Teabggers want to shut the government down while trying to blame Democrats

U.S. House Republicans, egged on by their masters the teabggers, are refusing to comprise on the current budget and are angling for the first government shutdown in 15 years as of midnight tonight while trying to blame the Democrats for it.

Congressional leaders are negotiating around-the-clock negotiations, but clearly Republicans are not negotiating in good faith. Republicans are insistent in including pie-in-the-sky policy provisions in a budget agreement, known as riders that would strip funding for Planned Parenthood and neutering the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

There is little doubt Republicans want a government shutdown no matter who it hurts, and their masters, the small minority known as the teabaggers, are urging them not to compromise. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., has repeatedly said “shut it down” while in the same breath trying to blame Democrats.

Pence and other rightwing Republicans spoke before a small rally of teabagges on Thursday where teabaggers were chanting “shut it down,” yet they are still going to try and blame Democrats for the shutdown.

Besides the ridiculous, unrealistic and harmful policy riders the Republicans want in a budget bill, it is less than 1 percent of the budget that is being haggled here. It’s as if they don’t really want to reach compromise.

That’s what you get when you put people in charge of something they hate. Compromise is what created this country, but Republicans refuse to do it. Actually, their masters, teabaggers, refuse to let them.

Original teabagger emerges to challenge the first ever teabagger in the 7th District

What Republicans are calling the “fake tea party” that collected eng signatures to actually place candidates on the ballot last summer is actually going to spawn a candidate for next month election.

Republicans have claimed fraud was used to get it on the ballot. I don’t know if that’s true or not, and an investigation is on-going. But I can guarantee that with the most partisan Secretary of State ever, if a Democrat was involved in any fraud they will be prosecuted to the max.

The Tea Party had submitted 59,535 petition signatures, and based on sampling, the state found the group had 45,150 valid signatures, well above the 38,013 signatures required by law. But the two actitivist Republicans on the state Board of Canvassers – which is only charged by law to verify the signatures, not how they were collected; and nothing else – voted not to certify the petitions.

What the effort did; legal or not, was to expose what most people already knew: that this was not a nonpartisan, grassroots effort that was neither Republican nor Democratic, and that teabggers are just the same old Republican Party moving to extreme right side of the road. It also proved that the crap teabggers are spouting cannot stand up to voter scrutiny or stand on its own two feet.

But subscription only MIRS is reporting that one of the original Tea Party nominees, Dan Davis of good old of Riga in Lenawee County, is running as a write-in candidate in the 7th Congressional District.

Davis is and has also been a strong Republican.

According to MIRS, “Davis said he is running as a conservative and his platform is reducing the size of government, cutting taxes, having transparent government and increasing production of energy through America's "vast resources" to include coal, oil and natural gas. “

He blamed Republicans for kicking the Tea Party off the ballot.

“No party should have the right to deny others a voice,” Davis told MIRS. “Nearly 60,000 Michigan registered voters signed the TEA Party petition. They and many others have in effect been told by Republicans that their voice is not relevant.”

According to his bio, Davis was a former City of Monroe Police Officer, and he is a security manager and consultant.

Senate candidates in battleground districts pick up endorsements

It was good news to see two of state Senate candidates I have spent lots of weekend afternoons canvassing for pick up endorsements from the Deputy Sheriffs' Association of Michigan (DSAM); Kathleen Law, D-Gibraltar, in the 7th district; and Paula Zelenko, D-Burton, in the 26th district.

Unfortunately, they also endorsed 16 Senate Republicans, but no one is prefect.

Law is research scientist in alternative energy; working that field for 22 years. She was also the former Mayor pro tem in Gibraltar and a State Representative from 2003-2008.

She has been running a very positive and active person-to-person campaign, and I can personally attest to that. She is facing one of the very few teabgger Republican candidates to make a through the primary, as well as former Republican Sate Representative John Stewart running as an independent and two other third party candidates. No, not that Jon Stewart; the spelling is, obviously different or I would vote for him.

Like all teabaggers, he has some extreme positions, like killing Medicare and Social Security.

Law has stayed above the fray, focusing on meeting individual voters, but Stewart and the teabagger Republican, Patrick Colbeck, have been bringing out the dirt. According to the Observer and Eccentric, at a recent debate, “Stewart criticized Colbeck’s voting record, saying Colbeck has failed to vote in numerous elections. Stewart, in an apparent swipe at the Tea Party, also called “despicable” the political rallies, such as one in Plymouth’s Kellogg Park, in which people carried signs offensive toward President Barack Obama.”

He is 100 percent correct. Colbeck has only voted in the general election since 1998, when he voted in a primary. Not in a local election or any other. I assume he voted for himself in August. It always amazes me that candidates can ask for your vote, but they can’t be bothered to vote themselves.

My former boss at the News Herald, Karl Ziomek, wrote a recent column on a debate held at the Southern Wayne County Regional Chamber’s legislative forum on Monday where Colbeck falsely accused his opponents of lying. This guy already has a problem stretching the truth, and he was busted for it by the Michigan Truth Squad.

