Can the Tea Party Cut Spending 40%? NO
Teapublicans are LYING when they promise their Tea Party supporters that they can cut federal spending by 40%, without increasing taxes, and without cutting Social Security or the military.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Tea Party Constitution vs. the Thomas Jefferson Constitution
The Tea Party Constitution vs. the Thomas Jefferson Constitution
Funny how the Tea Party folks don't even understand, or know much about, the U.S. Constitution!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
If the Tea Party Wins...America Loses
Keith Olbermann on the Tea Party and what would happen if they win...
If the Tea Party Wins, America Loses!
If the Tea Party Wins, America Loses!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tea Party Racism
Monday, October 25, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
10 Questions for Tea Partiers
Ralph Nader Has 10 Questions Tea Partiers Don't Want to Answer
Ten Questions for Tea Partiers
Here are ten questions for Tea Partiers that they want or do not want to answer. I say it this way because people who call themselves Tea Partiers do not have the same view of politics, government, Big Business or the Constitution. Their opinions range from pure Libertarian to actively furthering the privileges of plutocracy. Their income and occupational background vary as well, though most seem to be middle-income and up.
My guess is that most Tea Partiers come from the conservative wing of the Republican Party who are fed up with both the corporate Republicans like Bush and Cheney, as well as the Democrats like Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi.
With the above in mind, the following questions can serve to go beyond abstractions and generalizations of indignation and get to some more specific responses.
1. Can you be against Big Government and not press for reductions in the vast military budgets, fraught with bureaucratic and large contractors’ waste, fraud and abuse? Military spending now takes up half of the federal government’s operating budgets. The libertarian Cato Institute believes that to cut deficits, we have to also cut the defense budget.
2. Can you believe in the free market and not condemn hundreds of billions of dollars of corporate welfare-bailouts, subsidies, handouts, and giveaways?
3. Can you want to preserve the legitimate sovereignty of our country and not reject the trade agreements known as NAFTA and GATT (The World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland) that scholars have described as the greatest surrender of local, state and national sovereignty in our history?
4. Can you be for law and order and not support a bigger and faster crackdown on the corporate crime wave, that needs more prosecutors and larger enforcement budgets to stop the stealing of taxpayers and consumer dollars so widely reported in the Wall Street Journal and Business Week? Law enforcement officials estimate that for every dollar for prosecution, seventeen to twenty dollars are returned.
5. Can you be against invasions of privacy by government and business without rejecting the provisions of the Patriot Act that leave you defenseless to constant unlawful snooping, appropriation of personal information and even search of your home without notification until 72 hours later?
6. Can you be against regulation of serious medical malpractice (over 100,000 lives lost a year, according to a study by Harvard physicians), unsafe drugs that have serious side effects or cause the very injury/illness they were sold to prevent, motor vehicles with defective brakes, tires and throttles, contaminated food from China, Mexico and domestic processors?
7. Can you keep calling for Freedom and yet tolerate control of your credit and other economic rights by hidden and arbitrary credit ratings and credit scores? What Freedom do you have when you have to sign industry-wide fine print one-sided “contracts” with your banks, insurance companies, car dealers, and credit card companies? Many of these contracts even block your Constitutional access to the courthouse.
8. Can you be for a new, clean system of politics and elections and still accept the Republican and Democratic Two Party dictatorship that is propped up by complex state laws, frivolous litigation and harassment to exclude from the ballot third parties and independent candidates who want reform, accountability, and stronger voices for the voters?
9. If you want a return to our Constitution—its principles of limited and separation of power and its emphasis on “We the People” in its preamble—can you still support Washington’s wars that have not been declared by Congress (Article I Section 8) or giving corporations equal rights with humans plus special privileges and immunities. The word “corporation” or “company” never appears in the Constitution. How can you support eminent domain powers given by governments to corporations over homeowners, or massive week-end bailouts by the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department of businesses, even reckless foreign banks, without receiving the authority and the appropriations from the Congress, as the Constitution requires?
