Ahead of South Carolina Primary, GOP Candidates Employ Race-Baiting Tradition to Win Southern Vote

Ahead of South Carolina Primary, GOP Candidates Employ Race-Baiting Tradition to Win Southern Vote

Republican Racism is an Air Raid Siren, Not a Dog Whistle | | AlterNet

Bush + Tea Party = Rick Perry!

Bush + Tea Party = Rick Perry

Would American voters elect another dumb Texas governor who thinks GOD wants him to be president to preside over the Rapture?

Madison Rally Bigger than Biggest Tea Party

Madison Rally Better than Biggest Tea Party

Police estimated up to 100,000 people turned out in Madison, WI yesterday to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) assault on unions, making it bigger than any protests the city has witnessed, even those during the Vietnam War. The Madison rally is part of a much larger Main Street Movement of average Americans demanding fairness in labor laws, social spending, and taxation that has emerged in Ohio, New Jersey, Florida,Michigan, and elsewhere. But yesterday’s rally in Madison is noteworthy because at 85,000-100,000, it was bigger than the biggest tea party protest, the September 12, 2009 rally in Washington, D.C., which turned out only an estimated 60,000-70,000. A photo of the Madison rally yesterday:

For two years, tea party activists and their allies in the GOP have claimed that the hard-right movement represents the true beliefs of the American people. But the crowd in Madison and numerous polls tell a different story.

Tea Party Leads Assault on Tennessee Education Association

Conservative Activists Lead Assault on Tennessee Education Association

Following the national agenda of the Tea Party and Right-Wing Republicans, Tennessee conservatives, led by the Tea Party, are attacking the Tennessee Education Association and the NEA.  This assault on the right of teachers unions to collectively organize and bargain for better pay and working conditions is party of a national strategy by the Republican Party and anti-union Libertarian corporate groups to destroy labor unions, especially those representing public employees, by blaming them for the state deficits.

Social conservatives, like the Eagle's Forum and the Family Action Council of Tennessee, are also attacking the TEA and NEA for being too "liberal" on issues like teaching evolution and acceptance of homosexuality.

The real agenda is the effort by the Republican Party to destroy the ability of the Democratic Party to get campaign funds from unions to counter the corporate funders of the conservative movement and the Republican Party.

CPAC 2011: Republicans Court Wing-Nuts

It's another CPAC convention, with the Republican Party and potential GOP candidates courting the wing-nuts of CPAC.  There was some controversy over whether the right-wing gay GOProud should even be allowed in the convention, several of the religious right conservatives couldn't accept such "liberalism" and stayed away.  GOProud was rewarded by listening to one anti-gay speech after another, as the GOP candidates tried to prove how conservative and intolerant they are.

The Tea Party alliance with the Republican Party has not got off to a good start, as the GOP leaders in Congress have backed off or broken almost every pledge they made from cutting $100 billion from the budget (only $32 billion so far), following the U.S. Constitution on every bill, open debate, etc.

Did they Tea Party really think corporate stooges like Boehner and McConnell were really going to support their "revolution"??

Here's some highlights of the wing nut convention:

Media Matters:  CPAC 2011 Coverage

Tea Party Welcomed by the Republican Party

11 of the Tea Party GOP's Most Ridiculous Policy Ideas (So Far)

12 Examples of Stunning Hypocrisy from Tea Party Republicans in One Short Month

Sorry Tea Partiers--The GOP Only Cares About their Corporate Paymasters and the Rich (like the Koch Brothers)

The Reagan Myth

It's the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan, and the right-wing Reagan revisionists are hard at work distorting the real history and record of Reagan. It is odd that the Tea Party would celebrate the President who brought historical deficit spending and raised taxes 11 times, not to mention his support of "amnesty" for illegal immigrants and his palling around with the Communist leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, with whom he pledged to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

Reagan campaigned against "big government" and the debt, and in eight years he more than tripled it from $700 billion to $3 trillion! In fact, Reagan ran up more debt than all preceding U.S. presidents combined!