“…He then accused Law and Stewart of lying about him. He said Stewart lied about his campaign donors and that Law’s campaign lied with what it said about what he was going to do to things like Medicare.”

Zelenko is a former State Representative from Burton who served three terms in the State House and is currently a member of the Burton City Council. During her time in the House, she served as chair of the Governor's Task Force on Long Term Care, and fought for better protections for vulnerable senior citizens.

Zelenko, like all Democrats, is fighting against a huge influx of unregulated corporate cash from no one knows where or from who. Her opponent, who just happens to oppose legislation to prevent outsourcing, has blanketed the district with expensive mailings – even TV commercials - at a rate of 10-1 to Zelenko, including, according to subscription only Gongwer, a false piece painting Zelenko as “soft on illegal immigration.” Zelenko’s opponent has also commissioned some very nasty and false robocalls against her including one falsely attacking her record on government spending saying, "she's like a pig at the trough,” according to Gongwer.

It’s tough to fight against all that big money, but it just makes me pick up of door knocking.

Teabagger candidates take refusing to talk to the press to new heights

It’s pretty sad that federal Republican teabagger candidates refuse to take to the press; instead taking the advice of queen teabgger Sarah Palin and “talking through Faux News,” but fellow Alaskan teabgger Senate candidate Joe Miller took it a step further and arrested and handcuffed a member of the conservative mainstream media.

Palin, Miller, Sharon Angle and Jan Brewer in Nevada, Christine O'Donnell in Delaware and Rand Paul in Kentucky are staying away from real media in favor of the propaganda arm of the GOP, but they are even avoiding some hosts on faux in favor of more friendly interviewers like sean haity as they run away from their previous extremists positions for the General Election, such as killing Social Security and Medicare and privatizing the VA.

Even U.S. Rep. John Dingell’s opponent is running away from his primary election position on Social Security and Medicare, even though it is in print for everyone to see.

But Miller takes the cake. Alaska Dispatch staffer Tony Hopfinger dared to ask Miller about his record as attorney for the Fairbanks North Star Borough. According to published reports, Miller said last week he would no longer talk about his personal background. Miller was disciplined for violating the municipality’s ethics policy in 2008 when he was a part-time borough attorney. Miller used borough computers for political purposes in 2008 when he organized a failed effort to oust state Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich.

Apparently, Miller thinks his conduct as a public official is his “personal background.”

As a former reporter for more than a decade, I can tell you reporters are treated with a little more respect because what they say or write reaches so many people. If a reporter gets treated so badly, you can just imagine how badly a constituent will get treated. Why does a Senate candidate even need private security? I have seen Michigan Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow show up at events alone and at most with a staffer. Considering how hateful and violent some teabaggers are it appears they have more guts than Miller.

There is no doubt that the teabggers are dragging the Republican Party off the cliff, and every reasonable or moderate Republican that wants to clean up the mess left by Bush is drummed out of the party.

It’s telling that every single Michigan Republican statewide candidate but GOP Gubernatorial candidate Rick “The Chief Executive Outsourcer (CEO)” Snyder appeared at another teabagger rally on Saturday in Livonia; including the candidates for Attorney General, Supreme Court, Secretary of State and the candidates opposing Dingell and U.S. Reps. Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek, and Gary Peters, D-Bloomfied Township.

Another corporate and GOP lobbying firm sponsored teabagger bus tour was launched by Palin on Monday, and it will only stop in places where Republicans have a chance to take Democratic seats, including the districts of Schauer and Peters here in Michigan.

Do you remember the days not so long ago when teabaggers claimed that the “movement” was nonpartisan and “not about Democrats or Republicans?” So long ago; almost two years.

If you need further evidence of the radical extremist direction of the GOP, we have the words of Palin at the event.

“Heaven forbid the GOP machine strays from this message," said the unsuccessful Republican vice presidential candidate. “If so, the GOP is through."

On that, I agree with Palin.

The fake outrage from teabaggers is simply ludicrous

Teabaggers never cease to amaze me. Now, they are offended - offended mind you -because Democrats are calling the Astroturf teabaggers the name they first attached to themselves.

The Republican noise machine is revved up and is angry that U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield, used the term teabaggers. The fake outrage is just hilarious.

Apparently, Peters simply called a member of militant branch of the Republican Party what they first called, themselves, and on one rightwing blog he is jackass for calling his crooked opponent and career politician, Andrew Raczkowski, a teabagger, which is exactly what he is. On wrong Michigan this guy is under the false assumption that teabagging is a homosexual act. Simply not true.

According to one blog on the Detroit News, “the two candidates for the 9th district congressional seat appeared together at an event held by the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority at the Bloomfield Township Library on Sept. 19,” and Peters spoke the truth and called Raczkowski what he is and what extreme Republicans have been calling themselves until they found out what it meant, teabaggers.

