10 REASONS THE CHOICE IS CLEAR!

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!


Not too long ago, it seemed like there was little difference between the Democratic and Republican parties or their candidates. Both spoke of prosperity and preserving essential American values. This election, however, there are vast differences between the two parties and you should be less confused about which party's candidates offer the best future for you specifically and for the country as a whole. If any doubt still remains for you, though, today's post should help you make up your mind.
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1. If you believe that our government is bad and interferes with your personal freedom and private businesses too much, join Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Rand Paul, Ken Buck, Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, Christine O'Donnell, Linda McMahon, and Joe Miller, and VOTE REPUBLICAN OR TEA PARTY. But don't come crying to me if their party takes over Congress and makes it possible for businesses and public institutions to discriminate against you or passes laws regulating your own personal reproductive choices or behavior.
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2. If you believe that unemployment compensation, the minimum wage, and the recently-passed health care reform bill are unconstitutional, unnecessary, and should be done away with, join Sharron Angle, Joe Miller, Rand Paul, and Michele Bachmann and VOTE REPUBLICAN OR TEA PARTY. But don't come crying to me when you lose your job and have no money, or the only work you can get is for $3 per hour, or when other broke or homeless people beat you up on the street for your pocket change, or when you find you can no longer get health insurance or your health insurance company stops covering you because treatment for your illness has become too expensive for them.
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3. If you believe that we should send our Senators and Congresspersons to Washington and pay them $174,000 per year mainly to stall, politic, and obstruct and filibuster legislation and executive branch appointments just to ensure that the President fails and and serves only one term in office, join MITCH McCONNELL (the GOP Senate Minority Leader who has stated that objective as his party's top priority for the next two years), and if you believe the federal government should be shut down altogether if one party doesn't get its way on everything, join not only McConnell, but the equally unyielding and uncompromising Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, Michele Bachmann, John Boehner, Mike Pence, and Eric Cantor and VOTE REPUBLICAN OR TEA PARTY. But don't come crying to me when Congress gets nothing done, no more jobs are created, mail deliveries stop, you can't get your unemployment or disability check, your home is destroyed by natural disaster and there is no National Guard or FEMA to help you, roads go unrepaired and become impassable, or your doctor won't treat you because you can't afford treatment and there is no longer any Medicare or Medicaid to pay for your medical care. You don't pay your mechanic $174,000 a year to not fix your car, do you? Why, then, should congresspersons get such a break? Instead of just wasting that $174,000 per year on unproductive members of Congress, why not give it to ME to do nothing? I need it a LOT more than THEY do at the moment!
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4. If you think Congress should spend thousands of hours next session IMPEACHING PRESIDENT OBAMA for "going too far" and do everything it can to bring him down, join Darrell Issa, John Boehner, Jim DeMint, and Mitch McConnell and VOTE REPUBLICAN OR TEA PARTY. But don't come crying to me when Congress gets absolutely nothing else accomplished, or drives a man from office who saved us from a new Great Depression or who made health insurance discrimination against those with chronic or pre-existing conditions illegal.
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5. If you believe the free market system should just be left completely alone and that there is far too much regulation of private business, join all Republican and Tea Party candidates and VOTE REPUBLICAN OR TEA PARTY. But don't come crying to me when YOUR job gets sent outside of the country, when gasoline and prescription prices double or triple overnight, when YOU get violently or deathly ill from tainted food or water, or when wild market speculation DOES cause a new Great Depression!
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6. If you believe that billionaires and huge multinational corporations like Exxon Mobil, Bank of America, General Electric, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, WellPoint, and many others are all overtaxed or that the Bush tax cuts for them created millions of high-paying jobs here (they didn't) and should be extended or even expanded, join Pat Toomey and all other Republican and Tea Party candidates and VOTE REPUBLICAN OR TEA PARTY. But don't complain to me that the federal deficit is skyrocketing, that you can't find a good-paying job, that your company is shutting down and moving outside of the country, or that your wages are stagnant but the rich are getting richer all the time.
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7. If you believe that Saddam Hussein had, and was planning to use, WMD against us and that he was behind the 9/11 attacks; that we should proactively militarily attack any country we believe will be a threat to us; that it is a justifiable act for the government to wiretap your phone, engage in torture of enemy combatants, or hold prisoners suspected of being or aiding terrorists for indefinite periods without charge or trial; and that a 110 pound young lady carrying an opposition sign poses a threat to your candidate (or our democracy), should be thrown to the ground and have her head stomped on, then join Rand Paul Tea Party supporter Tim Profitt and other intolerant, paranoid conservative Republican hawks and VOTE REPUBLICAN OR TEA PARTY. But don't come crying to me if you suddenly find yourself in detention at Gitmo, or if the draft is reinstituted or your newly-enlisted son, daughter, neighbor, nephew or niece, or grandson or grandaughter are shipped off to be killed in combat or injured for life in Pakistan, Iran, North Korea, or someplace else. For the conservatives believe in striking first and asking questions later. You can always count on them to act with brute force, and it is important to them that our military/industrial complex be kept busy, profitable, and in good working order.
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8. If you believe Social Security and Medicare are unconstitutional and should be replaced by private retirement and private health care systems, join John Raese, Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell, Rand Paul, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Joe Miller and VOTE REPUBLICAN OR TEA PARTY. But don't come crying to me when you find that rich elderly citizens are living high off the hog while you, your elderly parents, or your grandparents starve to death, find yourself or themselves homeless and out on the street due to inability to pay rent, or suffer needlessly because the market has had a downward turn and wiped out your or their retirement plan and you or they can no longer afford prescriptions or medical care.
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9. If you believe the federal government is actively trying to prevent responsible citizens from owning guns, or that there should be no restrictions on any kind of weapons, and that angry citizens should have the right to take matters into their own hands using their own weapons against the government or its elected officials, then join Sharron Angle, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, and Joe Miller and VOTE REPUBLICAN OR TEA PARTY. But don't come crying to me if and when you or someone you know is gunned down on the street by a person who has no business possessing a gun, political opponents are shot at random, or roving militias storm the Capitol and take over the government.
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10. If you believe that liberals and Democrats are destroying the moral fiber of the country by either advocating or accepting immigrant rights or alternate lifestyles, or are supporters of immoral personal behavior, join David Vitter, John Ensign, Larry Craig, and Terry Sanford and VOTE REPUBLICAN OR TEA PARTY. They all have all come out with strong public statements against homosexuality and in support of Christian and family values. Yet each of them has had sexual affairs and none have been stellar examples of good personal moral behavior. So don't come crying to me when you find out the Republicans you elected aren't as pure and lily-white as you thought they were, and they are, istead, boisterous moral hypocrites.
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Voters, I hope you will carefully think over what I have presented above. For these are 10 good reasons the choice is clear in this year's midterm elections: conservative Republicans and Tea Party candidates must NOT be elected and must NOT gain control of Congress or they will implement a dangerously radical and unworkable agenda that will have long lasting, dire consequences for YOU!

