The SPLC reminds people of Anuzis’ endorsement of a hate group

Former Michigan Republican Chair Saul Anuzis announced last week that he is making a second run to become the Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair to replace clueless Michael Steele, but the Southern Poverty Law Center is reminding people of Anuzis’ past endorsement of a hate group.

The nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry tracks the activities of hate groups and domestic terrorists in the U.S., and one such group it identified as a hate group in 2006 was the Michigan State University campus branch of Young Americans For Freedom (MSU-YAF) and its “leader” right-wing extremist Kyle Bristow, who also served as a Republican precinct delegate.

The MSU-YAF chapter eared its designation as a hate group under Bristow for its 13-point agenda, according to the SPLC, “that would have established a “Caucasian caucus” at MSU and, in turn, eliminated all student government representation for practically every other non-white, non-heterosexual, non-male or non-Christian student group at the university.” The MSU-YAF chapter also “sponsored a “Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day” contest, held a “Koran Desecration” competition, jokingly threatened to distribute smallpox-infested blankets to Native American students, and posted “Gays Spread AIDS” fliers across campus. Bristow’s YAF also brought several extremists to speak at the MSU campus, including Holocaust denier Nick Griffin, leader of the whites-only British National Party.

Despite this over-the-top hate and extremism, Anuzis endorsed Bristow. Anuzis said on a radio program in May 2007, according to the SPLC, the year after MSU-YAF’s more outrageous activities were made public: “I’ve known Kyle for years and I can tell you I have never heard him say a racist or bigoted or sexist thing, ever.”

He must be deaf.

During the past election, Anuzis issued a press release attacking Wayne State University law Professor Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic nominee for Michigan Secretary of State because she was once an investigative journalist at the SPLC, which the release said used “fear and intimidation” in its hate group listings. This was one of many completely false attacks launched against Benson by scared Republicans.

GOP rolls out new talking point to fight health care reform

In the fight to save record profits for health insurance providers, defeat the President politically and ignore the more than 47 million Americans without health care, Republicans have come up with a new, slick talking point: The health care “Experiment.”

People are seeing through the talking point that the government will get between the patient and the doctor; especially when insurance companies routinely dictate what tests and treatment the patient can have. The latest false talking point and fear-mongering tactic the Republicans were pushing was the President’s health care reform plan would outlaw all private medical insurance and that the federal government takes over healthcare. That one, although, blatantly false, is gaming some traction.

On Tuesday, health insurance giant United Health Group Inc. reported a second quarter profit of $859 million, a 155 percent increase from the $337 million earned during the same quarter a year ago. That in despite enrollment falling off. While most companies are losing money, the for profit insurance providers are posting record profits. They are spending more than $1.4 million a day to lobby against reform, and they have Republicans fighting against real reform.

RNC Chair Michael Steele used the “experiment” talking point in almost every sentence at a recent speech on health care. The RNC is even launching TV ads using the word experiment. Steele and Republicans, who didn’t even know who provides his health care, has made defeating the President the number one goal above all else.

The GOP continues to be as predictable as snow in January

Republicans are getting pretty predictable these days, and a couple of hot news stories prove that: the news that U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter has come out of the cold and joined the Democratic Party and the Swine Flu epidemic.

Shortly after the long-time Pennsylvania Senator made the painful, personal decision to leave a party he had spent a lifetime supporting, the attacks from the Republicans began in earnest. Instead of placing the blame where it belongs - for their lack of relevance - they attacked Specter.

Gee, who could have predicted that?

RNC Chair Michael Steele issues a statement to party faithful shortly after the news saying, Specter “…committed a purely political and self-serving act today. He simply believes he has a better chance of saving his political hide and his job as a Democrat.”

The latter part of that statement is true, he does have a better chance of getting elected as a Democrat, but Steele fails to explain why that is. That is the same reason many former loyal Republicans voted for Democrats last November: the hard right turn of the GOP. The fact is party left them, they didn’t leave the party.

Steele gets even further unhinged saying, “Arlen Specter handed Barack Obama and his band of radical leftists nearly absolute power in the United States Senate.” “Radical leftists?” Is he serious?

I have heard some people say – taking a Faux News line – that Democrats shouldn’t be so gleeful because if you look at Specter’s voting record, he is really a Republicans, but he will be just wearing Democrat's clothing.