He claims:

“The term is particularly offensive to women, and two Michigan tea party officers -- both women -- were furious upon hearing of Peters' use of the term.”

What pure BS. Talk about made up fake outrage. How can something that is not organized have officers?

“Wendy Day, founder of Common Sense in Government and also an active tea party organizer, said that "for a U.S. congressman to show such poor judgment shows his lack of character." “

Are you kidding? This from a woman who is a founding member of an anti-gay hate group called the LOVE (Livingston Organization for Values in Education) PAC that tried to ban books?

The fake outrage from a teabagger named Janice Daniels is even more out there. She “gasped when she heard the term.” Are you kidding; she gasped?

When did she gasp? When she first heard a teabgger use it first way back when this fake, Astroturf farce began last year?

But it gets even more ridiculous.

Daniels decried the use of the "offensive term" at "a time when we need the conversation in the public arena raised to a higher level."

Are you kidding me? Apparently, she has never been to a “tea party” where the President was called everything under the sun, or to a townhall meeting in the summer of 2009 when teabaggers disrupted the townhall meetings of Democratic politicians and shouted down anyone who disagreed with them or wanted to hear what the Representative or Senator actually had to say.

Republican hypocrisy is on display with Board of Canvassers vote

The two activist Republican members of the State Board of Canvassers refused to vote to certify the petitions of the Tea Party and place its candidates on the November ballot, resulting in a 2-2 deadlock and sending it to the courts.

The Tea Party had submitted 59,535 petition signatures, and based on sampling, the state found the group had 45,150 valid signatures, well above the 38,013 signatures required by law. The board of canvassers was only charged by law to verify the signatures, not how they were collected; and nothing else.

The fake, Astroturf teabaggers have always claimed this was a nonpartisan, grassroots effort that was neither Republican nor Democratic, and teabaggers are claiming this petition drive was an effort by Democrats to place the “tea party” on the ballot and drain off Republican votes.

That may or may not be true, and I could care less if they are on the ballot or not. However, it has proved that the teabagger farce is just the militant arm of the Republican Party that was bought and paid for by a pair of rightwing, Washington, D.C. think tanks and lobby firms, and not some nonpartisan, grassroots movement consisting of both Republicans and Democrats.

That’s what I and others have been saying since this farce began last year.
This vote by the two board members just displays the hypocrisy of the Republicans. A similar situation occurred in 2006 when fraud and deception were used to place Proposal 2 on the ballot that banned affirmative action programs based on race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin.

Despite widespread allegations of fraud, no other body or office in the state was allowed to look into the fraud committed, In fact, Republicans went out of his way to take powers away from the state Board of Canvassers because they were concerned with the fraud committed.

The Board off Canvassers also voted 2-2 in 2006 to deny putting it on the ballot, but after court challenges, both state and federal courts ruled the board of canvassers did not have the ability to deny ballot access based on how signatures were collected or fraud was used to collect them.

That ruling should have prevailed today.

Republicans finally admitting teabaggers are strictly a GOP operation

It’s nice to see teabaggers finally admitting that the farce is just the militant arm of the Republican Party that was bought and paid for by rightwing Washington, D.C. think tanks, and not some nonpartisan, grassroots movement consisting of both Republicans and Democrats because they were angry at both political parties and big government.

The successful petition drive that collected some 60,000 signatures to give the “tea party” ballot status has led rightwing bloggers to put on their alleged investigative journalist hats on, and they have soused out that the petition drive may have ties to Democrats. If the teabaggera are a “nonpartisan, grassroots movement consisting of both Republicans and Democrats because they were angry at both political parties and big government” what does that matter?

The answer is because it isn’t. One blogger is calling it the Bullshit Tea party (BSTP), but the fact is that name fits the entire movement.

The organizers held a convention over the weekend and nominated actual candidates. Apparently, several of the affidavits of identity filed by candidates for the new party were notarized by Jason H. Bauer of Oakland County. Jason Bauer is also the name of the political director for the Oakland County Democratic Party. Not only that, some of the candidates donated to Democrats like Andy Dillon.

Some smoking gun.

But Subscription only Gongwewr is reporting at least one candidate is legitimate, Dan Davis, running for the 7th U.S. House District

“Mr. Davis was known to tea party activists and actually had been campaigning for months with the intention of running as an independent. He also has a website.
"I've typically voted Republican most of my life, but I was frustrated and thought we were getting played back and forth by both parties in this two-party system," he said Wednesday.
Mr. Davis said Tea Party Chair Mark Steffek approached him about running. He said he assumed Mr. Steffek knew of him from his independent bid. Mr. Davis said he has seen nothing to suggest The Tea Party is a Democratic conspiracy to siphon conservative voters away from Republican candidates.
And he took some digs at the Republican establishment for fuming at what they say is a Democratic conspiracy.
"They're concerned about putting their candidates in office," he said. "The Republicans have absolutely no right to my vote or any other conservatives' vote."