These people aren't conservatives who are interested in preserving the best of what we have and wish to change it to make it better. No, these people are REACTIONARIES who want to turn America's clock backward to the 1920s and 1890s, when government had no say in business or couldn't prevent unfair or unsafe business practices, or could let business owners discriminate against you at will. A time when if you lost your job that was just too damn bad and you had to fend for yourself on your own, all by yourself. A time where employers could pay whatever they pleased, or could set long and exhausting hours and not have to be bothered with safe or comfortable working conditions. A time when the elderly had to live by themselves in poverty and utter deprivation. A time when, if you got sick and had no money, you suffered horribly and starved to death, because you couldn't work. Is THIS what you want going forward? Is this progress, and the direction this country should be moving in? I don't think so, and I don't think you do, either. That's why I say, this year, THE CHOICE IS CLEAR!

ATOMIC CLASS WARFARE!

"Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they do."
- Jesus Christ, as related in Luke 23:34 -
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What you see below was inspired by Burr Deming, in his superb October 15, 2010 post "Abolishing the Minimum Wage" found over at Fair and Unbalanced (http://fairandunbalanced.com)


We are constantly being assaulted by the far-right crazies of the cultra-onservative Republican Party and reactionary Tea Party with exaggerations, distortions, and outright lies in their public pronouncements and political TV and radio ads. Now that midterm elections are near, these extremists (and that is exactly what they are) are smelling victory, and are growing ever more bold and ever more crazy in what they are proposing to do once they think they will take office. These fanatics all favor more tax cuts for the rich and want all government regulation of business severely curtailed. They are now even calling for outright privatization of Social Security and an end to the minimum wage. Whenever those in lower income brackets or those on the political left talk about stronger labor unions or more fairly and more heavily taxing the very rich, they are immediately attacked by these extremists as engaging in unfair "class warfare." This, like nearly all the other claims made by these extremists, is out and out nonsense. Let's take a look at some of these crazies and examine their statements to see WHY THEY MUST NOT BE ELECTED TO POLITICAL OFFICE:


JOE MILLER,Republican/Tea Party candidate for Senator in Alaska, is a well-to-do attorney who asserts that both unemployment compensation and the federal minimum wage are unconstitutional, and, by inference, should be abolished. He is DEAD WRONG, as Supreme Court decisions in the late 1930s and early 1940s abundantly prove. (The school which gave him his law degree should lose its certification)...


MiICHELE BaACHMANN, Republican Minnesota 6th District congresswoman, has long advocated abolishing the minimum wage, saying she believes getting rid of it would end unemployment altogether. (But I don't see HER applying for any of the $3 per hour jobs that would result if her insane idea was adopted). She has also decried President Obama's plan to raise taxes of those making more than $250,000 per year by a stinking measley 4.6% as an attempt to get rid of rich people. Married to a millionaire as she is, one can certainly empathize with her fear. This foolishly deluded woman must also believe in the tooth fairy and that dragons far out at sea will get you if you venture too far from shore...


Billionaire Republican West Virginia senatorial candidate JOHN RAESE wants to repeal the recently passed health care bill and eliminate the minimum wage. He says it is "an archaic system which has never worked." Tell that to those on minimum wage who like to eat once in a while, have clothes to wear, or enjoy a roof over their head,, Mr. Raese...

SHARRON ANGLE, Republican/Tea Party Senate candidate in Nevada, believes we are coddling those on unemployment and are preventing them from looking for work. She says they make more on unemployment than they would working a real job. It's clear from that insane statement that Ms. Angle has never been on unemployment herself and has never experienced the loss of benefits and halving of pay. She, an advocate of cutting way back on federal government spending, size, and activity, has not yet had her husband refuse any of his government pension checks (for may years, he was a manager in the federal Bureau of Land Management). Obviously, she believes that cutbacks should only apply to those who are down-and-out...


CHRISTINE O'DONNELL, Republican/Tea PartySenate hopeful in Delaware, at age 41 has yet to ever hold a steady full-time job. Yet she, too, believes the federal government should "get off the backs of business" and is a proponent of "free market" economics, a system she obviously knows so well and has done so magnificently under...


Republican/Tea Party Kentucky Senate candidate RAND PAUL has intimated that setting the minum wage too high may cause unemployment (a slinky way of saying he opposes it). This very well paid Opthalmologist has also advised the long term unemployed to just suck it up, take any job at lesser pay than before, and stop expecting government handouts. One question though, Mr. Paul: where the hell are these jobs that you think are so plentiful? I don't see YOU applying for the job of greeter at your local Wal-Mart...

LINDA McMAHON, the billionaire Republican/Tea Party Senate candidate in Connecticut, was recently asked in a public forum what rate the minimum wage is currently at. She couldn't answer that question. But that didn't stop her from later stating that it should be reviewed and even reduced if necessary. Let's see if I've got this right: "I don't know what the minum wage is, but it's too high and we've got to cut it." Now THAT sounds like a Senate candidate on top of her game, doesn't it? Ms. McMahon also wants to cut taxes on income the wealthy get from capital gains and dividends (currently at 15% and far below the rate of 31% most non-wealthy Americans pay on tHEIR income)...
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These candidates are very representative of the other conservative Republicans and far-right Tea Party candidates hoping to win election and take control of Congress on November 2. THEY MUST NOT BE ELECTED! All favor more or extended tax cuts for the rich which will increase our deficit. All oppose government attempts to create jobs. All propose NOTHING to benefit the poor or middle class. Nearly all are wealthy and have not experienced a hungry night, foreclosure, or catastrophic medical expense, and they just don't understand OR CARE ABOUT the struggles facing most Americans today! All want government regulation scaled way back, and all loudly proclaim allegiance to the mythical "free market/free enterprise/supply and demand" economic system which is used and abused by big business and Wall Street every single day. I say "mythical" because this system is free only for the wealthy and big business owners, who set prices in collusion (as the oil and pharmaceutical industries have proven) and fix wages (as all have done). There is no real freedom for the consumer to directly influence price or quality of products and services. Likewise, there is no longer any real freedom for the worker to negotiate or leverage his or her own wages and benefits. Workers cannot even prevent their jobs from being shipped out of the country! So to maintain that our economic system is truly free or even remotely fair is an outright lie. Nonetheless, it is a lie being repeated and supported nonstop by the Republicans and the Tea Party. To add insult to injury, when workers and the poor propose any measure to increase their own income or economic security, they are immediately accused by these people on the far-right of engaging in "class warfare" against the upper class. But the truth of the matter is this: in what these wealthy far-right types are proposing, they aren't merely firing economic artillery shells at those beneath them. They are ATTACKING and attempting to wage ATOMIC CLASS WARFARE against the poor, working and middle classes who are overwhelmingly the majority of the country!

