Free Republic

(CNSNews.com) – John Bryson, President Barack Obama's nominee to be secretary of commerce, said it was “incredibly important” that the United States pass cap and trade legislation and that America needed to be a global leader in combating man-made global warming. “I regard it as incredibly important that the United States comes forth in this year with federal climate change legislation as a foundation for moving ahead,” Bryson told the U.N. International Energy Conference in late August 2009. “I think we in the U.S. have an obligation to assist in significant ways in providing leadership in this community of nations...

On May 31, President Obama said he would nominate John E. Bryson for the position of United States Commerce Secretary. Bryson, who was the former Chairman and CEO of Edison International, spoke in front of the UN on September 1, 2009 at the International Energy Conference and praised California's regulatory system on energy, and called for the same to be applied to the United States as a whole. However, he didn't stop there. He went on to say they should place the same regulations globally: "The academic debate around this has often been should we send price signals, or should...

The ink was barely dry on President Barack Obama’s nomination for Secretary of Commerce before congressional Republicans promised to oppose the pick. California Rep. Darrel Issa, chairman of the House oversight committee, took aim at John Bryson, the nominee, calling him a “green evangelist.” Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe promised to work “actively” to defeat Bryson’s nomination. Inhofe, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said Tuesday that Obama’s choice shows “that he has no intention of backing down from his job-killing agenda.” In a statement, Issa decried Obama’s choice to head the Department of Commerce,...

Reid Bryson, known as the father of scientific climatology, considers global warming a bunch of hooey.

In response to one rather belligerently presented challenge and several curious inquiries following a recent confession by yours truly to voting bias toward losers, here's a last-minute suggestion of the loser-lovers' ticket: Jim Bryson for governor, Harold Ford Jr. for U.S. Senate, no on Amendment 1 and amendment 2 to our state Constitution. And let's throw in a couple of predictions: Democrats gain two seats in the state House, one in the Senate. Here's why: Bryson has little going for him except baseline, yellow-elephant Republicanism (worth about 33 percent of the statewide vote) and a handful of Bredesen-irritated Democrats, independents...

NASHVILLE — Though he described himself as a "hunter and fisherman" during a Knoxville debate, state Sen. Jim Bryson has never held a hunting or fishing license in Tennessee, according to Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency records. More details as they develop online and in Thursday’s News Sentinel.

Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen and his Republican opponent, state Sen. Jim Bryson, staked out their positions Tuesday on issues during the campaigns first televised debate, focusing on immigration, education, TennCare and budgeting. At the West High School debate, the two made clear their differences and some issues they agree on. Bredesen said a re-election is a referendum on his first four years as governor, during which he cut the budget, did not raise taxes and put discipline into the out-of-control TennCare program, a health insurance program for the poor and uninsured. He also noted that his administration sent Tennessee National...

NASHVILLE -- Gov. Phil Bredesen leads Republican challenger Jim Bryson almost 3 to 1 in the race for governor, a new Mason-Dixon Tennessee Poll indicates. The poll, released Monday, also indicates that the proposed state constitutional amendment to prohibit same-gender marriage will win overwhelming approval, with 73 percent of respondents in favor, 20 percent opposed and only 7 percent undecided. The constitutional referendum will appear on the Nov. 7 general election ballot. Advertisement The poll was conducted Monday through Wednesday of last week for The Commercial Appeal, the Chattanooga Times-Free Press and MSNBC. Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington surveyed...

LOS ANGELES – Charitable funds given to the J. Paul Getty Trust were improperly used to pay the travel expenses of the foundation's former chief executive and buy artwork for retiring board members, the California attorney general said in a report Monday. The investigation found some improper spending at the $9 billion trust, the nation's third-largest private foundation, but no fraud. However, an attorney who has served in key law enforcement posts was appointed to serve as an independent monitor of the trust – the first time in state history that someone will oversee the dealings of a charitable trust....

NASHVILLE - In the first TV ad of his gubernatorial campaign, a giant-sized Jim Bryson is shown holding a diminutive and stumbling Phil Bredesen in the palm of his outstretched hand as a narrator denounces the incumbent governor. The ad comes with Republican Bryson far behind Democrat Bredesen in polls and fund raising and the election just six weeks away - though Bryson's campaign manager, Gregory Gleaves, said Tennesseans are just beginning to pay attention to the race. "This is the kind of thing that's going to break through the clutter of everything else that's going on (in campaign advertising),"...

If the election were held today, Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen would coast to re-election - with 90 percent of Democrats backing him and a third of Republicans crossing over to vote for him, a new poll suggests. Meanwhile, the SurveyUSA poll shows Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Harold Ford Jr. leading Republican nominee Bob Corker, 48 percent of likely voters to Corker's 45 percent. SurveyUSA polled 1,200 Tennessee adults from Sept. 9-11, then culled the responses to 638 judged to be "likely voters." The poll was conducted exclusively for WBIR-TV, Channel 10. In the gubernatorial race, the poll showed 61 percent...

The war of words between Democrats and Republicans has escalated to include laser beams and physical confrontation in gubernatorial candidate Jim Bryson's bus tour of East Tennessee, according to somewhat conflicting accounts from campaigners. Members of Republican Bryson's staff stand accused of directing beams from pocket laser-pointers into the eyes of Democrats who have been following the Bryson bus, making videotapes of the candidate and distributing pamphlets. Bryson spokesman Lance Frizzell denied that Democratic eyes were targeted by lasers and, in turn, accused the Democratic team of "shoving" a Republican and other "unruly behavior," including "defacing" the bus with Bredesen...

A new group has been set up in hopes of providing Republican gubernatorial nominee Jim Bryson with divine assistance in his campaign. The "Bryson Prayer Force" distributed an e-mail this week inviting Christian recipients to sign up and join 80 members in praying regularly for Bryson, his family and his campaign staff. Suggested prayers are included, some linked to Bryson's 95-county campaign bus tour. "Pray for an open heaven over Jim and his team in each Tennessee county they visit, that the gates of each county would open to him and his team, and that the Lord's divine favor will...

Gov. Phil Bredesen has an overwhelming lead in his race for re-election, with a probable Republican opponent, Jim Bryson, remaining largely unknown among members of his own party, according to the latest University of Tennessee poll. The UT poll found Bredesen backed by 49 percent of the registered voters surveyed in a mock matchup against Bryson, a state senator from Franklin supported by just 8 percent. Thirty percent said they were "not sure" which of the two to support while 13 percent said they would favor another candidate. "It would be foolhardy to declare a contest over three and one-half...