If you just don't like things the way they are, then...

Here are the issues and the difference:
If you like to do your banking, loans, and credit with no consumer protection, vote Republican.
If you like to swim in rivers and lakes filled with mercury, then vote Republican.
If you like to drive over bridges that have not been maintained and are about to collapse, then vote Republican.
If you like to work for minimum wage that will never be raised, then vote Republican.
If you want no health care assistance and want to repeal Obamacare, then vote Republican.
If you want a more expensive retirement with higher risk, if any at all, then vote Republican.
If you don’t like jobs created by the Federal Government, then vote Republican.
If you like smog and carbon monoxide in the air, then vote Republican.
If you just love offshore drilling and subsequent oil spills, then vote Republican.
If you like shutting businesses down in order to send them overseas, then Vote Republican.
If you just hate public schools and their teachers, then vote Republican.
If you think the fire and police departments need less man power, then vote Republican.
If you don’t like benefits from the Veterans Administration, then vote Republican.
If you want Medicare and Social Security to go away, then vote Republican.
If you just can’t wait to give more tax cuts to the rich, then vote Republican.
If you are a fan of sending all union jobs to China, then vote Republican.
If you wish to have a really cool looking pipeline trenched down the middle of America, then vote Republican.
If you don’t want to create jobs for the unemployed, then vote Republican.
If you like a government that is mostly secretive, then vote Republican.
If you want a President that flip-flops and has no discernable plan for America, then vote Republican.

Global warming may or may not be a hoax. Who really cares.

Let’s Set aside the controversial argument of global warming for the moment. Never the less, wouldn’t it still be better for all inhabitants on Earth to reduce carbon dioxide from the air? Isn’t there still harmful heavy metal properties in CO2 that cause many harmful respiratory conditions? Yes, indeed.

For sure CO2 is bad. Bad for people and their environment. Causing lung cancer, asthma, heart disease, emphysema, and a number of other carcinogenic causing disorders from mercury poisoning.

And this is not to mention harmful and killing effects on plants and animals. Animals that fly. Animals that live in oceans, lakes, and rivers. Most of all plants and animals we humans eat.

Again, forget the global warming effects. Let’s just reduce the carbon dioxide that is released in the air by cars, trucks, planes, trains, and coal fired power plants. Never mind “Cap and Trade.” Just use less carbon fuels. Walk instead of driving to the grocery store. Share rides to work or take a bus. Ride your bike to school. Turn off all the lights in the house or place of business that are not needed. Open the windows instead of turning on the air conditioning. Conserve. Save electricity. Use alternative forms of electrical power. Wind. Solar. Just get CO2 out of the air. Never Global warming. Pretend it doesn’t exist. Just believe carbon dioxide kills. CO2 is real as death.

Romney, the corporate mistress.

The only way I can describe Mit Romney is, he is a political prostitute. A “Call Boy. Beholding to special wanting interests paid for by large sums of unexplained cash. Romney promising to perform his political tricks for the exchange of hush money from mysterious corporate sources. Oh yes, his Pimp? Who else but the RNC.

Working with Romney is a stable of painted concubines. Republicans in the House of congress represent the largest whore house in America. Congressmen and women bound to perform their immoral acts funded by large unaccounted wads of lobby money. Just capitol hill street walkers. Bound to and beholding to the corporate sugar daddies.

Romney and Congress’s motto? “Come up and see me sometime Bubba.”

To get anything done, we must first take sides. Them and us.

So Scott Walker says after his victory in Wisconsin, “Our side should listen to their side.” Our side must listen to their side?” Does Wisconsin have two sides? Them and us? The Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s?

When do we stop the partisan divide? When do we start living in the same house? Living with the same problems needing resolution and solution.

Perhaps Wisconsin state government should start looking at issues Wisconsinites want attention paid to. Wisconsin issues which really matter to the Cheese head state. But as it is, the two opposing parties only want to press for partisan issues and not issues the general population of Wisconsin needs and wants. How futile and unproductive.

Come on guys and gals of the Wisconsin state government, get your acts together. Learn to compromise and cooperate together. Give and take. I’m sure it will work.

You can set an example for the other 49-states. Be brave. Suck it in and share and share alike in the difficulty. And, share in the pride and progress. Go Badgers! Get’em Packers!

Congress is the big 'speed bump' in the road.

