The Unbearable Intellectual Lightness Of Being A Tea Bagger

Via a Nashville City Paper commentary by Stephen George, I learn that Nashville car dealer Lee Beaman has donated land he owns out by Hickory Hollow Mall to serve as a temporary “Tent City” for the homeless. It replaces the one down by the river that got washed away in the flood.

Lee Beaman is someone I’ve picked on a lot here, so this is probably the only time you will ever see me write something nice about him, but props to Beaman for at least giving the homeless a place to live. I don’t know for how long, and I don’t know why: maybe it’s a fuck you to the Chevrolet dealer across the street from the site . Maybe it’s because he really cares. Who knows. It’s only temporary, and the location is not ideal because it’s so very far away from downtown services, but at least it’s something.

But Beaman’s action, while temporary, has sparked the usual NIMBYism, including this:

But all is not well in Hickory Hollow. As word leaked out early Wednesday that a new Tent City had emerged near the Target on Bell Road, some neighbors took to mass emails with their complaints. A tea party-affiliated group appeared ready to mobilize against the landowner who donated the plot (no word as of press time on the lasting effects of the cognitive dissonance in self-proclaimed libertarians telling a private landowner what to do with his property). Worries of increased crime and concerns about safety swirled.

That’s so priceless. A Tea Party-affiliated group going after Lee Beaman, the Tennessee GOP's big moneybags? Oh, my. And it gets better. From WSMV:

Councilman Sam Coleman said he has gotten so many calls about this issue that he plans to hold a town hall meeting next Thursday.

So just to recap: a Tea Party group objects to what a private property owner is doing on his own property and they are calling on the help of the government? Wait a minute. I thought you people hated the government? I thought you wanted the government off the backs of private property owners?

I am literally rolling on the floor laughing my ass off at this point.

Accountability, It’s Such A Lovely Word

I’m glad that GOP moneybags Lee Beaman’s extremist political views are finally getting some attention. Some of us have been on Beaman’s tail for years. I can’t tell you how many progressives in Nashville I’ve urged not to buy their new hybrids from Beaman. Seems the wealthy wackadoodle profiting handsomely from hybrid-loving liberals is the Tennessee’s GOPs best kept secret.

Anyway, I thought I’d take this opportunity to remind folks of another favorite Beaman cause: fighting Governor Bredesen’s “bunker” project.

Beaman has bankrolled a group, Tennesseans for Accountability in Government (TAG), that was created to battle the project, and it has held press conferences and blitzed the media with releases castigating the Bredesens, who insist the 13,000-square-foot entertainment annex, called Conservation Hall, is needed to host parties and other large gatherings.

According to the City Paper, in fact, Beaman sank $30-$40,000 into that lost cause. And that doesn’t include the additional $18,000 he paid donated to organizations and politicians who coincidentally attacked the project immediately after.

Yet another losing cause Lee Beaman sank his money into. Far be it from me to give fiscal advice to anyone, but the adage “a fool and his money are soon parted” seems appropriate here.

Anyway, now that Republicans are in charge of state government, I wonder if we'll be hearing much from TAG. I'm thinking .... not.

Yet Another Reason To Hate Lee Beaman

I’ve been boycotting Nashville auto magnate Lee Beaman for years, ever since I learned he gave a few thousand dollars to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Now every time I see a Toyota Prius with that little “Beaman” emblem I cringe.

I just can't imagine giving one penny to a man who so freely opens his ample wallet to such heinous wingnut causes as the Presidential Coalition LLC (organized to Swift Boat Hillary Clinton), the Swift Boat Veterans smearmongers, and now, surprise surprise, passing English Only:

Nashville English First raised $89,722.76 for its campaign, according to campaign financial disclosures released today.

Of that, ProEnglish of Arlington, Va., contributed $82,500. A second donor, Nashville businessman Lee Beaman, gave $6,000, meaning two donors funded more than 98 percent of Nashville English First's campaign.

Way to go Lee Beaman! Now you’ve joined forces with a group identified as a hate group.


By the way, this certainly reaffirms my belief that English Only was supported by the local Republican Party merely as a way to generate a mailing list of registered wingnut voters in Davidson County and get an outside group to pay for it.

You know, I’ve been a loyal Toyota customer for about 20 years, but I bought my last car from Alexander in Franklin. I have no idea what that guy’s politics is down there, frankly I don’t care. But I do know he isn’t financing divisive political battles on the local and national stage.

Lee Beaman: bad for Nashville.

Swift Boat Smearmonger Won’t Pay Up

Of course he won’t! That election is over! The lies served their purpose, and now it’s time to move on, folks! I mean my God, we all knew it wasn’t true! That’s the point of these smear campaigns--they don’t have to be true!

Via ABC News.com:

A Vegas gambling expert counts himself among those questioning Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens' refusal to pay $1 million to Swift boat veterans who claim they won Pickens' challenge to disprove political claims he made in 2004.

[...]

Pickens' wager originated when he offered $1 million to anyone who could find falsities in the claims made by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group he had financially supported during the 2004 presidential election. He issued the challenge during a November 2007 dinner for the American Spectator magazine.

But whether Pickens had offered the monetary reward for falsities found in the campaign as a whole or just in the televised ads came into question when Kerry himself answered the call, offering to meet Pickens and provide him with information that Kerry said would debunk the allegations.

Pickens refused to meet with the Massachusetts senator because, as his spokesperson Jay Rosser told ABCNews.com, "none of the material Kerry or the crewmen provided was germane to the ads."

Wow, is this like how the White House refused to open the EPA’s e-mail so it could claim no knowledge that greenhouse gases are pollutants? Is “la-la-la-I-can’t-hear-you” the best the conservative movement can offer? How ... how ... sad. But back to our story:

But when Pickens was sent a letter and photocopies of evidence supporting Kerry's military record by veterans last week, it was yet again not enough to seal the deal.

"[Pickens] sent us a brief letter back saying the same thing [that he said to Kerry]," Del Sanudsky, a Swift boat veteran who served alongside Kerry in Vietnam, told ABCNews.com. 

In the June 25 letter sent from Pickens to Sanudsky, Pickens thanks the veterans for their research but still denies any obligation to pay them the $1 million.

[...]

"We have 11 different falsehoods that the [Swift Boat Veterans for Truth] came out with in 2004. We have documents, videos, editorials and depositions not just by my boat crew but other eyewitnesses who were involved in the operations."

Sanudsky added that while his group has come up with "everything Pickens asked Kerry for in November," it has all been for nothing.

Quit yer complainin’! That was last election, I tell you! There’s a new Swift Boat smear coming out targeting Barack Obama, this one has something to do with bizarre kerning on a Hawaiian birth certificate or some such. Which is strange, since John McCain is the guy who wasn’t born in the United States.

Of course there's no more substance to this bizarre smear than there was to the Kerry attacks. But that won't stop partisan moneybags like Nashville’s own Lee Beaman from ponying up for this sleazeball campaign, too. Just like they did the Swift Boat smearmongers. Hey, ends justify the means! It doesn't matter which gutter they have to swim in, as long as we can keep Republicans in power.

As good a reason to boycott Beaman Automotive as any, in my book. I know I bought my Toyota hybrid elsewhere. Suck on it, Lee Beaman.