A CLOSE LOOK AT A TEA PARTY/REPUBLICAN AMERICA

With midterm elections just under a month away, and with a sizable share of the electorate actively contemplating voting for Tea Party and conservative Republican candidates, I thought it might be useful to portray in pictures what a radically changed Tea Party / Republican America might look like should they gain control and implement their policies...

Those on the far right don't believe in social programs. They think they coddle the poor. Therefore, they would love to cut back on or eradicate programs like Welfare and Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). They believe the "free market" approach of giving the wealthy huge tax breaks will create massive employment and prosperity. WE all know otherwise, but the Tea Party/conservative Republican message to these poor kids and their parents would be simply "get a job!"


Tea Party/Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller in Alaska has said that he believes both unemployment benefits and the minimum wage are unconstitutional. Senate candidate Sharron Angle in Nevada has echoed these beliefs, and Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann has even advocated doing away with the minimum wage altogether. Expect more scenes like this if the Tea Party and Republican candidates have their way and do away with both the minimum wage and unemployment benefits.


Joe Miller, Sharron Angle, Delaware Tea Party/conservative Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, and many other teabaggers and conservative Republicans want to privatize Social Security, replacing the safety net we currently have (which works reasonably well) with private retirement funds set up on Wall Street. Nice idea - on paper, at least. But while the elderly would prosper during periods of boom, in periods of bust like we're in right now, they would have little or no money to live on. Do you want future generations of elderly to end up like this guy, a bum on the street subsisting on a liquid alcohol diet? I sure don't!


Tea Party Republican Rand Paul, candidate for Senate in Kentucky, has questioned the constitutionality of federal civil rights laws, and has stated he thinks it is wrong that the federal government can enforce these laws in private businesses and organizations. His belief seems not only unfair, but wildly out of touch and out of date with the mores now held by the overwhelming majority of citizens. Is THIS what we want - a return to a divided, separate but equal America?


ALL the Tea Party and Republican candidates have roundly condemned the President's economic stimulus program and have vowed they will support no more bailouts. Presumably, they would just let our banks go under and our big auto companies go out of business. As they all favor less regulation of business, they would stand by and let the market "fix" itself while millions more would suffer loss of employment and foreclosure. This approach didn't work for Herbert Hoover in 1929, so there is absolutely no reason it would work now or going forward. If these far right people gain power and implement their very flawed economic policy, you had best start saving odds and ends and raw materials so you'll be warm and comfortable when you lose YOUR home and have to start living like THIS poor fellow!


Joe Miller, Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, Christine O'Donnell, Marco Rubio (Tea Party/Republican Senate candidate in Florida), House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH),, his little parrot House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), as well as Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), have all come out in support of rolling back government regulation of businrss. So if they gain majority power, get ready to hurl like the man at left. For these far right teabaggers and conservatue Republicabs will contribute to even more food poisoning from tainted meat, fish, eggs, poultry, and produce due to lax regulations on our food industry. Donj't worry too much, though - the market will "fix" itself all by itself, just like they claim. Didn't you know that? NOT!


NRA and gun enthusiasts everywhere, let up a cheer! Once Sharron Angle and the other Tea Party/Republican candidates strengthen the Second Amendment even further, there will be no more pesky regulation on handguns and assault rifles. EVERYBODY will be free to exercise his or her "second amendment remedies" whenever and wherever they see fit, and scenes like this at left will be commonplace on every American street. We'll be FAR safer with more guns in more hands, won't we? Just think - now ALL will be able to freely shoot ANY hated Muslim, politician, or even YOU, on sight! Gotta love that second amendment!


