Right-wingers continue violent and hateful false rhetoric against their favorite boogieman

The right-wingers have no intention of toning down their violent and hateful false rhetoric, and in fact they have doubled down on it for their favorite boogieman, self-made billionaire and humanitarian George Soros.

I’m on the email list of a scumbag group called the “tax day tea party,” and they are going after Soros for a column he wrote in the Washington Post on the Middle East and the situation in Egypt.

It’s hilarious they call him “billionaire Marxist George Soros,” when he did as much to defeat Communism as anyone by funding dissident movements behind the iron curtain. But what is really troubling is they have established a web site to raise even more campaign cash called “Enemy of the State.”
Enemy of the state? Please. I get it you don’t like the fact that he contributes to Democrats, but enemy of the state? It’s even more disturbing that they have a photo of President Obama, and they claim it was because of Soros that U.S. Senate candidate and Teabagger Sharon Angle of Nevada lost in November.

The fact is it has more with her with saying crazy BS like unemployment benefits “spoil” the citizenry” in one of her rare interview with the real press, and she thinks people enjoy being unemployed in a state with the highest unemployment rate in the country.

The tea bagger email takes one paragraph out context of a well-written and thought out paragraph on the situation in Egypt to attack him.

"The main stumbling block is Israel. In reality, Israel has as much to gain from the spread of democracy in the Middle East as the United States has. But Israel is unlikely to recognize its own best interests because the change is too sudden and carries too many risks."

Even out of context, that paragraph makes sense.

The right’s hatred of Soros is making them more irrational than normal, and calling someone something as stupid as an “enemy of the state” can do no one any good.

Jewish leaders call Beck out on his false attack on George Soros

To quote a famous song from Sesame Street: “Three of these things belong together,” and the three things are unhinged, Glenn Beck and George Soros.

Anytime the name of the self-made billionaire and Soros is mentioned the right becomes unhinges, and Faux “news” madman Glenn Beck is unhinged.

With so few liberal billionaires around to attack, unlike the vast number of rightwing billionaires who are politically active, Soros is an easy target for the right. The name of Soros has reached the level of taking point to the right, and anything they want to discredit to their base they just add the words, “Soros-funded,” in front of anything.

Soros is a self-made man, something Republicans claim they admire, but in addition to his humanitarian giving, that includes helping end apartheid in South Africa by giving money for scholarships to black students there and helping end Communism by funding dissident movements behind the iron curtain, he also gives to Democrats.

That is his crime, or perhaps they hate him because he, unlike most GOP millionaires and billionaires, did not inherit his wealth.

But Beck went after Soros again this week with an hour-long smearfest against Soros with the ridiculous claim that he has somehow conspired with Democrats, progressives and the Obama administration to demolish the U.S. economy.

Media Matters, which finally received $1 million from Soros after the right falsely claimed he funded them for years, does another great job of debunking Beck’s lies. But the right will attack and try to discredit them because of the first and only contribution from Soros. It’s a good thing Media Matters lists its sources.

But the Jewish community reacted negatively to Beck’s over the top and false attacks and trivialization of the Holocaust to attack Soros.

Beck claims that as a child in Nazi-occupied Hungary, Soros survived by living with a non-Jewish family, “used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off. And George Soros was part of it. He would help confiscate the stuff.” He claimed Soros never had any remorse even ad an adult.

In an article in the Nov. 11 of the “Jewish Week,” Anti-Defamation League director Abraham Foxman called Beck out on his rant, saying, “it was totally over the top.” Foxman is also a child survivor who lived only because his parents turned him over to his Catholic nanny. He said the issue of the Holocaust “is so sensitive that I'm not even sure Holocaust survivors themselves are willing to make such judgments.”

“For a political commentator or entertainer to have the audacity to say, there's a Jewish boy sending Jews to death camps, that's horrific,” Foxman said in the Jewish Week. “It's totally off limits and over the top.”

Even more Jewish leaders called Beck out.

Elan Steinberg, vice president of The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants, called the Beck accusations “monstrous; you don't make such accusations without proof, and I have seen no such proof.” Beck's charges, he said, “go to the heart of the instrumentalization and trivialization of the Holocaust."

Even non-Jewish religious leaders called Beck out.