His version of "supply-side" economics ("Reaganomics") was a disaster that failed to increase enough revenue to overcome his doubling of the military budget and other expansions of government. And it was Ronald Reagan who supported the doubling of the payroll tax to save the "socialist" Social Security system which is still a target of the right-wing corporate elite.

His administration was plagued by scandals and crimes, including the Iran-Contra scandal, which uncovered an illegal secret government operating in the basement of the White House to support the contra terrorists in Nicaragua by selling military arms to the Iranian government, all in violation of U.S. and international law.. in fact the Reagan administration was found guilty of supporting terrorism against the Nicaraguan government by the World Court! And somehow he was saved from impeachment by an inept Democratic congress which could not impeach him for illegal actions they largely supported.

So here's to the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan!

Revisiting the Reagan Nightmare

The Unfortunate Truth About Ronald Reagan

Five Myths About Reagan's Legacy

10 Things Conservatives Don't Want You to Know About Reagan

Reagan: Morning After in America

Ronald Reagan's 30-Year Time Bombs

Ronald Reagan: Enemy of the American Worker

Reagan Celebration Hides Brutal History

The Real Reagan Legacy

The Real Ronald Reagan

The Reagan Record

The Tea Party Republican Road to Disaster

Look who the Republican Party chose to present their rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union Tuesday--Rep. Paul Ryan!  Ryan is best known for his "Roadmap for America's Future" which called for privatizing and cutting Social Security and Medicare, a plan that was so radical no major Republican endorsed it!

Think Progress Has more:

Ryan's Radical Vision

Republicans announced last Friday that Rep. Paul Ryan (WI), chairman of the House Budget Committee, will deliver the GOP's response to President Obama's State of the Union address tomorrow. According to reports, GOP leaders chose Ryan because he is supposedly a "champion of slashing government spending." The seven-term Wisconsin congressman gives Republicans a "chance to emphasize their core message: government spending must come down to reduce the nation's annual deficit and long-term debt." House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said Ryan -- who has been given "stunning and unprecedented" power to shape the budget -- is "uniquely qualified to address the state of our economy and the fiscal challenges that face our country." Ryan is known as the GOP's numbers guy in the House, and he laid out last year what he calls a "Roadmap" to fiscal health. But as the Washington Post's Ezra Klein notes, "The more they elevate Ryan, the more they elevate Ryan's Roadmap. And that document is a timebomb for them."

PRIVATIZING ENTITLEMENTS: Ryan's Roadmap puts Americans on the path of privatizing entitlement programs, such as Social Security. The plan boasts about "the creation of personal investment accounts for future retirees" that are "the property of the individual." (Emphasis in the original document). "Individuals will be able to join the investor class for the first time," the Roadmap says. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) notes that "the Ryan plan proposes large cuts in Social Security benefits -- roughly 16 percent for the average new retiree in 2050 and 28 percent in 2080 from price indexing alone." It "initially diverts most of these savings to help fund private accounts rather than to restore Social Security solvency." CBPP also notes that the Roadmap "would eliminate traditional Medicare, most of Medicaid, and all of the Children's Health Insurance Program" by creating a private voucher system that won't keep up with the cost of health care. By 2080, under Ryan's plan, the Medicare program would be reduced by nearly 80 percent below its projected size under current policies. CBPP summed up Ryan's plan: The Roadmap's cuts "would be so severe that CBO estimates they would shrink total federal expenditures (other than on interest payments) from roughly 19 percent of GDP in recent years to just 13.8 percent of GDP by 2080. Federal spending has not equaled such a low level of GDP since 1950, when Medicare and Medicaid did not yet exist, Social Security failed to cover many workers, and close to half of the elderly people in the United States lived below the poverty line."