Joe Miller, Sharron Angle, and numerous other teabagger/Republican candidates are also making noise about privatizing MEDICARE and the VA, and repealing the Obama health care plan that was just passed. Rather than lowering the cost of health care as all of these conservatives claim, this rash position would actually RAISE the cost of health care! Why? Because in the case of the VA and Medicare, YOU, the consumer, would be paying an additional 15-20% or more to accomodate private profit margin, something you are currently NOT paying. This would make YOU poorer, but would make wealthy stockholders and giant health care providers even wealthier AT YOUR EXPENSE. What's more, insurance companies would once again be able to boot you off coverage at will once you got sick, something the newly-passed Obama plan forbids. Millions now eligible for health care coverage would also again be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions if this plan were repealed. Only wealthy stockholders and insurance companies would gain from a repeal; YOU would LOSE!
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VOTERS BEWARE! THINK TWICE BEFORE VOTING FOR A TEA PARTY OR CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE THIS YEAR! These people will cut your economic throat and further empower big banks, big health insurance, and big pharmaceutical companies AT YOUR EXPENSE! They have NO agenda for job creation or higher wages for those who aren't trust funders or corporate CEOs. Last night, Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele was interviewed on MSNBC's new The Last Word show and was unable to answer the question of exactly what the current minimum wage is. Republican billionaire and Senate hopeful from Connecticut Linda McMahon was unable to answer that very same question at a public forum a few days earlier. It is shameful that neither figure had a clue as to what level the minimum wage is at. But what is positively unforgivable is that both believe the federal government should not be able to establish the rate, that it is too high and supposedly hurts business, and that neither really cares about the fact that the minimum wage is not a livable wage. The ONLY salaries these conservatives care about are their own and those of their wealthy peers, NOT yours or mine. These conservative Republicans and teabaggers offer nothing for the vast majority of us who must work for a living! Their tax breaks for the rich will NOT create new high-paying jobs. They never have. They offer nothing for small business or anything that will aid the elderly or poor. These tax breaks will NOT cut our deficit but will actually ADD to it tremendously. These conservatives don't really care about YOU; all they want is power and control for themselves and their wealthy backers. It would be a far wiser course of action to stay with the America we have today, imperfect as it is, and work to IMPROVE it, rather than adopt the rash and radical course of action the abovementioned Tea Party/Republican candidates are offering. THINK ABOUT IT, FELLOW VOTER. A close look at the Tea Party/Republican America yields a dangerously treacherous and undesirable world for all but the very wealthy!

DEFEAT THIS INSURGENCY!

The corporate media we are unfortunately plagued with in this country has spent countless hours over the past 6-7 years covering "insurgency" - first in Iraq, and now in Afghanistan. They were quick to identify and report on those attacks from a virulent minority in other countries, but they have been very slow to recognize our own Tea Party phenomenon for what it really is, though: a radically destructive domestic insurgency which is more threatening to our existing institutions and way of life than the Taliban or Al Qaeda could ever hope to be.

Antidemocratic plutocrats like Dick Armey, David Koch, and Rick Scott have helped create this mythical grassroots movement called the Tea Party. They have cynically capitalized on widespread voter frustration with the Great Recession they themselves helped create, and have preyed on typically apolitical and elderly voters' ignorance of the way government actually works. They have fed the public a steady diet of fear through lies and propaganda. They have successfully vamped this anger and frustration into a force of hatred against President Obama, his majority Democratic Party, and even the government itself. This movement's aim is to render the federal government tiny, weak, and ineffective, completely powerless and unable to regulate or oversee corporations and banking. They are accomplishing this by hijacking the Republican Party and forcing out all of its remaining moderate members, replacing them with far, far right candidates who either agree with their ultra-conservatism or who will be compliant stooges in carrying out that agenda. They aim to politically destroy the President so that they may achieve a bloodless coup-d'etat to seize effective control of and rechannel the government into a subservient tool for big business and big money. If they succeed, oversight and regulation as we have known it will disappear. The ability of the individual to protect oneself from abuses and excesses of concentrated capital will vanish forever. Workers will lose even the limited leverage they have at the moment and will effectively become modern-day serfs of the corporate domain. Diversity and social freedom will be replaced by rigid conformity and oppressive social conservative dictates. The poor will grow in number and all vestiges of a safety net will vanish altogether.