All America wants to do is work at a reasonable job, own a home, educate it’s children, maintain good health, and help others. However, standing in the way of America’s beneficent is a recalcitrant congress. A dysfunctional Congress bought and paid for by ill intended corporate lobbyist with deep pockets filled with reelection money.

And we are talking about Corporations ably aided by congress purposefully filtering all available money away from middle America. Money diverted into private corporation bank accounts. Then generously distributed to all participating congressmen and women. A reward for congress changing laws that unfairly advantage the rich and take away from the working class and poor.

All the while congress is blaming the federal government for wisely taxing the rich and distributing benefit to preschool children, to the elderly, the disabled, and working class poor. Certainly a Biblical concept. RememberWWJD?

So why do we Americans allow this? Why do we keep on reelecting the same old congress whose only interest is to enable the rich and oppress the poor? Why do grass root Americans vote against their own interests? Often voting for a nebulous mysterious ideology and not voting for an American belief. Beliefs as in “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

America! Wake up! Smell the coffee and go do your job. Your job is to know your district congressman or woman. Let them know you are not interested in subsidizing the rich but advantaging the middle class. Helping the middle class take care of its poor, homeless, sick, and cleaning up the environment. Congress! Get out of the way!

It's time for Spring Cleaning. Clear out the rotten wood.

Congress is public enemy number one. It’s time to get rid of all members of the House of Representatives. Vote them out. Clear out the dead wood. Remove the Reps on the lobbyists dole. Sweep it clean. Vote against all incumbents. Search and destroy the ambivalence. Clean up the political mess in the halls of congress.

Get rid of House Speaker Boehner. Remove the anti-American US Rep Paul Ryan. Stop the flow of lobbyist money. Vote them all out. Gone. Good riddance and don’t come back. Tell the Koch Brothers to stick it!

Why is it we have voted against our best interest? Haven't a clue.

I would like to believe Republicans and conservatives are moral and decent people. However, that’s not what I see and hear from our American Congress. Especially from the House of Representatives. A body of politics lead by hypocritical and self-seeking Over-lords. Men and women whose only intent is to thwart any legislation introduced by Democrats and President Obama. Never mind if the proposed legislation is in the best interest of most or all Americans.

But anyway, a misguided but concerted effort by most House conservatives to fulfill the grand wishes of the “Master Demigod” and assumed GOP leader, his lowliness, Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh had proclaimed at the outset of the Obama administration, wishing the new administration quick and sudden “Failure.” Which is to say, “Wishing failure to all America.” A statement only an anti-American would ever say. And Republicans agree with his Rushness.

None the less, Congress’s leadership is a group of power mongers driven by plenty of money from ill intended corporations. Big corporations solely dedicated to bring down most Social institutions. Institutions which served our parents and grandparents well. And their goals are to kill Social Security and Medicare. And, it doesn’t stop there.

Is this the people we want to serve us? It’s more like people intended on destroying our American way of life. An American way of life dedicated to help and serve each other. Responsible, benevolent, sharing, and protecting our American life.

It is our responsibility as voters and citizens of America to remove these political quacks. Vote them out as soon as possible. They are destroyers of the notion of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Do it! Remove them now! And, God Bless America and all lovers of peace in the world.

Why go door to door when money can talk for you instead.

So what happens with all this money raised by political candidates? All these millions and millions of dollars generated by the Super-PACs quickly goes to pollsters and political consultants. Not to mention the millions of dollars spent on TV and radio ads. The candidate, by law, is not to keep any of the funds raised. Except to fund his or her campaign. Huge amounts of money wasted. Blown. Flushed down the drain. Not really benefiting anybody except the professional image fabricators and PR organizations.

Millions that could be easily spent on more teachers. More Police and fire professional. Money that could field a whole new hospital shift of nurses and medical aids. The total sum could easily build either dozens of schools or build and equip police or fire departments and or hospitals. So, scratch your head. What a waste.

You have to ask yourself, how did President Truman, with very little means, get elected? He had no sizeable income or family wealth. How did President Nixon do the same with little wealth? There were no Political Action Committees back then. But were elected nonetheless. So why does need to spend so much money just to elected a President?

The answer, greed and control. It no longer matters if a party or candidate has popular support by the voters with promised proposals. What matters, and mostly among conservatives, is control. Control control and control. A group of individual’s hell bent on doing it their way and their way only. Only for the sake of control by the few and be dammed if the democrats ever regain control. “It’s my way or the highway.” Never mind what the people want. Control is key and we will never let it go at any and all cost.