Clearly, teabaggers are a Republican ginned up operation, thought up and organized by the Washington, DC-based, rightwing think tank Freedom Works, chaired by former U.S. House Majority Leader and rightwing Republican Dick Armey, and the Washington, D.C.-based rightwing think tank Americans for Prosperity.
They will never be a real party because political parties stand for something, and teabaggers don’t; other than hate, racism, anti-government rhetoric and they hate the President. The only grassroots effort has been put forth by the collection of white supremacists groups, militia groups and secessionist groups.

I thought teabaggers on the ballot would drain away Republican votes and help Democrats, but I’m not so sure anymore. Most people vote straight party or for people they know. This collection of candidates will make little difference because people are seeing what a fringe crazy group teabaggers really are, and most of these candidates are unknowns.

Teabagger Congressional candidate advocates armed revolution against the U.S. government

If you want to see how really deranged teabaggers are, you just need to watch a political ad by Rick Barber, one of two Republican candidates for the U.S. Congressional seat held by U.S. Rep. Bobby Bright, D-Alabama, where Barber advocates armed revolution against the U.S. government.

In the ridiculous ad, an unhinged Barberm a teabager, tells some actors dressed as some of the Founding Fathers, "And I would impeach him." It’s not clear who he is talking about.

The ad goes on with Barber sitting at a table in an empty bar saying "and if that's not enough - some of your men own taverns. Sam - I assume he means Sam Adams, but I didn’t know he was on a first name basis with one of the architects of the principles of American republicanism - you were a brewer, Mr. President, a distiller. You know how tough it is to run a small business without a tyrannical government on your back."

He then goes on to rail against the evil IRS.

The ad goes on with Barber saying, "Now I took an oath to defend that with my life," jabbing his finger on a copy of the Constitution sitting on the table. "And I can't stand by while these evils are perpetrated."

"You gentlemen revolted over a Tea tax - a Tea Tax!" he shouts at the Founding Fathers. "Now look at us." The camera then zooms in on the actor playing Washington, his chin resting in his hand in a moment of contemplation. "Are you with me?" Barber asks.

Someone should tell him the Revolutionary War was fought over taxation without representation, which we obviously have or Barber would not be able to run for office.

The camera cuts to a tight shot of the actor playing Washington with a look of disgust and anger on his face, speaking slowly and deliberately with a clinched jaw he replies: "Gather your armies."

Now, this is either Barber advocating treason or an endorsement by President George Washington.

The ad continues to try and re-write history. David Weigel of the Washington Post reports that "President Washington presided over, and approved, the first tax levied by the federal government -- the 1791 whiskey tax." "When the tax met resistance, he approved the assembling of militias to enforce the law and mobilization of agents to collect the revenue." Not only that, in 1756 the Boston Town Meeting elected Adams to the post of tax collector.

This is clearly Barber’s 15 minutes of fame. Earlier this month he forced a runoff in the GOP primary, despite only winning about 28 percent of the vote against the other GOP candidate, Martha Roby, who did not get the 50 percent necessary to avoid a July 13th runoff.

He was on Dylan Ratigan’s show on MSNBC today with a smug look, and he quickly backtracked on the ad, saying “It’s not a call to arms it’s a call to action.” That was for the sane and moderate Republicans, but the teabaggers got it.

Publicity hounds get more ink with petition fairy tale

Howell Public School Board Member and noted teabagger Wendy Day and anti-union activist and Republican House staffer Chet Zarko are together again; teaming up on something they hold very dear: getting their names in print and attacking Democrats with false information.

The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus accommodated them, again, with a front page story on Sunday on the old, false story that the Michigan Democratic Party and a signature collecting firm called “Progressive Campaigns Inc. (PCI)” has been hired to collect signatures to give ballot access to a "Tea Party" party that would drain votes away from Republican candidates.” To really scare people, he is claiming GOP boogieman George Soros is funding it.

Day is behind the petition drive to deny health care access to thousands of Michigan residents, and she say claims if she doesn’t know about the effort to make the teabaggers a third political party, it can’t be happening.

This alleged petition drive to make the teabaggers a real political party seems like just one more publicity stunt to give a fringe group even more publicity.

The teabaggers will never be a political party for so many reasons. First, political parties represent a view, but teabaggers simply do not stand for anything. Teabaggers are simply the extreme wing of the Republican Party that has already taken a huge veer to the right.It would be like the GOP starting a third party.

But most importantly, this petition drive will never happen, no matter how much money self-made billionaire George Soros spends.

Like I said earlier this month when Zarko spun this fairy tale, the hurdle for a minor political party, like the Green Party or the Libertarian Party, to get on the ballot here in Michigan is very high. They must first file as a new political party around for many years. The party must collect petition signatures equal to 1 percent of the votes cast for the governor. That comes out to 38,013 signatures. If they are paying $1 per signature, as Zarko claims, that’s a lot of cash to be paying for no effect during the start of the campaign season.

Even if by some strange twist this alleged petition drive actually occurred, where are the candidates? Recruiting good Democratic candidates to run for office here in predominantly Republican Livingston County is tough because the odds are against them. How hard would it be to recruit a teabagger candidate with even higher odds?

