Local teabagger appear on Off the Record

One of my favorite TV shows turned into an episode of “The Twilight Zone” today with the appearance of tea-bagger, book-burner and anti-gay hatemonger Wendy Day.

Day appeared as a guest on the long-running weekly Michigan PBS political show "Off the Record.” The show must be scraping the bottom of the barrel for guests. Day craves the spotlight more than anything else, and although the show has a small audience with political junkies like me, it was just more exposure for the divisive Howell School Board member.

Host and long-time Capitol Correspondent Tim Skubick usually asks tough questions, but Day got nothing but softballs. Day has a long history of supporting rightwing hate and extremist groups that gained her national attention, but she really took advantage of the racist anti-government Astroturf “tea party” movement that sprang up last year that attracted some extremist right wing groups to get even more attention.

With health care reform so close to becoming a reality, a couple of rightwing extremist Washington, D.C. lobbying firms helped organize the “tea parties” and spread the more that $1.4 million a day the insurance companies are spending to defeat it.

She is billing herself as the president of another misnamed “tea party” group called “Common Sense in Government.” It apparently follows the Bush Administration’s practice of naming things the opposite of what they really do, like the Clean Skies Initiative, the Healthy Forest Initiative and No Child Left Behind.

Apparently, Day wants to re-fight the American Civil War and turn back the clock with the “state’s rights” farce that the southern states used in order to maintain the institution of slavery.

“Our beef is government has too much focus and control over the individual lives of Americans, and that the federal government has more power than they are supposed to,” she said. “What you are looking at is a state’s rights issue.”

The only half way hard question was asked by panelist Chris Christoff from the Detroit Free Press’s Lansing Bureau, who asked her how large the state budget was, and she had no idea.

“If it’s in the phone book, government should probably not do it,” Day answered.

For someone who says they want the federal government to adhere to the U.S. Constitution, Day’s support for a part-time U.S. Congress is even more hare-brained.

She claims her teabag group is bipartisan, and her group is currently behind robo calls against Democrats. Day also said her hate group plans to form a political action committee (PAC); no doubt funded with the massive amounts of cash from the insurance industry, former U.S. House Majority Leader and rightwing Republican Dick Armey’s Freedom Works and the Washington, D.C.-based rightwing think tank Americans for Prosperity.

Health care reform rally set for Saturday in Oakland County

Health Care Now 9th District in Oakland County is sponsoring a rally for health care reform at 11 a.m. Saturday Aug. 22 in Birmingham, across from Border's bookstore.

We are aware of the highly organized “tea baggers” and “birthers” stirred up by outrageous lies from the rightwing Washington, D.C. lobbyists groups and think tanks Americans for Prosperity” and “Freedom Works” – the same people behind the fake, Astroturf “tea parties – that have been hijacking Democratic townhall meetings and shouting down the Congressman and anyone who disagrees with them. This is a chance to join in the fight of our lives, and rightwing extremists have been fighting health care reform since 1961 with the introduction of popular Medicare.

Bring your friends, family and neighbors, and don’t forget your signs.

The rightwing blogs have been abuzz about Service Employees International Union (SEIU) allegedly busing in 100 members to a health care rally in Jackson near the office of U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek. They made the explosive charge that there were “…rented vans and encouraged people to carpool to the event.” They use the usual “thug” labels for middle class working people who dared to band together to get a better shake from their employer, and they are even going as far as to steal the name “Astroturf.”.

I don’t see any union members or health care reform supporters trying to shout anyone down, and it was certainly not scripted by the insurance lobby like the Astroturf Townhall meetings are.

Oh my God, liberals and environmentalists car pooling to an event to show support for Schauer? Who would have thought that would happen? Working people rallying for health care reform when health care premiums for family plans have increased 78 percent in Michigan since 2000? Somebody better alert the corporate, conservative media. Stop the presses; I’ve wanted to say that since the first time I saw by byline in print.

Wow, this is their smoking gun? “…Rented vans and encouraged people to carpool to the event.” Wow. I’m stunned. I guess that dispels those polls that say 70 percent of Americans want health care reform is bunk, or that that the overwhelming victory in November when health care reform was a campaign issue was a fluke. Union members – regular working middle class people, not thugs – want health care reform, and it’s their union dues that paid for the van, if that story is true. It wasn’t money from the $1.4 million a day the insurance lobby is spending to kill real reform through rightwing lobbying groups like “Americans for Prosperity” and “Freedom Works.”

If this fails, the health insurance companies will continue to line their pockets at the expense of good medical care for the middle class, and if this passes, the majority of the 50 million U.S. citizens with no access to health care will be covered. The right is complaining about working people pooling their money to get out and fight back against misinformation, showing their support for a cause they have been fighting to gain for the past 50 years and to stop the shouting down of Democratic Congressman? Just sad.

What the right is really mad about is we are finally starting to fight back against their disgusting and disruptive tactics.

Mobs continue to disrupt townhalls

The weekend political talk shows were filled with talk of health care reform and the extremist right-wingers stirred up by the health insurance lobby to disrupt townhall meetings.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews took a rightwing tool from one of the rightwing Washington, D.C. lobbying groups feeding tea at baggers lie to task. Matthews asked some great and tough questions, like when they chant “just say no” to disrupt a townhall meetings what exactly are they saying no to?

Are they saying no to covering people with pre-existing conditions like for-profit insurance providers routinely fail to do? Are they saying no to portability so people can take their health care with them when they change jobs, lose their jobs or start their own business?

Another amazing thing is how can so-called “freedomworks” be a nonprofit and nonpartisan? Even though Matthews is not a journalist, real journalists should take a lesson and actually ask some tough questions for a change. Everyone says we need - at least 75 percent do - to reform health care, but only the Democrats have a proposal, and all the Republicans can do is say no.

The attempt at health care reform has been around since the Truman Administration. We have had six GOP Administrations since; including when Bush controlled all levers of government, and we still have no health care reform.

The only thing Republicans want to do is stop President Obama at any cost.

I watched one show where some guy from the rightwing Weekly Standard said Democrats came out winners because of the townhall hijackings, but his reason makes no sense. I agree we came out ahead after the American people saw what these extremists are rally like, but his reason is way off.

He claims Democrats came out winners because it changed the subject and people were talking about the thuggery and not the contents of the bill. Say what?

Democrats want to talk about the contents of the bill, but the tea baggers will not allow it. He said opponents of reform are more passionate. I agree with that.

If someone told me there would be a “death panel” to decide if senior citizens would live or die I would be riled up, too. The problem with that is that is an outrageous lie, and I’m amazed anyone could actually believe that lie. So, what they have done is whip up a disruptive mob with lies, and now they are using the fact people are calling a mob what it really is as a fundraising gimmick.

No one has ever said these tea baggers were paid to disrupt the meeting. The fact is they are being manipulated with lies from the insurance lobby spending $1.4 million a day. Saying this is a nonpartisan grassroots effort is another lie.

We need to get our people out to these townhall meetings, and if there is violence people need to remember it wasn’t us that tried to shout anyone down.

I wonder when my Congressman, Mike Rogers, is going to hold a townhall meeting.