If you can't beat them, then out spend them.

I just now realize why Republicans raise so much campaign money. Since they have no constructive platform to stand on and nothing positive to bring to the voters, they then just attack any other ideology. Therefore they must raise tons of money to compensate for their void of creative constructive thinking.

They have no interest in health care. They resist a clean environment. They resist bringing jobs back to America. Republicans have no motivation to bring on more police, fire, and emergency workers. They hate teachers, nurses, and any public workers. Bottom line they have nothing constructive or positive to offer as campaign issues to the voters. They lack good ideas to help the American people.

So, they have to resort to raising money from secret and dubious sources and just attack-attack-attack. It’s all they know. Negative ads are their best campaign tool. So, if they can’t say something good about themselves, then they’ll blast away at the opposition instead. And just think, some of these uninspired partisans are our neighbors. How sick.

Who are these people anyway?

It is still not known what the Republican Party stands for. They don’t like your social security. They want to get rid of your Medicare. Republicans are set against clean air and water. Selling oil and burning coal is more important than conserving America’s energy resources.

Nonetheless, there seems to be no proactive policies to make America better. No public transportation policies. No positive health care initiatives. No bold and forward looking education policies.

Just cut taxes for the rich and shrink government (whatever that means).

Who are these people? What do they want? It is most apparent they want to kill all social programs, kill consumer protection, shrink education, get rid of any programs that serves the nonworking and working poor. Then in turn fund only the military and protect oil, gas, and coal companies. Sucking oil out of the ground is more important than helping single moms and their dependents.

What kind of people are these? Uncaring, self-serving, war and money mongers, psychopaths, narcissistic, and generally people of the military-industrial complex. Just as President Eisenhower warned us.

These are the people who are running congress and the Defense Department as we speak. Is this what we want to run the Whitehouse? People with no interest in your well-being? Wanting to reduce your role as citizen to that of consumer drone. Just buy and use what we tell you and shut up. This is what happened with the G W Bush administration and look what happened. Major recession and an increase in joblessness and homelessness.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Republican Party.

Saving your children's lives is a job killer

One could only conclude that the protectors of the old fashion incandescent light bulb personally must have lots to lose. Losing as in investments in the coal burning electric company. More like losses in coal and hydrocarbon types of dirty generated energy.

As most of us know, the old fashioned incandescent light bulb is to be phased out come January one. The Edison light bulb is to be replaced by a more efficient lesser electricity-consuming bulb. Consuming less energy at least by 25-percent.

However, the coal burning power companies and their Congressional representatives don’t want this to happen. It will cut into profits. Profits made by selling mega watts of electricity. Also cut into profits from the coalmines. All of which seriously pollute the air, water, and ground. Polluted smoke filled air saturated with mercury and other heavy toxic metal particulates.

And it seems that only the Republicans are the defenders of the old style bulb. The bulb, which is more heat than light. Thus drawing more electricity that a more efficient CFL or LED light.

And we can only conclude that the Republicans in Congress are receiving the lion’s share of coal burning power company lobby money. Right? Right!

Republicans have created legislation to stop the energy saving bulbs. Plus encouraging the usage of the old fashioned Edison energy draining bulb. All done by claiming the government is interfering in our lives. More like interfering with the profits of the coalmine and electricity company’s shareholder profits.

So what the Republicans are saying in actuality is they must pollute the air and risk your lives and the lives of your children in order to make a profit. Right? Right! How else could it be? “Inefficiency and Pollution trumps good health. Get over it.”

Ladies and Gentlemen of congress, please step aside, or else.

How long is it going to take the American citizen to realize that the Republican leadership in Congress is the firewall between big business and consumers? They are the obstacle preventing reasonable laws to protect we Americans from establishing fair business practices, clean air legislation, clean water regulations, and just reasonable environmental protection laws. They are the guys who get in the way of common sense.

It doesn’t take a scholarly writer of public policy to see that the Republican leadership in congress is the hired protectors of Wall Street, big banks, big oil, and hydrocarbon purveyors. You can easily read about what congress is perpetrating against the American citizen. Just read the daily newspaper. Read the weekly magazines. Watch the nightly news. It’s all there. It is easy to understand.