Even if that miracle occurred and the petition drive were successful, they will never meet the deadline to get on the November ballot. To get on the ballot, the minor party must have ballot status in Michigan. Then, any candidate must receive nomination to the office they want to run for at the party’s nominating convention that must be held no later than August 3, 2010 to be on the November ballot. Does Zarko and the right-wing think that could really happen?

The hurdles to ballot status by August are huge. The party has to obtain a facility to hold a convention, publish a call to the convention, draw up bylaws, transmit the that Information to the Secretary of State and accomplish the hundreds of details that goes along with a convention.

Do people really think an impostor can accomplish all of these things in less than three months? I’m surprised no one from the conservative mainstream media has pointed that out.

Zarko and Day first teamed up back - although Zarko denies it - in 2007 when Zarko went on a fishing expedition and submitted a Freedom of Information (FOIA) to find dirt to embarrass the Howell teacher’s union with. He falsely accused the HEA of abusing taxpayer-funded resources to promote union causes, but the district said the union had a recognized right to use the computers and email. With the help of deep-pocketed anti-union think tank, Zarko has managed too keep his name in print and he sued to get the emails. However, the Michigan Court of Appeals slapped him down in January.

With the backing of the anti--union forces he has filed an appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.

The Kenyan Embassy throwing a real tea party

In a brilliant marketing move, the Kenyan government is taking advantage of the non-stop coverage of extremist Republican teabaggers in the mainstream conservative media to promote their number one export, tea.

The Kenyan Embassy in Washington, D.C. is hosting a "Real Tea Party" in the Capitol on Tuesday to promote the country's status as the world's number one exporter of tea. The invitation to dignitaries says, "The Government of Kenya, the world's #1 tea exporter, cordially invites you to a proper Kenyan Tea Party on Capitol Hill (one without a political agenda)," the invitation boasts. "Please join Kenyan Deputy Prime Minister, the Honorable Uhuru Kenyatta, at Kenya's tea tasting event, complete with food pairings and tea leaf readings."

Now, tea baggers are, of course, angry over this smart marketing move, and they claim they are being mocked and the Kenyan government knows nothing about U.S. history and tea parties. The obvious answer is neither do teabaggers.

What makes this even more ironic is that many teabaggers are so-called “birthers” who believe President Obama was actually born in Kenya - despite slam dunk evidence to the contrary - and therefore not eligible to be president.

However, Kenya is proud of the fact that the President’s biological father was born in Kenya and was a Kenyan senior governmental economist after graduating from the University of Hawaii.

Teabaggers protest taxes while spending tax dollars

Today is tax day, and in addition to procrastinators like me getting their federal tax returns in the mail, Republican tabaggers will be also holding fake, Astroturf “tea parties” all over the country.

April 15 has traditionally been a day to protest against taxes, but the teabagger arm of the Republican Party has used it as a campaign tool. The real irony is as they allegedly protest against taxes and government spending, they are doing it at places paid for by taxes and costing tax-payer dollars to do it. The real reason the protests are going on is because they hate President Obama and Republicans hate losing.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting that a November “tea party” featuring batshit crazy Michele Bachmann, R-Minn, Tom Price, R- Ga., Todd Akin, R-Ms, and Steve King, R- IA, cost taxpayers nearly $14,000. Bachmann and the three other lawmakers split the cost for a private company to arrange staging and a sound system, using their official congressional member allowances.

Technically, the money fell within congressional rules, so long as it was not campaign-related. However, it was clearly a partisan campaign event. That cost also does not include the cost of security, clean up and damage the teabaggers cause.

In Michigan, officials in Macomb County’s Clinton Township are upset that teabaggers lied when reserving public property for a campaign event, and they also caused damage to township property that must be repaired with tax money.

So, when you witness one of these hate fests with their racist signs and Republican elected officials as featured speakers, remember, it was the tax dollars that paid for the roads to get to the public places where they are holding the Astroturf farces.

Rally will celebrate the middle class tax cut

When the Republican teabaggers rally on Thursday on the day federal income tax returns are due to throw another, fake Astroturf teabagger party to spread hate and misinformation, a group of people who understand that the role of government is to protect and empower its citizens will also be gathering in Ann Arbor to celebrate President Obama’s middle class tax cut.

The celebration will take place from 6-8 p.m. Thursday April 15 in the middle of the diag near the main entrance to the graduate library at the University of Michigan campus.

This will truly be a spontaneous grassroots gathering, unlike the teabagger rallies because the teabaggers are backed by a pair of Washington, D.C. lobbying firms financed by millions of dollars from the insurance industry and promoted by the conservative media.

Apparently, the teabaggers also plan to spread misinformation and their trademark racist signs at the same time and place.

Proposed diversity group will give hatemongers something to rally them

There may be something forming in Howell Public Schools that may divert the HPS school board member and head teabagger Wendy Day from her petition drive to deny life-saving health care insurance to millions of Michigan residents.