MIDDLE CLASS TAX INCREASES: Citizens for Tax Justice found that Ryan's Roadmap would raise taxes on 90 percent of taxpayers and drastically lower them for the richest Americans. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) recently reported that the rates for the middle class would be higher than those for the rich under Ryan's plan. "Middle-class families earning between $50,000 and $75,000 a year would see their average tax rate jump to 19.1% (from 17.7%) under this plan -- an increase of $900 on average," EPI says, while at the same time, "Millionaires would see their average tax rate drop to 12.8%, less than half of what they would pay relative to current policy." As EPI's Andrew Fieldhouse concluded, under the Roadmap, "a long tradition of progressive taxation would be abandoned; millionaires and Wall Street bankers would pay significantly lower tax rates than middle-class workers. ... Income inequality would soar." In another giveaway to the rich, the Roadmap calls for a total repeal of the estate and corporate taxes and would introduce a national sales tax. Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) said this idea "would eat up a much larger percentage of total income for poor and middle-class families than wealthy families" because the former "spend most or all of their income on consumption," while "high-income families are able to save much more of their income." Ryan's plan claims federal tax revenue will be 19 percent of GDP, but the Tax Policy Center found last year that his proposal would only bring in "approximately 16 percent of GDP, which amounts to a $4 trillion revenue shortfall over ten years."

LESS REVENUE, MORE DEBT: Despite raising taxes on 90 percent of Americans, the federal government will lose $2 trillion in revenues over the next 10 years under Ryan's plan, according to CTJ. "It's difficult to design a tax plan that will lose $2 trillion over a decade even while requiring 90 percent of taxpayers to pay more. But Congressman Ryan has met that daunting challenge," CTJ wrote. Looking at the most optimistic figures, the Roadmap won't balance the budget until at least 2063 and it won't reduce federal debt for decades, exceeding 100 percent of GDP before starting to come down. While proposing drastic cuts to entitlement programs, Ryan said he wants to reduce discretionary spending -- which includes such expenditures as education, homeland security and other defense spending -- but he has no idea what programs to cut. "I can't tell you the answer to that," he said earlier this month. However, anticipating the plan's unpopularity, GOP leadership isn't publicly embracing Ryan's plan but at the same time, it appears willing to allow it to go forward. During the midterm election campaign, the GOP dropped Ryan's Roadmap from its "Pledge to America" scheme and as the conservative National Review noted last week, "praise for the Wisconsin Republican comes easy and often, full-scale endorsement of the roadmap less so." But while Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said last week that he supports only "elements" of the plan, he said yesterday on NBC's Meet the Press that "we need to embrace" its direction. And last year, Boehner wouldn't endorse the Roadmap, but at the same time couldn't name any specific part he disagreed with. But if Boehner dislikes Ryan's plan so much, it's unclear why he made him chairman of the House Budget Committee and gave him new and unprecedented powers to unilaterally set spending limits instead of subjecting those limits to a vote on the House floor. Speaking of Ryan's new power, Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said, "Unfortunately, the House GOP is reverting back to the same arrogant governing style they implemented when they last held the majority and turned a surplus into a huge deficit."

Needless to say, Rep. Paul Ryan is NO FRIEND to Social Security!

GOP Timebomb:  How Republican Star Paul Ryan's Radical Roadmap would Dynamite Social Security and Medicare

STOP the Austerity Craze:  Massive Budget Slashing Could Lead to Economic Disaster and Social Upheaval

Right-Wing, Guns & Violence

Of course, the right-wing, especially the Tea Party, is on the defensive disclaiming any blame for the hateful political tone in the United States in the aftermath of the mass murder in Tucson, Arizona. The right-wing is very good at turning reality upside down, and is trying now to blame LIBERALS for inciting hate and violence, despite a lack of any evidence.

