Voice has more on Vet reaction to the GI Bill and the disrespect that conservative Republicans show the troops:

Speaking at the Disabled American Veterans’ 19th Annual Department Convention, Senator Stevens told the majority of America’s most recent war veterans that they had not yet sacrificed enough to have earned a GI Bill that would cover the full cost of their educations.

Sen. Ted Stevens warned of a “mass exodus” from the military Saturday if the so-called 21st Century GI Bill goes into law without major changes.

“There are worries that people who are already in for two years will serve one more and leave, and there’s really no incentive to stay,” Stevens said.

What Stevens is really saying is that today’s troops are unpatriotic–that they’re only in it for the money and the college. And while Stevens’ “mass exodus” theory has been thoroughly discredited by the Congressional Budget Office, the true irony of the situation lies in the fact that Stevens earned his own college degree after World War Two by using the same GI Bill he’s aiming to prevent today’s veterans from receiving.

Today is Memorial Day, a day we recognize those who have died for the cause of liberty. Often times, many of us use this day to recognize veterans or those who are currently serving. While that is certainly a good and noble thing to do, that’s not exactly what this day is for. No, this day is set aside for those who paid the ultimate price.

May God bless their loved ones.

Mini roundup:

Preston of Six Meat Buffet, Bear Creek Ledger, Pushing the Envelope, Rustmeister, Webutante, Noe4Accountability, View From the Porch, Sharon Cobb, Left of the Dial, Sense of Events, Tgirsch of Lean Left.

Sunday church news:

Joe Barron, minister for one of the largest Baptist churches in America, has resigned after being charged with online solicitation of a minor. Undercover officers posing as a 13-year-old girl communicated with the 52-year-old minister for about two weeks. The online conversations were sexual in nature, police said.

The minister had condoms and a webcam with him when arrested. The Dallas area Prestonwood Baptist Church has a membership of 26,000. He is at least the second minister to resign from this church because of a sex scandal.

Frontline: Bush’s War

Be prepared to invest some time, though: It’s four and a half hours. Worth every minute, though, to get a good idea of how we got where we are today.

This, by the way, is what good documentary journalism looks like. Not some Michael Moore or Fox News partisan hack job, it’s a detailed, and well researched history of the war so far. It includes interviews with key players like Richard Armitage, L. Paul Bremer III, Ahmad Chalabi, Richard Clarke, John Yoo, Philip Zelikow, David Kay, several military commanders, Iraqi expatriates, etc.

As I mentioned last week… 75,000 turned out to see Obama in Portland.

Different story for McCain as he has just cancelled his fund raising event with President Bush at the Pheonix Convention Center scheduled for Tuesday because of poor ticket sales and a fear that war protesters would out number convention attendees.

The McCain campaign feared a media disaster.  Rightly so.

Pheonix Business Journal