The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus is reporting that a small group of administrators, teachers and students is forming a diversity group at Howell High School with the mission of promoting diversity within the district.

Apparently, they participated in a U.S. Department of Justice diversity program last fall.“The group's goal is for the entire district — and its image to those outside the county — to become focused on an environment that respects all people, regardless of race,ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and other differences that traditionally separate people.”

That decision to include “sexual orientation” may draw the attention of Day and other like-minded bigots.

Apparently, “the U.S. Department of Justice and Howell Public Schools came together this school year in response to an April incident in which two students were suspended for using school computers to create an Internet hate group” on Facebook. The group “included 30-plus members, most of whom were Howell High School students. The group's Web page displayed racial slurs and a picture of the Confederate flag.”

Livingston County has a history of intolerance and racism, primarily because former Klan Grand Dragon Robert E. Miles lived in Cohoctah Township, just outside of Howell, until he died in 1992. That perceived racism has been reinforced with things like the appearance of hatemongers like Ann Coulter and the popularity of Astroturf “tea parties” in the county.

It was diversity that plagued the county with Day and brought her to prominence. Day is a founding member of a defunct anti-gay hate group called the LOVE (Livingston Organization for Values in Education) PAC that sprang up in the spring of 2006 in response to a diversity flag they mistakenly claimed was a gay pride flag that “promotes and endorses homosexuality.” The so-called “LOVE group claims it wanted to bring traditional values back to the schools, but their traditional values turned out to be code words for intolerance, discrimination and fear.

The group bit off more than it could chew when it tried unsuccessfully to ban books, but it did get Day elected to the school board.

It remains to be seen if this will draw the same attention as the diversity flag.

HC petition drive kickoff turns out to be another Republican tea party

The kickoff of a petition drive Monday night to stop 32 million Americans with no health care insurance from getting it and place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to exempt Michigan from the historic health insurance reform law signed into law by President Obama last week was little more than a “tea party.”

Howell School Board member and head teabagger Wendy Day led the event at the Howell Freshman Campus cafeteria, and it was little more than the typical rhetoric bashing Democrats and the president we have seen at the racist, Astroturf “tea parties.“ the only thing missing was the racist signs.

“Some people say Obama broke his oath of office to protect the Constitution,” Day said. “This is a peaceful way for people to express their frustration.”

Day is the treasurer of the ballot committee called "Michigan Citizens for Healthcare Freedom.”

Constitutional Amendments require the valid signatures of registered voters equal to 10 percent of the total number of votes cast for all candidates for governor in the last election, and that comes out to the signatures of 380,126 registered voters just to place it on the ballot. They have to turn those signatures into the Secretary of State no later than July 5.

“This petition has been legally vetted by the Goldwater Institute,” Day said. “It has been preliminary approved by the (Michigan State) Board of Canvassers.”

I doubt that statement is true, and the board has not approved the language. Every signature should be challenged on that basis alone.

I missed the first hour of the partisan campaign event because I had to work, and I was only able to catch the last 45 minutes. Day took questions from the approximately 150 people, but most of it was just the usual rhetoric and lies we have heard in the past. Day said the best place to get signatures was at Republican events, like a “tea party.”

“Go to one tea party; go to two,” she said.” We can get plenty of signatures. The tea party express is coming through.”

If you needed any more proof that this was a partisan Republican event, you just needed to see the Republican politicians in attendance. Most of them are running for office, and I lost respect for some I once had respect for, despite our political differences.

Those I personally saw were Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, - who is running for U.S. Congress in the seat vacated by “Twitter” Pete Hoekstra and who introduced the amendment under discussion that was rejected in the Republican controlled Senate - Rep. Bill Rogers, R-Brighton; Rep. Cindy Denby, R-Fowlerville; former Republican House Speaker Rick Johnson, R-Leroy; and Senate candidate Joe Hune; and of course some guy from the rightwing think tank Mackinac Center.

Like I said in past posts, this clearly violates the school district’s policy on allowing district facilities to be used for partisan political events. I talked to HPS Assistant Superintendent Rick Terries - who authorized the event - is really skirting the policy. He said if the petition drive was successful, it would be a political meeting, but somehow getting there is not. In other words, launching the petition drive is not political, but it’s only political if the petition drive is successful.

It makes no sense.

This masquerade has little chance of succeeding, but that does not mean we should not fight it. We have spent a year fighting to reform the broken system, so what’s three more months.

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.

Teabagger convention launches a thousand conspiracy theories

The media was focused on Sarah Palin at the big, expensive tea party convention in Nashville last weekend, but apparently, her ridiculous attacks on President Obama and the Democrats were mild compared to some other disgusting attacks from tea baggers.

Supposedly, the teabagger movement is all about bipartisan anger at big government and out of control spending, but that’s simply not the case. As I have said before, this is all too familiar to the anti-government rhetoric I saw in the mid-1990s when I went to work as a reporter in Lenawee County after being out of Michigan for a number of years serving in the military.