Congress does not like anyone or any organization that stands in the way of “Making Business.” Business at the expense of America and its human and natural resources. No matter if good laws benefit the health of American, such rules or regulations will be labeled as Job Killing and vigorously opposed by the Republican Congressional leadership. And if the truth be known, seldom if ever are such laws ever cause jobs to be lost. More like a smoke and mirror mantra from the leadership.

So, it is easy to see that the Republican leadership is bought and paid for by big business, big oil, and big banks. Republicans want the American consumer and citizen to keep their collective noses out of Washington legislation. Congress is the hired “security guards” to keep America at bay. Holding Americans from entering the decision process. Which if you think about it, is totally against the constitutional process. More like Anti-American. Democracy is dammed. Congress is not our friend.

Wake up Americans! Call your congressman or congresswoman and let them know if they can’t protect the general interest of the constituency, then it is the voters duty to get rid of him or her. It is your responsibility as a voter to find somebody else to represent the best interest of your district. Better yet, all of congress needs to be replaced. Swept out. Start afresh with someone who cares about you and your interests. God bless America.

Even Santa Clause has signed a pledge to Grover Norquist.

Since when has our Congress become beholding to Grover Norquist? A man with no elected office. Not even appointed to anything by anybody. Certainly not confirmed by any congressional committee. Just a roving Washington DC jerk.

I thought the congress took an oath to up hold our United States Constitution. Nonetheless, most of congress has mindlessly sworn a pledge to Grover. A freaking lobbyist! The man behind the curtain in the Emerald City. The wizard of Odds.

Dorothy! Look behind the curtain. It’s a trick. A sham. A little weasel pretending to be somebody. But, he is not! Grover is just a oozing oily smelly lobbyist. How disgusting! Get out the hoses!

Never the less, our elected air headed congressmen and women have chosen to follow GN like he is the pied Piper. Leading the naïve and unassuming congress folks down a Yellow Brick road. A road paved with hollow pledges.

Following like Mr. Norquist had a fist full of candy. More like a fist full of cash. Deep pockets filled with unregulated anonymous money from unknown corporations. Secret corporations as allowed by our far right Supreme Court. Remember, corporations are now treated as people. Anonymous and with no limit on their donation amounts. Thanks to Citizens United and the Koch Brothers. They have the freedom of expression and their expressions have unlimited cash flow.

Grover Norquist, the Koch Brother, and Citizens United are the anti-patriots. Anti-American. Traders of the worse kind. Free enterprising terrorist. Malicious enemies of the American people. Appalling individuals beholding only to the quest of raping and devastating the national resources of America.

They are skunks and slithering snakes of the worse kind. Low down and intent on hijacking the Constitution. Holding it hostage until they have the last dollar bill left in America. Real Caca heads all of them for sure.

Was Ronald Reagan a champion of "One Percent?"

This is an excerpt taken from a Rolling Stone article written by Tim Dickinson

Dickinson wrote: The president, mindful of soaring deficits, is pushing bold action to shore up the nation's balance sheet. Cloaking himself in the language of class warfare, he calls on a hostile Congress to end wasteful tax breaks for the rich. We're going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that allow some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share," he thunders to a crowd in Georgia. Such tax loopholes, he adds, "sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary - and that's crazy. Preacherlike, the president draws the crowd into a call-and-response. Do you think the millionaire ought to pay more in taxes than the bus driver," he demands, "or less? The crowd, sounding every bit like the protesters from Occupy Wall Street, roars back: "MORE! The year was 1985. The president was Ronald Wilson Reagan. ILLUSTRATION BY MATT MAHURIN Today's Republican Party may revere Reagan as the patron saint of low taxation. But the party of Reagan - which understood that higher taxes on the rich are sometimes required to cure ruinous deficits - is dead and gone. Instead, the modern GOP has undergone a radical transformation, reorganizing itself around a grotesque proposition: that the wealthy should grow wealthier still, whatever the consequences for the rest of us. Modern-day Republicans have become, quite simply, the Party of the One Percent - the Party of the Rich. The Republican Party has totally abdicated its job in our democracy, which is to act as the guardian of fiscal discipline and responsibility," says David Stockman, who served as budget director under Reagan. They're on an anti-tax jihad - one that benefits the prosperous classes. End of excerpt.
Taken from Dec 3 Stones mag