10. You want less taxation and lower deficits. How can you succeed unless you stop big corporations from escaping their fair share of taxes by manipulating foreign jurisdictions against our tax laws, for example, or by letting trillions of dollars of speculation on Wall Street go without any sales tax, while you pay six, seven or eight percent sales tax on the necessities you buy in stores?
My guess is that most Tea Partiers come from the conservative wing of the Republican Party who are fed up with both the corporate Republicans like Bush and Cheney, as well as the Democrats like Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi.
With the above in mind, the following questions can serve to go beyond abstractions and generalizations of indignation and get to some more specific responses.
1. Can you be against Big Government and not press for reductions in the vast military budgets, fraught with bureaucratic and large contractors’ waste, fraud and abuse? Military spending now takes up half of the federal government’s operating budgets. The libertarian Cato Institute believes that to cut deficits, we have to also cut the defense budget.
2. Can you believe in the free market and not condemn hundreds of billions of dollars of corporate welfare-bailouts, subsidies, handouts, and giveaways?
3. Can you want to preserve the legitimate sovereignty of our country and not reject the trade agreements known as NAFTA and GATT (The World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland) that scholars have described as the greatest surrender of local, state and national sovereignty in our history?
4. Can you be for law and order and not support a bigger and faster crackdown on the corporate crime wave, that needs more prosecutors and larger enforcement budgets to stop the stealing of taxpayers and consumer dollars so widely reported in the Wall Street Journal and Business Week? Law enforcement officials estimate that for every dollar for prosecution, seventeen to twenty dollars are returned.
5. Can you be against invasions of privacy by government and business without rejecting the provisions of the Patriot Act that leave you defenseless to constant unlawful snooping, appropriation of personal information and even search of your home without notification until 72 hours later?
6. Can you be against regulation of serious medical malpractice (over 100,000 lives lost a year, according to a study by Harvard physicians), unsafe drugs that have serious side effects or cause the very injury/illness they were sold to prevent, motor vehicles with defective brakes, tires and throttles, contaminated food from China, Mexico and domestic processors?
7. Can you keep calling for Freedom and yet tolerate control of your credit and other economic rights by hidden and arbitrary credit ratings and credit scores? What Freedom do you have when you have to sign industry-wide fine print one-sided “contracts” with your banks, insurance companies, car dealers, and credit card companies? Many of these contracts even block your Constitutional access to the courthouse.
8. Can you be for a new, clean system of politics and elections and still accept the Republican and Democratic Two Party dictatorship that is propped up by complex state laws, frivolous litigation and harassment to exclude from the ballot third parties and independent candidates who want reform, accountability, and stronger voices for the voters?
9. If you want a return to our Constitution—its principles of limited and separation of power and its emphasis on “We the People” in its preamble—can you still support Washington’s wars that have not been declared by Congress (Article I Section 8) or giving corporations equal rights with humans plus special privileges and immunities. The word “corporation” or “company” never appears in the Constitution. How can you support eminent domain powers given by governments to corporations over homeowners, or massive week-end bailouts by the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department of businesses, even reckless foreign banks, without receiving the authority and the appropriations from the Congress, as the Constitution requires?
10. You want less taxation and lower deficits. How can you succeed unless you stop big corporations from escaping their fair share of taxes by manipulating foreign jurisdictions against our tax laws, for example, or by letting trillions of dollars of speculation on Wall Street go without any sales tax, while you pay six, seven or eight percent sales tax on the necessities you buy in stores?
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tea Party Nationalism
The NAACP and the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights have released a detailed report that exposes the links between the Tea Party movement and racist/nationalist hate groups in the United States: Tea Party Nationalism
Download the Report Here
Pictures from Teabaggers on Parade showing their true colors...
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Corporations and the Right-Wing Are Buying Off Our Government
The 2010 Election is turning into a class war--the corporate rich started it!
Robert Reich, 8 Ways to Fight the Right-Wing Corporations Buying Off of Our Government
The Shadow Class War of 2010
Outside Cash Leaves Scorched Earth in US Election
Corporate Cash Secretly Funneled to Extremist Tea Party Candidates
Democracy FOR SALE
We have to SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY! The Supreme Court opened the floodgates of corporate money to buy our government in the Citizens United decision, and now WE must amend the Constitution to make it clear that CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE! THEY DO NOT HAVE THE SAME RIGHTS AS "WE THE PEOPLE" AND THEY CANNOT TAKE OVER OUR GOVERNMENT!