This militia movement is back, and we are seeing the same old anti-government, “New World Order” rhetoric and government conspiracies around every corner. The only thing these two eras have in common is that there is a Democratic President. This has always been a fringe group, but as the Republican Party veers ever farther to the right, the Militia, white supremacists and other, anti-government, rightwing hate groups are becoming mainstream.

Jonathan Kay, a conservative columnist, attended the convention as a participant, and even he was shocked at the anti-government rhetoric and conspiracy theories he saw.

“It has become clear to me that the movement is dominated by people whose vision of the government is conspiratorial and dangerously detached from reality,” Kay wrote. “It's more John Birch than John Adams.”

“Steve Malloy, author of Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Ruin Your Life, kicked off the first full day of conference proceedings by warning that Obama and his minions are conspiring to control every aspect of Americans' lives—the colors of their cars, the kind of toilet paper they use, how much time they spend in the shower, the temperature of their homes—all under the guise of U.N. greenhouse-gas-reduction schemes. "Obama isn't a U.S. socialist," Malloy thundered. "He's an international socialist. He envisions a one-world government."

There was “Texas radio host Alex Jones, whose documentary, The Obama Deception, claims Obama's candidacy was a plot by the leaders of the New World Order to "con the American people into accepting global slavery.” There’s that New World Order BS again.

There’s “Judge” Roy Moore, who is a darling of the right for, as an Alabama Supreme Court Justice, refused the orders of a Federal judge to take down a display of the Ten Commandments, in violation of the Constitution. In Nashville, “Moore warned, among other things, of "a U.N. guard stationed in every house.”

Then we have the most disgusting and racist remarks by former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colorado, who wants to go back to the deep south of the 1960s when African-Americans were barred from voting by a number of ways, including a literacy test. He called President Barack Obama a "committed Socialist idealogue" who was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote."

The most disturbing thing is people actually cheered those remarks. So much for the alleged progress in race relations.

Another ‘Music and Meander’ on the Capitol steps

LANSING – You call this a tea party?

Tonight’s farce as the Governor gives her final State of the Union speech reminds me of the first one I saw here in Lansing. The only difference is that there are a few more people this time, courtesy of the student groups who were protesting the loss of the Promise Scholarship, that is our economic future, and another group protesting forecloses, which caused the recession we are in.

Coincidentally, that first mockery occurred this very month last year, and I called it then the “Music and Meander" or "Mega Bust.” Tonight’s effort can be called the same thing. Back then it was called the "Chicago Tea Party" protest based on the over-the-top, unprofessional rant by CNBC's Rick Santelli on the trading floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to protest President Obama's economic stimulus package, that, by the way, is lifting us out, slowly, out of the Bush recession.

The 10 minutes I wasted there were useless; I could not understand the speech, but it would not mattered much because it has all been said before. They had the usual signs and flags. Tomorrow the teabaggers will tell you thousands of people were there. Don’t believe them. I did notice a few State Troopers at this farce.

I’m having a hard time understanding what the “cut spending signs” I saw were there for. The Constitution requires Michigan have a balanced budget, and we have cut spending for the last six years. The only reason I can think of for the fringe Republicans known as teabaggers to be there is that they hate the Governor and Democrats.

I was a little surprised to see them on the Capitol steps because they did not have a permit for the steps. The one interesting thing that occurred was when I walked toward the steps, some guy handed me a paper pamphlet. I thought it was a pocket Constitution until I got into the light and looked at it.

Not surprisingly, it was from Republican House Policy Committee and U.S. Rep. Thad “Mad Thad” McCotter, R-Livonia, known for his over the top rhetoric. It was called “We the People: Wide Awake for our Birth of Freedom.”

It’s not surprising that McCotter is a teabagger and that teabaggers are a fringe of the GOP. The problem is the fringe runs the GOP now.

The liberal media promotes teabagger SOU watch party

You simply cannot buy this kind of earned media, and I’m beginning to wonder what kind of connections a Hartland Township resident and tea bagger named Wes Nakagiri has with the management of the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus.

Last month the paper highlighted his blog, and his teabag misinformation on the health care bill, and this month they are promoting his State of the Union watching party in Hell, here in rural Livingston County. As a former reporter, I can tell you the most coveted spot in the newspaper is on the front page above the fold, and that’s because the story can be seen and most of it actually read in every single newspaper box in the county. That’s exactly where this story ran in the print edition today.

Why the fact that some tea bagger in conservative Livingston County hates President Obama and loves the huge profits insurance companies are making on health care is front page news is beyond me.

Just last month the newspaper chose to do an entire story on the fact that this guy started a blog on the fake, Astroturf tea party movement. It appears, at least on the surface, that this might actually be a grassroots effort unlike the tea parties promoted over the last year by rightwing Washington, D.C. lobbying groups, but I doubt it. However, you won’t have to pay $550 to attend like you would at the tea bagger convention. But if you must go, I hope you spend some money in Hell in Putnam Township to support a local business.