No one on the political left, certainly no major media or political personality, has said anything remotely inciting violence. But listen to the right-wing Tea Party candidates Sharon Angle ("Second Amendment Solutions") and Michelle "armed and dangerous" Bachmann. Or the crazy rantings of right-wing lunatic Glenn Beck, who actually calls for the murder and assassination of liberals and progressives on his national TV and radio shows!

Has anyone on the liberal/progressive left made any statements like these?

1. Rush Limbaugh: "I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus – living fossils – so we will never forget what these people stood for."

2. Senator Phil Gramm: "We're going to keep building the party until we're hunting Democrats with dogs."

3. Rep. James Hansen on Bill Clinton: Get rid of the guy. Impreach him, censure him, assassinate him."

4. John Derbyshire intimated in the National Review that because Chelsea Clinton had "the taint," she should "be killed."

5. Ann Coulter: "We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too."

6. Ann Coulter: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building."

7. Bill O'Reilly: "ll those clowns over at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains."

8. Clear Channel radio host Glenn Beck said he was "thinking about killing Michael Moore" and pondered whether "I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it," before concluding: "No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out -- is this wrong?"


NO, not one!


The Tea Party and the right-wing are defensive because they KNOW they are guilty of promoting violence and hatred toward liberals and progressives.


Gabrille Giffords, a centrist Democrat, was "targeted" by Sarah Palin and the Tea Party both literally and figuratively. After the vote on healthcare reform, Giffords was among a dozen Demcrats who were the victims of vandalism and threats of violence from the Tea Party wing-nuts. When asked if Giffords had any political enemies, her husband said, "The whole Tea Party." He was right.


How Right-Wing's Rhetoric Fueled Arizona Mass Murder
Hate and Violence are Encoded on the DNA of the American Right
The Tea Party and the Tucson Tragedy
Hate Speech: The Right's Magic Bullett

The Right's Rising Tide of Violent Rhetoric

Fox News Murder Fantasies

And the real issue is how did a psychopath like Jared Loughner get an automatic weapon? You can thank the right-wing militia backed NRA for that too! In 1994, Bill Clinton signed into law an assault weapons ban, which would have made the Glock-19 30 round pistol Loughner used to kill five people illegal. Under George W. Bush, that law was allowed to expire.


Only One Fact in Arizona: Loughner Got a Gun
The Giffords Gun Clip: How a Weapon of Mass Destruction Became a "Second Amendment Solution"
Gun Control Timeline: 7 Big Events in the Federal Gun Control Debate

Right-Wing's Violent Rhetoric Breeds Violence

The anti-government lunatic who opened fire on Arizona Congress woman Gabrielle Giffords may not have been a card carrying member of the Tea Party, but he was certainly influenced by some of the extremist right-wing conspiracy theories that influence the thinking and actions of the wing nuts who circle around the fringe of the racist anti-government Tea Party movement.

The assassin, Jared Loshner, was a right-wing lunatic who believed that the government was using mind control and grammar to control people. The FBI is investigating his links to American Renaissance, a right-wing racist anti-Semitic hate group. (Rep. Giffords was Jewish.).

Perhaps he was influenced by Gifford's Tea Party Republican opponent who invited his supporters to fundraisers to shot automatic weapons to "target" Giffords, or by Tea Party leader Sarah Palin's map of the U.S with gun targets over Giffords and other Democrats for defeat in the 2010 election.

Maybe the guilt of such associations is why Sarah Palin scrubbed the targets from her websites and why the Tea Party Nation was quick to blame left-wing liberals for the violent actions of Jared Loshner.

Shooter May Have Ties to Right-Wing Hate Groups

SPLC: Who is Jared Loughner?

How Right's Rhetoric Fueled Arizona's Mass Murder

Keith Olbermann Special Comment on AZ Shooting


-Jim Maynard

Happy New Year! Last Chance to Celebrate the New Year Before the Tea Party

Cheri DelBroco:  Last Chance Before the Tea Party Starts for Real

Here Come the Tea Baggers!