MOVE TO AMEND
Monday, October 11, 2010
Tea Party Candidates Are Radical Social Conservatives
The Tea Party claims that they are focused on economic issues, like the deficit and government spending, but they have nominated candidates who take extremely radical conservative views on social issues like gay rights and abortion. Several tea party candidates, including Sharon Angle and Christine O'Donnell, are opposed to a women's right to abortion even in cases of rape or incest! All oppose equal rights for gays and lesbians, and some (like NY Tea Party Republican candidate for governor Carl Paladino) have embraced extremely anti-gay homophobic views.
So when the Tea Party claims they are not anti-gay or concerned with social conservative issues, they are LYING!
Look Who's Joined the Tea Party!
Carl Paradino: "Don't Be Brainwashed Into Thinking Homosexuality Is Equally Valid"
Paradino Stands By Anti-Gay Remarks--Tea Party Stands By Paradino
Democrats Target Tea Party Candidates on Social Issues
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Tea Party vs. History
The Tea Party folks don't know much about history!
Thom Hartman, The Real Tea Party Was An Anti-Corporate Revolt!
Hey Tea Party Republicans--The Founders Were NOT Your Guys!
11 Patriotic Lessons from the Tea Party Guide to American History
Ayn Rand Conservatism at Work: Firefighters let House Burn!
Here's how right-wing conservative Libertarianism works:
Firefighters Let House Burn Because Owners Didn't Pay $75 Fee
Talk of "limited government" sounds good until you see what it does in practice: a society where eveyone is on their own!
More on the myths of libertarianism at Libertarianism Exposed
Tea and Crackers
Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi on the Tea Party: Tea and Crackers: How Corporate Interests and Republican Insiders Built the Tea Party Monster
Tea Party Leaders are Not Anti-Establishment
From Truthout: Tea Party Leaders are Not Anti-Establishment
In fact, Tea Party candidates are reading from Republican Party scripts!
Tea Party Script Written in Washington
In These Times: Tea Party Confidential
How GOP Insurgents Borrow from the Left to Move America Right
Friday, October 1, 2010
The Tea Party vs. We The People
Memphis Flyer: Not Our Party
Several important news items in the past week underscore the dire situation of the poor and the working class in the United States, but got little attention from the corporate media or the political elite. The number of people in poverty has climbed to 44 million, the highest number in 50 years. In 2009 alone, 4 million people fell into poverty, and it would have been higher without the extensions in unemployment and other benefits Republicans opposed.
The number of people without health insurance climbed to 50 million. The healthcare crisis continues to worsen while the right-wing calls for repealing the healthcare program that will cover 30 million more people. Health insurance companies are already gouging people and dumping children and sick people before the law is fully implemented, while Republicans want to cut all public healthcare programs and throw us all to the mercy of insurance companies.
While corporate profits and CEO pay continue to skyrocket, even after the Great Recession they created out of greed, the wages and income of working class continues to decline. There is a class war, but it is a war of the corporate rich being waged on the working class.
What I don’t understand is why the Tea Party, which claims to represent “we the people,” is taking the side of the corporate rich. They defend private insurance companies which are rationing healthcare based on ability to pay while increasing their profits and CEO pay. They are siding with corporations against unions and the right of workers to organize and improve their working conditions.
Instead, the Tea Party is following millionaire corporate lobbyists like Dick Armey, and corporate front groups like “Freedom Works” and “Americans For Prosperity,” which are nothing but cover groups for insurance companies and energy companies who oppose “regulations” which would protect the environment and increase access to healthcare.
They claim to want to reduce the deficit and cut government debt, but they want to continue to cut taxes on the corporate rich, without any cuts to pay for them. It is this combination of careless tax cuts favoring the rich, along with unpaid wars and increases in military spending, which has caused the explosion in the deficit, all the result of the policies of George W. Bush, which they want to continue.