Too Dirty to Fail, taken from the L A Times

Too dirty to fail'?. House Republicans' assault on our environmental laws must be stopped. By Lisa P. Jackson, Lisa P. Jackson is the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.. Americans must once again stand up for their right to clean air and clean water. Since the beginning of this year, Republicans in the House have averaged roughly a vote every day the chamber has been in session to undermine the Environmental Protection Agency and our nation's environmental laws. They have picked up the pace recently -- just last week they voted to stop the EPA's efforts to limit mercury and other hazardous pollutants from cement plants, boilers and incinerators -- and it appears their campaign will continue for the foreseeable future. Using the economy as cover, and repeating unfounded claims that "regulations kill jobs," they have pushed through an unprecedented rollback of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and our nation's waste-disposal laws, all of which have successfully protected our families for decades. We all remember "too big to fail"; this pseudo jobs plan to protect polluters might well be called "too dirty to fail. The House has voted on provisions that, if they became law, would give big polluters a pass in complying with the standards that more than half of the power plants across the country already meet. The measures would indefinitely delay sensible upgrades to reduce air pollution from industrial boilers located in highly populated areas. And they would remove vital federal water protections, exposing treasured resources such as the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Erie, the Chesapeake Bay and the Los Angeles River to pollution. How we respond to this assault on our environmental and public health protections will mean the difference between sickness and health -- in some cases, life and death -- for hundreds of thousands of citizens. This is not hyperbole. The link between health issues and pollution is irrefutable. Mercury is a neurotoxin that affects brain development in unborn children and young people. Lead has similar effects in our bodies. Soot, composed of particles smaller across than a human hair, is formed when fuels are burned and is a direct cause of premature death. Nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds contribute to the ozone alert days when seniors, asthmatics and others with respiratory problems are at serious risk if they do nothing more dangerous than step outside and breathe the air. Too dirty to fail" tries to convince Americans that they must choose between their health and the economy, a choice that's been proved wrong for the four decades that the EPA has been in existence. No credible economist links our current economic crisis -- or any economic crisis -- to tough clean-air and clean-water standards. A better approach is the president's call for federal agencies to ensure that regulations don't overburden American businesses. The EPA has already put that into effect by repealing or revising several unnecessary rules, while ensuring that essential health protections remain intact. We can put Americans to work retrofitting outdated, dirty plants with updated pollution control technology. There are about 1,100 coal-fired units at about 500 power plants in this country. About half of these units are more than 40 years old, and about three-quarters of them are more than 30 years old. Of these 1,100 units, 44% do not use pollution controls such as scrubbers or catalysts to limit emissions, and they pour unlimited amounts of mercury, lead, arsenic and acid gases into our air. Despite requirements in the bipartisan 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, these facilities have largely refused to control their emissions -- creating an uneven playing field for companies who play by the rules and gaming the system at the expense of our health. If these plants continue to operate without pollution limits, as a legislative wish list from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) would allow, there will be more cases of asthma, respiratory illness and premature deaths -- with no clear path to new jobs. By contrast, the nation's first-ever standards for mercury and other air toxic pollutants which the EPA will finalize this fall -- and which the Republican leadership aims to block -- are estimated to create 31,000 short-term construction jobs and 9,000 long-term jobs in the utility sector through modernizing power plants. And the savings in health benefits are estimated to be up to $140 billion per year by 2016. Contrary to industry lobbying, this overhaul can be accomplished without affecting the reliability of our power grid. Our country has a long tradition of treating environmental and public health protections as nonpartisan matters. It was the case when President Nixon created the EPA and signed into law the historic Clean Air Act, when President Ford signed into law the Safe Drinking Water Act and when President George H.W. Bush oversaw important improvements to the Clean Air Act and enacted the trading program that dramatically reduced acid rain pollution. Our environment affects red states and blue states alike. It is time for House Republicans to stop politicizing our air and water. Let's end "too dirty to fail.

Who are the job killers? Americans out of work. That's who.

When Republicans talk about killing jobs, they are speaking of jobs of little substance. Jobs that pay a marginal amount and short lived. Jobs without benefits. Many jobs that pay minimum wage and only attractive to undocumented workers. All in all jobs no trained or skilled worker would desire. And you can bet your life these jobs would not be alluring to the defenders of such jobs. No self-respecting congressman would ever think of taking such jobs. Oh? Why not?