Here's how the Tea Party will defend the corporate rich, attack workers and the poor, and try to roll the USA back to the 1920s:

10 Ways the Right-Wingers Will Try to Wreck Any Economic Recovery

Tea Party Madness

Meet the Freshman Class of Right-Wing Extremist Members of Congress

Tea Party Caucus Took $1 Billion in Earmarks

The Tea Party's War on Schools

The Tea Party Moron Complex

Tea Party vs. Tea Party

Will War Between the Religious Right and Libertarians Tear the Tea Party Apart?

The tea party's social conservative and libertarian wings are poised for a showdown that could decide the fate of the movement.

The Tea Party Moron Complex

Matt Taibbi, The Tea Party Moron Complex

If American politics made any sense at all, we wouldn’t have two giant political parties of roughly equal size perpetually fighting over the same 5–10 percent swatch of undecided voters, blues versus reds. Instead, the parties should be broken down into haves and have-nots -- a couple of obnoxious bankers on the Upper East Side running for office against 280 million pissed-off credit card and mortgage customers. That’s the more accurate demographic picture of a country in which the top 1 percent has seen its share of the nation’s overall wealth jump from 34.6 percent before the crisis, in 2007, to over 37.1 percent in 2009.   Moreover, the standard of living for the  average American has plummeted during the crisis -- the median American household net worth was $102,500 in 2007, and went down to $65,400 in 2009 -- while the top 1 percent saw its net worth hold relatively steady, dropping from $19.5 million to $16.5 million.


Read More

GOP Urged to Avoid Social Issues

GOP URGED TO AVOID SOCIAL ISSUES

Gay conservative group GOProud joined forces with some Tea Party leaders to urge Sen. Mitch McConnell and Rep. John Boehner to avoid social issues such as same-sex marriage and keep their congressional members focused on economic freedom and individual liberty.

According to a news release, GOProud and Tea Party leaders from at least 10 states sent an open letter to McConnell and Boehner on Monday morning. Part of the letter, which includes 17 signatories, reads:

“This election was not a mandate for the Republican Party, nor was it a mandate to act on any social issue, nor should it be interpreted as a political blank check.

“Already, there are Washington insiders and special interest groups that hope to co-opt the Tea Party’s message and use it to push their own agenda – particularly as it relates to social issues. We are disappointed but not surprised by this development. We recognize the importance of values but believe strongly that those values should be taught by families and our houses of worship and not legislated from Washington, D.C.

“We urge you to stay focused on the issues that got you and your colleagues elected and to resist the urge to run down any social issue rabbit holes in order to appease the special interests.”

According to Politico, signatories like Ralph King, a Tea Party Patriots national leadership council member and Ohio co-coordinator, may be more motivated by limited government than they are pro-gay.

Here Come the Teabaggers: Tea Party vs. GOP

Here are some of the right-wingnuts the Tea Party sent to Congress:
The Ten Scariest Republicans Headed for Congress

Now that the Tea Party cost the Republicans the U.S. Senate, the real battle heats up between the Tea Party and the GOP:

Republicans vs. the Tea Party: The Power Clash Begins

Upset Republicans Believe Tea Party Cost GOP Control of Senate

The Tea Party Has Arrived:  Let the Infighting Begin

Michelle Bachmann's Leadership Bid Gets Cool Reception

GOP Leaders Ignore Tea Party's Call for Earmark Ban

Tea Party Math Doesn't Add Up

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.

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!

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!

Tea Party Racism

White Racial Resentment Bubbles Under Surface of Tea Party

NAACP Exposes Ties Between Tea Party and Racist Extremist Groups

Tea Party Rage Not About Healthcare

Tea Party Racial Paranoia

Yes There Is Racism in the Tea Party

Right-Wing Race-Baiting from Limbaugh to Fox News

Too Much Tea Party Racism

Tea Party Inc.

Tea Party Inc.:  The Big Money and Powerful Elites Behind the Right-Wing Uprising