The Tea Party is taking over the Republican Party, pushing a radical agenda to impose corporate and theocratic rule over the United States. They want to cut or eliminate Social Security, the most successful social program in history, which has nothing to do with the deficit. They claim to be opposed to “big government,” but they want to impose their religious beliefs on everyone, and they seem to love big business.
The Boston Tea Party was a revolt against unfair tax cuts for a multinational corporation, the East India Tea Company, which undermined the small businesses in the colonies. The British were imposing taxes on the colonies, while cutting the taxes of the East India Tea Company. We need a real Tea Party revolt against tax cuts and corporate welfare programs that favor the corporate rich and put the interests of Wall Street banksters over the interests of the American working class. We need to pay more attention to the “common good” and and less attention to the whining of rich people who don’t care about the “general welfare” of we the people.
Memphis Flyer: Not Our Party
Socialist Webzine: Incomes Down, Poverty Up
The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street
Lost Decade For American Income
Poverty Rises as Wall Street Billionaires Whine
More Tax Cuts for the Rich? No Way!
GOP Plan Would Raise Debt $4 Trillion
Thom Hartmann: Boston Tea Party Was An Anti-Corporate Revolt!
Several important news items in the past week underscore the dire situation of the poor and the working class in the United States, but got little attention from the corporate media or the political elite. The number of people in poverty has climbed to 44 million, the highest number in 50 years. In 2009 alone, 4 million people fell into poverty, and it would have been higher without the extensions in unemployment and other benefits Republicans opposed.
The number of people without health insurance climbed to 50 million. The healthcare crisis continues to worsen while the right-wing calls for repealing the healthcare program that will cover 30 million more people. Health insurance companies are already gouging people and dumping children and sick people before the law is fully implemented, while Republicans want to cut all public healthcare programs and throw us all to the mercy of insurance companies.
While corporate profits and CEO pay continue to skyrocket, even after the Great Recession they created out of greed, the wages and income of working class continues to decline. There is a class war, but it is a war of the corporate rich being waged on the working class.
What I don’t understand is why the Tea Party, which claims to represent “we the people,” is taking the side of the corporate rich. They defend private insurance companies which are rationing healthcare based on ability to pay while increasing their profits and CEO pay. They are siding with corporations against unions and the right of workers to organize and improve their working conditions.
Instead, the Tea Party is following millionaire corporate lobbyists like Dick Armey, and corporate front groups like “Freedom Works” and “Americans For Prosperity,” which are nothing but cover groups for insurance companies and energy companies who oppose “regulations” which would protect the environment and increase access to healthcare.
They claim to want to reduce the deficit and cut government debt, but they want to continue to cut taxes on the corporate rich, without any cuts to pay for them. It is this combination of careless tax cuts favoring the rich, along with unpaid wars and increases in military spending, which has caused the explosion in the deficit, all the result of the policies of George W. Bush, which they want to continue.
The Tea Party is taking over the Republican Party, pushing a radical agenda to impose corporate and theocratic rule over the United States. They want to cut or eliminate Social Security, the most successful social program in history, which has nothing to do with the deficit. They claim to be opposed to “big government,” but they want to impose their religious beliefs on everyone, and they seem to love big business.
The Boston Tea Party was a revolt against unfair tax cuts for a multinational corporation, the East India Tea Company, which undermined the small businesses in the colonies. The British were imposing taxes on the colonies, while cutting the taxes of the East India Tea Company. We need a real Tea Party revolt against tax cuts and corporate welfare programs that favor the corporate rich and put the interests of Wall Street banksters over the interests of the American working class. We need to pay more attention to the “common good” and and less attention to the whining of rich people who don’t care about the “general welfare” of we the people.
Memphis Flyer: Not Our Party
Socialist Webzine: Incomes Down, Poverty Up
The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street
Lost Decade For American Income
Poverty Rises as Wall Street Billionaires Whine
More Tax Cuts for the Rich? No Way!
GOP Plan Would Raise Debt $4 Trillion
Thom Hartmann: Boston Tea Party Was An Anti-Corporate Revolt!
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