This, voters, is an insurgency from within AND without our government. It must be defeated before it can fully implement its malevolent agenda!

Let's take a look at some of the principal players behind this insurgency and examine just why they are so potentially dangerous.

Republican South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint is paid $174,000 per year in YOUR tax dollars for the privilege of serving as a U.S. Senator. WE are paying his salary. What are we getting for his "service"? Obstruction, lots of it, and a pledge to shut down the government which employs him, to paralyze it in gridlock if Congress fails to extend George W. Bush's massive tax breaks for the wealthy, due to expire in 2011. This is a direct quote from an interview he gave Bloomberg Businessweek: "“I’ve been told by businesses that if we would stop the tax increases the best thing that could happen for business after that is complete gridlock. At least gridlock is predictable,” he said. Like most conservatives and teabaggers, DeMint HATES taxes and wants those tax cuts to remain permanently, even as he declares himself in favor of a balanced budget and reducing our current deficit. He has actively supported insurgent Tea Party candidates in primaries where they have been facing moderate Republican officeholders. Mr. DeMint is under the mistaken notion that he represents only the wealthy and "business" sectors of the country, and not the majority of his constituents, who are poor, working, and middle-income citizens.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has actively encouraged citizens to revolt against the federal government, saying "I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of energy tax...", and "we have to rise up and say : 'No more! Not on my watch!'", and "Thomas Jefferson told us: 'Having a revolution every now and then is a good thing.'" Of her role in Washington, she has said "...now in Washington, I'm a foreign correspondent on enemy lines". Just like Jim DeMint, Michele Bachmann favors continuing tax cuts for the rich and hates government too. She has urged people to not fill out the Census (DEFINITELY an act of insurrection) and has no understanding of the needs of the poor and unemployed. She once said "Literally, if we took away the minimum wage—if conceivably it was gone—we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level." Ms. Bachmann obviously does not grasp that incomes below the current minimum wage would be below the poverty level. She, too, has supported far-right Tea Party types in their bid to take over the GOP. For all of this, she should be replaced by her district's voters, as she does not truly understand or represent them.

Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle defeated her Republican rival in the Nevada GOP's primary for U.S. Senator. I covered her extensively in my September 3 post "Why Sharron Angle Must NOT Be Elected Senator From Nevada". She wants to abolish the Department of Education, repeal the recently-passed health care reform bill and return us to the abominable system we had before, and has stated she can understand citizens "taking Second Amendment measures" against members of what she views as an oppressive government. Another of these far right types who want a weak federal government, she, too, wants the Bush tax cuts to stay in place. She also refuses to speak to the press unless she can be certain the interview will be a soft one which helps her further her views. This crazy woman doesn't understand that a free press is supposed to challenge and question those running for and those in office. Arrogance, perhaps?

Hoping to be Delaware's next Senator, Christine O'Donnell is, much like Michele Bachmann, a ocial and economic conservative who wants a weak government and takes extreme positions on many issues. With the backing of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express, she bumped off long time moderately conservative Republican Mike Castle in that state's GOP Senate primary. And, like Sarah Palin, O'Donnell loves being in the spotlight and even sports Palinesque mannerisms. Also reminiscent of Palin, she has ethics violations swirling around her. Former aide David Keegan has put forth an affidavit alleging that O'Donnell used more than $20,000 in campaign funds for personal use (food, rent, and even a bowling outing), and watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has asked the U.S. Attorney for Delaware to open a criminal investigation. CREW has also asked for the Federal Elections Commission to audit her campaign expenses. O'Donnell's financial disclosure form listed only $5,000 in earned income between March 2009-June 2010, an unbelievably low figure in a fairly expensive state like Delaware. Apparently O'Donnell believes as Palin did, that she can do whatever she damn well pleases and that rules and regulations are merely unnecessary inconveniences. Like both Bachmann and Palin, O'Donnell often shoots from the hip and offers shallow, absolutist, and poorly researched, poorly-thought-out opinions. Some of her gems include [distributing condoms is] "just going to further the spread of AIDS", "there is a gross disproportionate allocation of funds going to AIDS treatmentand prevention in relation to resources dedicated to combat heart disease", and "I just came back from the Middle East and it was refreshing...not to be bombarded with smut all the time." She has also stated that former President Bill Clinton hosting a daytime TV talk show would be a bad idea and "a threat to our national security." O'Donnell claims "American scientific communities are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully-finctioning human brains." She has advocated pre-emptive military action against Iran, saying "you can't negotiate with the devil." Like most religious right and "values voters" types, she wears her religion on her sleeve, but also admits to having "dabbled in witchcraft." Her obsession with sexuality and her moralistic stands have led this blogger to start referring to her as "Prisstine" O'Donnell. Her work history is sketchy (she has NEVER held a steady full time job), but she nonetheless thinks government should get off the back of business and is therefore an expert (she thinks) on what is best for working people and the economy in general. She has absolutely no plan for job creation. "Unqualified" is far too kind an adjective to describe her suitability for holding the office of U.S. Senator. One Palin and one Bachmann are two too many; this country does NOT need another flake in high public office like Prisstine O'Donnell!