Americans out of work are looking for steady career jobs. Jobs with health and retirement benefit. Jobs that would require training and skill. Jobs with longevity. Jobs that will carry them through to a reasonable retirement. Jobs that will build a strong middle class. However, those kind of jobs have been sent away. Far away to China, India, Mexico, and other so-called “Off-shore” places. And who sent them there? The same folks who are yammering about killing jobs. Our friendly Republican congressmen and women. Aided with the help of our friendly US Chamber of Commerce. Yes. Are you surprised?

So instead of long-term jobs with long-term benefits, our skilled and willing work force is served up with long-term unemployment. Nonetheless, this is the reward they receive. Pink slips. Termination due to jobs moved off shore. Go flip burgers. Good luck buddy. Have a nice day.

“Job Killer” is just an empty slogan just to distract all of us from the real point. Mostly regulation and rules. Regulations that protect Americans from unnecessary hazardous work. Regulations that protect the air we breathe and the water we drink. Regulations that protect us from bank and loan fraud. Job Killer is just a hollow GOP war cry in order to take back control of the Whitehouse and all of congress. In turn, American workers get meaningless low paying jobs. Mining coal. Building pipelines. Jobs on land and sea oil rigs. All short term contract work. Usually hard and dirty work and with no thanks. Just let go with no unemployment benefit at the end.

Americans didn’t struggle and finish colledg just to serve the interests of Big Oil and Coal owners and their shareholders. That would be the opposet of the American Dream. Quite the reverse for sure. Americans struggled and got training to build America up. Not let it down. American want long term well paying careers. Workers loyal to a company that is loyal to American workers. God bless American workers. God bless America.

Pollution is job killers

There are always two sides to a story. But if we just listen to the pro-pollution conservative, you would think they were fighting a battle against “Regulation Mongers.” Regulation for regulation’s sake. Regulations that is loved and embraced by legislating control freaks. Sometimes known as Liberals.

You would think there is a war against job producing industries. Industries such as coal burning power plants, mounting top exploding coal mining, hydraulic fracturing gas producers, and others. And again, war against businesses that create jobs. Jobs the out of work would like to have.

But wait, it seems regulation are put in place to protect us from ourselves. Jobs that produce hazardous or polluted environments. Polluting ground water. Damaging and polluting nearby streams and animal habitats. Pollution that fills the air with hazardous materials. Mercury and carbon dioxide. Both if ingested or breathed in large quantities could kill people, plant life, and local animals. But to regulate these industries is a job killer. Never mind the byproduct of CO2 and mercury can also be a job killer. Killing the workers themselves and their families.

If you want to talk about job killers, you could make a good case for growing marijuana. Growing marijuana provides many jobs and good money. Why regulate the growing, harvesting, and selling of marijuana? Well, because it is heavily regulated and rightly so.

Never the less, the true conservative could be characterized as pro-smog. Pro-water polluting. Pro-air polluting. And, people killers. From methane polluted ground water to hazardous working conditions for miners. All producing killing situations. The ultimate job killer.

The real motivation behind TEA partying. And it aint Booz.

In a recent issue of the New York Times, Paul Crugman says it’s the extreme politics of the TEA Party that was holding the budget negotiations hostage.  Certainly no new news here.  But anyway, who would know better than the Pulitzer Prize winner economist and NY Times columnist than Mr. Crugman.

So to find more information about the TEA party and its hidden motivation, I found this article and commentary on the net.  The main article was printed in the New Yorker.  Here it is:

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Money Behind the Tea Party

While it's popular fiction to say that the Tea Party is a grass-roots movement (it is neither grass roots nor a movement), it's interesting to see who is behind it. Jane Mayer has a profile in The New Yorker of the billionaire Koch brothers who have been the funds behind the nutsery.

The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests. In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial.” The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Octopus.

In a statement, Koch Industries said that the Greenpeace report “distorts the environmental record of our companies.” And David Koch, in a recent, admiring article about him in New York, protested that the “radical press” had turned his family into “whipping boys,” and had exaggerated its influence on American politics. But Charles Lewis, the founder of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said, “The Kochs are on a whole different level. There’s no one else who has spent this much money. The sheer dimension of it is what sets them apart. They have a pattern of lawbreaking, political manipulation, and obfuscation. I’ve been in Washington since Watergate, and I’ve never seen anything like it. They are the Standard Oil of our times.”  (and the article goes on.  Click on link below to read the rest of the article.)

http://www.barkbarkwoofwoof.com/2010/08/money-behind-tea-party.html

The House of Congress is now a soup kitchen for the rich

The TEA party turned into a soup line. Thanks guys.