You might want to tell Steele that because he claims Specter has a “left-wing voting record.” I wish I had a dollar every time Steele used the word “leftist” in his rant. The good news is Democrats have a big tent, and when Sen. Al Franken is finally seated we will have a filibuster proof majority.

Rightwing hatemongers like Ann Coulter-wannabe Michelle Malkin are blaming illegal immigrants for the Swine Flu pandemic, much like the plague was blamed on the Jews. “I've blogged for years about the spread of contagious diseases from around the world into the U.S. as a result of uncontrolled immigration,” Malkin wrote. She ignores, of course, that the biggest group carrying the virus to the U.S. has been a group of prep school students in New York after vesting Mexico.

I wish the weather was this easy to predict.

Another Astroturf “tea party” post-mortem

As the hyped hoopla fades on the Astroturf “tea parties” organized by corporate friendly rightwing Washington, D. C. lobbying groups, a quick post-mortem is in order.

Washington based “Americans for Prosperity” said there would be no elected GOP officials speaking at the Lansing Republican political rally, despite Republicans speaking at rallies all over the nation. It also didn’t stop Wendy Day, extremist rightwing Republican Howell Public School Board Member and founder of the anti-gay hate group known as LOVE (Livingston Organization for Values in Education), from speaking.

It also didn’t stop former GOP state Representative and director of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance Leon Drolet from speaking. Drolet used the event as a fundraising opportunity as did other Republicans. Drolet also is looking for more exposure because he just acknowledged he is a candidate for Michigan Senate in the 11th Senate district in 2010. It’s ironic that a guy who hates government has never held a job outside of government, unless you count this brief stint at MTA hauling around a huge pink fiberglass pig.

Then it’s puzzling that AFP denied the person who represents Lansing in the U.S. House an opportunity to speak, Mike Rogers. Subscription only Gongwer reported that despite his office issuing a press release that very day saying he would speak, Rogers was not allowed to speak to the crowd, and it was reported “he left the event early after being told he would not have an opportunity at the podium.” It did not say if he left in a huff or why he didn’t stay to hear what the other stellar speakers had to say.

Michigan Messenger reporter and photographer Todd Heywood got some excellent photos, including this shot of Rogers at the event.

At the GOP rally in Chicago, organizers turned down RNC Chair Michael Steele's request to speak in a vain atempt to keep up the farce that it was a grassroots effort organized for everyday people.

In November of 2010 this will all be forgotten, and what will be remembered is the GOP’s association with extremist fringe groups like white supremacists and militia groups.

GOP using Astroturf partisan political rally disguised as a “tea party” as a fundraiser

We already knew the April 15 rallies were partisan Republican political affairs with plenty of anti-Obama hate speech thrown in, so it should come as no surprise that right-wingers are using the Astroturf rally organized by Washington, D.C. lobbying groups as a fundraiser.

Former GOP state Representative and head of the so-called “Michigan Taxpayer Alliance (MTA)” Leon Drolet is using the occasion to send out a fundraising email. The MTA is co-sponsoring the Lansing event along with the extreme rightwing Washington, D.C. lobbying group “Americans for Prosperity,” and Drolet is also asking people send a check to his Macomb Township home.

As you may recall, Drolet’s 15 minutes of infamy came in 2007 when he tried to intimidate lawmakers from voting to keep the state government going and avoid further harmful spending cuts when the budget faced a $1.8 million deficit. After much blustering and threats to go after Democrats who did the right and courageous thing and voted to keep government open, he only managed to gather enough signatures to place a recall on the ballot against House Speaker Andy Dillon.

However, it was accomplished with fraud and deceit, out of state money, illegal petition gathers, cash for signatures and illegal campaign contributions. Once it got on the ballot, voters soundly rejected it. Drolet, who has never had a job in the private sector, was seen around Lansing and in districts represented by Democrats hauling a large, model pink pig.

What was the benefit of that sham? According to the pig man:
“Battling to recall the House Speaker wasn't cheap - the Michigan Democratic Party and the Speaker spent well over a million dollars to fight the recall.”

I don’t know if that is true, and since Drolet said it, its suspect. However, is that a reason for people to attend the allegedly nonpartisan Astroturf “tea party?” To send him money to campaign against Democrats?