Alaska Senate-hopeful Joe Miller is another Sarah Palin hand-picked Tea Party candidate who seemingly rose up out of nowhere to knock off two-term Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski in Alaska's Senate primary. Miller has said that the federal government has acted unconstitutionally by passing unemployment compensation, Social Security, and Medicare programs that have supposedly bankrupted the nation. He believes that we have all been brainwashed into having an entitlement mentality by thinking "it's the federal government's role to get in there and provide for the general welfare, to basically provide for the solvency particularly of states and other entities -- what, auto companies, the banks -- everything else that fails, the government should be involved in bailing out." This is a typically simplistic and cold-hearted attitude which obviously comes from a guy who has never suffered unemployment or the collapse of a business himself. It is also evidence that he does not understand that it IS the government's responsibility to enact policies which protect its citizens from needless economic hardship.

Kentucky's Rand Paul is one more ultra-conservative candidate running for a Senate seat. He is yet another of those who believes the government is too big and too controlling and wants to see its scope and power tremendously curtailed. He has stated that he believes private businesses and organizations should not have to conform to civil rights laws. He, too, opposes the recently-passed health care reform bill and also greater regulation on business, especially those in the field of energy. This stance, coming from a man who resides in a state where hundreds of coal miners have lost their lives due to less-than safe coal mines, and after we have all witnessed the BP oil drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Sorry, Mr. Paul: at NO time should a greedy business' pursuit of profits trump worker and public safety!

The Queen Bee of them all is Sarah Palin, the former and half-term governor of Alaska who abandoned her responsibilities of office to make herself more money on book promotion and speaking engagements. It is no small coincidence she fled office at a time when she was coming under increasing attack and scrutiny for numerous alleged ethics violations while in office. Ever the opportunist, she has been riding this manufactured Tea Party wave for all it is worth, staying in the spotlight and sneakily trying to not only capitalize on this phenomenon but also attempting to position herself as one of its prominent leaders. By doing so, she will be putting her own personal stamp on the Republican Party, exercising power and influence she doesn't deserve. She is likely also cementing relationships and creating IOUs that may propel her to the GOP nomination for President in 2012. At the very least, she will remain in the spotlight and enable herself to make more money. For, to Sarah Palin, this is only about her. She cares nothing about the unemployed, jobs programs, rising poverty, or decaying infrastructure. SHE HAS NO PLANS OR SOLUTIONS FOR ANY OF THESE PROBLEMS, NOR DO ANY OF HER TEA PARTY INSURGENTS. That neither she nor her like-minded followers know next to nothing about history, geography, world poltics, international relations, economics, or even our fedral government and how it actually works won't matter at all to these fired-up and ill-informed Tea Party reactionaries. They have bought into the fallacy that she is full of common sense just like them and therefore knows what is best for the country. If she and they are successful and can achieve the type of power and influence they crave, it will be a case of the ignorant blind leading the ignorant blind, and its consequences will be disastrous.
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Republicans: you have been blindsided by a destructive far-out-of-the-mainstream aberration of your party. Like killer bees, they want to eradicate all in the hive who are not exactly like them. Lisa Murkowski and Mike Castle know precisely what I am talking about, and so should you. This Tea Party movement is an insurgency that will destroy your party, and our democracy along with it, once and for all. Destroy IT instead, before it devours you! Moderate Republicans, do NOT vote for these Tea Party types! TAKE YOUR PARTY BACK by pushing THEM out and reaching toward the CENTER of the electorate!