Tuesday, August 09, 2011, 7:32:48 PM | Chuck Ayers

So our credit rating has been deflated. Our borrowing power lessened. Our international reputation train wrecked. And, our own self-worth sent to rehab for lengthy psychotherapy. Why? How did this happen?

Standard and Pores reduced our borrowing status down from triple A to double A-plus. In real terms, I really don’t know what this means. Since that was done, lots of shouting and blame has whizzed through the air but not much else. The stock market has had its ups and downs but what else is new?

Never the less, here is my opinion. It certainly all started a few months ago with the question about the debt ceiling. Right? Some members of congress wanted not to raise the debt ceiling. Some refused to raise new taxes. Some insisted allowing the rich to remain on a permanent tax holiday. A small cadre of anti-tax, antigovernment partisans, including the lobbyist Grover Norquist passionately encouraged congress to drown government in a bathtub. Right?

So with this in mind almost any debt was not going to be paid regardless. So the government had to get out it’s international credit card and pay the debt with credit. Take out a loan to pay off what we already owed. Forcing the government to “borrow and spend” once again. Certainly doing what has been the normal practice of international borrowing for the past 30 or 40-years. However, not really the best solution for retiring debt. Right?

What Mr. and Mrs. America would have to do to pay down their debt would be:
1 Cut expenses and stop buying non-essentials and save cash.

2 Sell the house or car. To raise cash

3 Get a second job for additional cash.

But the bottom line is come up with an additional cash stream. More money pays down debt. Paying it down because of obligation to do so. Owning up the debt. Not borrowing more money. Borrowing just makes the debt drag out longer making it also more expensive.

In my opinion the easiest and quickest way to pay down this debt is to raise taxes. Raising taxes on the rich would be okay. I see no problem here. Also cutting huge expenses over at the Department of Defense would work as well. Possibly bringing home from Afghanistan all military personnel. A huge cost saver right there.

All in the entire whole debacle started when the speaker of the house John Boehner bowed down to the TEA partier’s feet. Playing to the TEA partier’s wishes. Totally disregarding the wishes of America. Consequently holding the whole budget process hostage. All for a bunch of wrong-headed congressmen suckling the great lobbyist nipple; Grover Norquist. Indicating where the reelection money comes from. Grover Norquist and the Koch Brothers. A trio of control freaks anti-tax money mongers. “Take from the poor and give to the rich.”

Bottom line, it was the TEA party that brought down government. A few bad men hijacking the American process just for their own monetary benefit. Controlling America’s money and keeping it all for themselves. Now! Remember, it was the TEA party that wrecked our American treasury. Also, don’t forget, we Americans are the government. So stay away from Grover Norquist and bathtubs.

Here's our new life guard, Grover Norquist

Here is our new life guard, Grover Norquist.

Wednesday, August 03, 2011, 6:58:25 AM | Chuck Ayers

The nare do well Grover Norquist has mention he would like to shrink the size of the US Government to a size that could be drowned in a bathtub. Thus eliminating the entire American government. No military. No air traffic control or aircraft inspection. No White House. No bridge repair when bridges collapse. No regulation of broadcasting including what might appear to be offensive to some listeners or viewers. No head start programs. No Medicare. No Social Security. No Coast Guard to protect our shores. No Border Patrol to protect us from drug smugglers. No advanced warning systems to advise of unfriendly incoming aircraft or missiles. No national weather service to forecast inclement weather or hurricanes. No environmental protection. No safety standards for trucks and cars. No money for public schools. No money for police or fire safety personnel. No college education loans. Unemployment would press near fifty percent. And the list would go on and on.

Basically reducing our beloved America to a third world country like Haiti or Somalia. Both of which exist in a very corrupt political system. A system, which favors the very rich and disdains the poor. They have no middle class. We would be either very poor or very rich. And, if you are very rich, you better have a well-paid large army to protect your interest.

Our basic infrastructure would eventually crumble. Clean safe drinking water would become a thing of the past. You would have to collect rainwater for drinking. Our sewer system would stop up and we would have to resort to doing our business in an outhouse. Public health would decline. Life expectancy would drastically fall. Disease and epidemics would be the normal.

All of this and more would be true if Grover Norquist has his way. You can’t separate the government from America. It is one in the same. Drown the government and you drown America. Is this what we want? Tell old Grover to