As for health care, Dateline NBC put a real face on the problem last night. It’s worth watching, especially if you believe the tea bagger lie that the government gets between doctor and patient.

If you want to watch and actually hear the first of President Obama’s eight State of the Union Addresses on Wednesday instead of carrying racist and insulting signs, I would invite you to a State of the Union watch party sponsored by the Livingston County Democratic Party. It will be held at 7 p.m. at Memories Lounge, 1840 S. Old U.S. 23, Brighton. The speech begins at 8 p.m., but come early and you can order off the menu and then watch President Obama on big screen television. I attended a debate watching party there last year, and the food and the atmosphere were fantastic.

Come out and enjoy the evening with some friendly, respectful people and support a local business.

What this proves is there is no such thing as the Liberal media.

What: State of Union Watch Party sponsored by the Livingston County Democratic Party
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday Jan. 27.
Where: Memories Lounge, 1840 S. Old U.S. 23, Brighton
Why: Watch President Obama with friends and respectful people and enjoy good food and perhaps an adult beverage.

Teabaggers trotting out a new treasonous tactic: Nullification

It was not long ago that anyone, mostly Democrats, who questioned the alleged “leadership” of George Bush or questioned the useless invasion in Iraq were called traitors. Why is it that the extremist teabaggers are not called traitors even though they are basically calling for an overthrow of the democratically elected U.S. government?

There latest stunt should seal it. They are calling for a long rejected theory called Nullification, and at least one treasonous Michigan blogger and teabagger is pushing it. Basically - after all, I am not a lawyer and have not studied law- Nullification is a constitutional theory that gives an individual state the right to declare null and void any law passed by the United States Congress which the state deems unacceptable and unconstitutional.

You may recall The Nullification Crisis during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. It was a sectional crisis brought about by South Carolina's 1832 Ordinance of Nullification in a dispute over tariffs. The crisis was diverted when the tariff rates were reduced, but the states’ rights doctrine of nullification was rejected by the nation.

It really never should have been an issue because of the U.S. Supreme Court case McCulloch vs. Maryland of 1819. The court ruled that the authority of the federal government comes from the people rather than the state governments. The U.S. Constitution had not been adopted by the state governments, but by people gathered in state conventions. Therefore, the Constitution gained its authority from the people. For this reason, the federal government, in fulfilling the responsibility given it by the Constitution and ultimately the people, is superior to the state governments. That’s why the Framers included the Supremacy Clause.

However, southern states did not let it go in order to ensure the existence of slavery, and it led towards secession and the Civil War. The bloodiest war in American history was fought to reject nullification, and teabaggers are trotting it out again.

Nullification and so-called “states rights” was also used in the South to deny African-Americans basic rights. But again, it’s back.

I don’t know how you can’t add traitor to the list of words describing the extremist, racist and hate-filled teabaggers.

Michigan Legislature pushing a pair of useless teabagger health care resolutions

The Teabaggers have a new cause to rally for, and they have a new ally in their corporate sponsored Astroturf “tea parties:” the Michigan Legislature.

Rightwing Michigan lawmakers have introduced a pair of grandstanding resolutions aimed at much needed health care reform that means little or nothing just to play to the base. The resolutions would amend the Michigan Constitution, and they “state that no federal law shall compel any person, employer or health care provider to participate in any public or private health care system. The resolution also says “the purchase or sale of health insurance or coverage in private health care systems shall not be prohibited by federal law or rule.”

We have seen how the right will push any lie to stop health care reform to protect the huge profits of insurance companies, and it’s sad the Legislature is wasting time on this useless stuff and enabling them. They disrupted townhall meetings held last summer because they don’t want people to hear anything but their misinformation, and this is just an attempt to rev up that misgauged hate we saw at townhall meetings put on by Democratic lawmakers.

Senate Joint Resolution K was introduced by Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, on Aug. 27, 2009, and it was referred to the Health Policy Committee where it is awaiting action. Kuipers is running for the 2nd District Congressional seat that will be vacated by “Twitter” Pete Hoekstra who is running for Governor. This is just a grandstand play to the extreme righting base that is taking control of the GOP.

House Joint Resolution Z was introduced by Rep. Justin Amash, R-Kentwood, on Aug. 19, 2007, and it too was referred to the House Health Policy Committee where is awaiting action. I don’t know much about Amash. He is a freshman with no record, so I don’t know what he’s running for. But he is a teabagger and has spoken at some of the Astroturf “tea parties.” It’s sad that he endorsees the blatant racism that goes on at these “tea parties,” but that’s where the GOP is headed.Just to be to be placed on the ballot either resolution must pass both the Michigan Senate and House with two-thirds of the members in each chamber voting yes.

This is nothing but another bone to the extreme teabaggers. It resembles the 10th Amendment resolutions approved by the Michigan Legislature last summer that “affirm Michigan’s sovereignty under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

There is nothing in the federal health care reform bills that compel anyone to give up their private health insurance.