Then the man who has never had a job in the private sector took his standard shot at government employees that has become a standard GOP refrain.

“Just last week, the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the average public employee is paid $39.25 an hour in salary and benefits - $11.90 an hour more than comparable private-sector citizens. Benefit costs for government workers cost $13.38 an hour compared to $7.98 for private-sector workers. Who is serving who? “

He, of course, provides no reference, but even worse, he is comparing apples to oranges to smear dedicated state employees. Private sector employees include minimum wage, low skilled workers, but most state employees are not entry level, and the majority of them hold college degrees. In fact, if you go to the Michigan Civil Service web site, 80 percent of the jobs listed have this education requirement: “Possession of a bachelor’s degree in any major.”

Not to be out done in taking advantage of the Astroturf, GOP campaign event, RNC Chair Michael Steele sent out his own letter to make some scratch. Steele sent out a mass email urging people to send a tea bag to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and while you are at it, he hopes “you will also take this opportunity to make a secure online contribution of $25, $50, $100, $500 or $1,000 to the RNC today.

The Astroturf and misnamed “tea parties” should be well intended after the way Faux News has been playing it up and doing promo after promo advertising where their “unbiased” hosts will be present. Plus, almost 60 million people voted for Republicans in November, but the good news is almost 70 million voted for President Obama.

No matter how many people and rightwing hate groups show up tomorrow, they will continue to be in the minority. A recent Gallup poll finds that 61 percent of Americans say they regard the income taxes they have to pay this year as fair.

I guess we will see the other 39 percent tomorrow.

New RNC Chair wants to forget about the Bush years

Anyone who has seen new RNC Chair Michael Steele's frequent appearances on the Fox "News" channel know how petty, hostile and dishonest he is, so it was no surprise to see the latest email to the party faithful on the American Recovery and Investment Act.

He quotes President Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel as saying "You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what Imean (sic) by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before." I was sure it was taken it out of context, and I was right. It was hard to find the original quote because I had to wade through thousands of rightwing sites to find the correct quote. The rest of the quote is "What used to be long-term problems, be they in the health care area, energy area, education area — things ... that were long-term are now immediate and must be dealt with."

But the most amazing thing is Steele has forgotten about the last eight years. I understand how the GOP wants to forgot about the last eight years. Hell, I don't blame then, and I want to forget about them too. But he forgot how Bush used the national tragedy of 9/11 to justify almost every single policy they wanted to accomplish; from the so-called Patriot Act and torture to an unnecessary war.

He used the deaths of 3,000 people to sell an unnecessary war to the American people that led to the deaths of more than 4,000 U.S. Servicemen and Woman, and no one knows how many Iraqi civilians.

Then we get this lie from Steele, "They have taken advantage of our nation's present economic woes to ram through Congress the biggest spending bill in American history."

He forgot about the Iraq war again, and that is the "biggest spending bill in American history." When all is said and done, it will cost taxpayers more than $3 trillion. Just think what kind of stimulus that would mean to the United States economy if it was spent in the U.S. That's a far cry from the Bush lie that the Iraq oil money will pay for the war.

He then goes on to attack the President for not being bipartisan; saying: "…who talked so much about a new era of bipartisanship and cooperation on the campaign trail, didn't take long to throw that rhetoric out the window to support Nancy Pelosi's liberal spending spree."

The old proverb that "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink" applies here. The President has tried to involve the Republicans in the process, but they do not want to be part of the solution. I say fine; if they want to continue to be obstructionists, that's fine with me. The American people saw through that during the last election, and that's why Democrats have the majority.

Update: Steele is carrying on the GOP culture of corruption. He is under investigation by the FBI for making more than $37,000 in improper payments to his sister's defunct company from campaigns funds from his failed 2006 Senate campaign. According to the Washington Post, campaign records indicate that $37,262 was paid to Brown Sugar Unlimited covered catering and Web services, but it came 11 months after his sister had legally dissolved the company. The charges came to light after a once-wealthy GOP fundraiser, who was finance chairman for Steele's Senate run, made the claims last year during plea negotiations with the U.S. attorney's office in Maryland after he was charged with orchestrating multimillion-dollar frauds unrelated to the campaign, according to a confidential court document.