Independents: Do NOT be fooled by these Tea Party types! Their idea of good governance is to turn this country back to the 1890s, the time of the robber barons, when government was weak and totally handicapped by banks and dominant industries. They will accelerate the unhealthy trend toward the eradication of the middle class and the re-establishment of a nation of only two classes: haves, and have-nots. They claim to be dedicated to restoring freedom by destroying the government, but their "freedom" will mean freedom ONLY FOR THE WEALTHY AND PRIVILEGED. The middle class, poor, and elderly will suffer immeasurably if they gain power and their agenda is adopted!

Democrats and Progressives: You must NOT sit this election out! The Tea Party-dominated Republicans must NOT capture control of Congress in November and must NOT take the presidency in 2012! A mediocre, blue dog Democratic Congress and President is VASTLY better than a Tea Party government implementing its 1890s agenda and rolling back all the gains that have been attained through progressive blood, sweat, and tears since the 1930s! Do NOT aid and abet this Tea Party/conservative Republican enemy through apathy and inaction! You DON'T want privatized Social Security and Medicare! You DON'T want unemployment benefits taken away! You DON'T want a return to insurance companies being able to exclude you for pre-existing conditions or cancel your coverage when you get very sick. But that is exactly what you'll get if you stay home, don't vote, and allow these killer bee Tea Party conservatives to grab power!

DEFEAT THIS INSURGENCY, BEFORE IT DESTROYS THIS COUNTRY!

BRIEF EARLY SUMMER MUSINGS

Just a few thoughts on some of our current events:


Regarding the bp oil spill, my thoughts are multi-faceted. On one hand, I view it as a crime against nature and a crime against humanity. That the occurrence is criminal cannot be disputed. bp was criminally negligent and had no safety backup plan, it falsified safety inspections, and regulators did a horribly poor job in inspecting and ensuring the safety of bp's drilling operation. 11 workers are now dead, and entire fishing, restaurant tourist, and hotel businesses have all but been destroyed, just so the gigantic bp could save (squeeze) a few extra bucks of profit. This is proof positive of the absolute need for strong regulation and oversight of the oil industry, and ALL big corporations as well. The conservative Republican, Libertarian, and Tea Bag cry for greater deregulation of business and expanded free market activity rings pretty hollow in the face of the fact that such behavior CAUSED this horrible tragedy. My view is that all bp executives and directors, as well as the lax federal regulators, responsible for this abomination should receive long jail sentences at hard labor, and that bp itself must be made to pay huge reparations to the millions of Gulf residents whose lives have been ruined by this act of greed and resultant economic terrorism.
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Conservative Republican and Tea Bag criticism of President Obama's demand that bp reimburse Gulf businesspersons for their losses due to the oil spill has been most revealing and not a bit surprising. Rep. Joe Barton's (R-TX) apology to bp, in which he called the President's demand for a bp escrow fund a "shakedown", was disgraceful and showed his blatant favoritism for big oil as well as his callous lack of concern for the innocent civilians of the Gulf who have now become victimized by bp's irresponsible greed. Tea Bag favorite U. S. Senate hopeful Rand Paul's characterization of Obama's putting pressure on bp as being "un-American" also shows the underlying conservative insensitivity toward oil spill victims. But ultra-conservative Michele Bachmann's (R-MN) utterly ridiculous claim that Obama's move was to create a "redistribution of wealth fund" proves beyond all doubt that these conservaives only care about the wealthy and care nothing at all for the common laborer or small businessperson. It also proves how these teabaggers and Republicans will castigate the President no matter how preposterous or unjust their claim.
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Gen. Stanley McChrystal's interview with Rolling Stone, in which he severely criticized the President, Vice President, and the entire National Security team over their handling of the war in Afghanistan, has deservedly earned him rebukes from Democrats and Republicans alike. McChrystal's loose cannon mouth has gotten him into trouble before, but this little incident is damaging to troop morale and sends a dangerous signal to al Qaeda about discord in the American military. His irresponsible action is reminiscent of another blabbermouth general's action, that of Douglas Mac Arthur, during the Korean War. It will be interesting to see if other conservative Republican and Tea Bag voices join his chorus in catcalls against President Obama, or if for once they will do the right thing and keep their collective mouths shut...

UP NEXT: "The UNTIED States of America"