Interfaith Alliance President Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy said Beck's “use of the Holocaust to discredit George Soros is beyond repugnant. The Holocaust is one of history’s most tragic events and those who survived it are owed our enduring respect.”

The choice is clear on Tuesday: Benson over ‘No Truth Ruth’

If you want to make sure Michigan’s elections are run fairly and in a nonpartisan way and that campaign finance law will be enforced fairly for all political parties, then the clear choice for Michigan Secretary of State on Tuesday in Jocelyn Benson.

She is the only candidate who has taken a pledge of non partisanship. In that pledge, Benson pledges that she will not co-chair any campaigns or endorse any candidates running in elections where she will serve as the final certifier of results. We saw the problems in Florida in 2000 that made them the laughing stock and the butt of the nation’s jokes because their SOS was the chair of George Bush’s campaign in Florida. The pledge makes sure that does not happen.

If that common sense measure does not do the trick, then you just need to look at Benson’s impressive résumé as the Wayne State Law professor makes her first run at public office.

At Wayne State University she not only teaches election law, but she has also published the first major book on the role of the Secretary of State in enforcing election and campaign finance laws. Benson also served as the Voting Rights Policy Coordinator of the Harvard Civil Rights Project, where she worked on the passage of the Help America Vote Act, the federal law that improved election law standards in the wake of the 2000 Presidential recount. And in 2004 she helped with the Democratic Party’s national voter protection effort, recruiting, selecting and training Voter Protection coordinators in 21 states with the goal of ensuring that the 2004 election was conducted with integrity in accordance with the law.

During the 2008 election, Benson led a successful effort to ban the use of foreclosure lists to challenge voters’ eligibility on Election Day.

After earning her B.A. at Wellesley College, Benson began her career at the Southern Poverty Law Center, investigating hate groups and hate crimes throughout the country. She earned a Master of Philosophy as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and subsequently earned her law degree from Harvard Law School.

Now, I don’t really have a problem with a so-called “career politician,” but if you do, her opponent, Ruth Johnson, is the very definition of it. However, in a job that thrives on being nonpartisan, a partisan career politician is not the best choice for this job.

Because Johnson is a career politician, the false, partisan attacks on Benson have been relentless. To combat the constant lies from Johnson, the Michigan Democratic Party has launched a web site appropriately called “No Truth Ruth” to combat those lies.

“In a desperate attempt to win this office, Ruth Johnson and her cronies at the Republican Party have spread malicious lies about Jocelyn Benson,” said MDP Chair Mark Brewer. “We launched this website today to dispel those rumors, and put out the truth.”

One of the dog whistles to call and excite the GOP base is to mention humanitarian billionaire George Soros, who is hated by the right because he is one of the few billionaires who contributes to Democrats and liberal causes.

The GOP recently launched an ad that claims Benson has ties to Soros, has participated in voter fraud and is connected to the so-called “fake Tea Party scandal.”

“These allegations are completely false,” Brewer said. “Jocelyn Benson is the only candidate that has spent her career advocating for issues related to this office. It’s pretty clear that the GOP used these scare tactics to once again, deceive voters.”

The website also offers real information on Ruth Johnson, including Johnson’s false claims of non-partisanship, companies that support her campaign but violate campaign finance laws and Ruth Johnson’s erroneous claim that she will bring new solutions to Lansing.

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.

MRP’s radical agenda continues

We know the Republican Party is bankrupt of ideas and, based on their support of torture, morals too, but their quest for cash never ends.

Sharon Wise, Co-Chair of the Michigan Republican Party, recently sent out a mass fundraising email asking for money based on the news that Gov. Jennifer Granholm is being mentioned as a possible choice to fill the soon-to-be vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court with the retirement of Republican nominates Justice David Souter this summer. Ms. Wise is asking for your online contribution of “$25, $50, $100, $500 or $1,000 today.” I have no idea how money will stop President Obama from nominating her and the Senate to confirm her, but that is apparently irrelevant.

She throws out the usual terms, like “extreme Left line-up.” And “Her radical agenda has never been a secret.” When you consider the Governor’s margin of victory in 2006 and the amount of people who voted for Democrats in November, it appears that Ms. Wise is the extremists and the radical.

Her ending line is great, “Radicals like billionaire Jon Stryker and George Soros will be funding the Left's attempt to control the Supreme Court.” It amazes me that anyone can call George Soros a radical, and the right’s hatred of a self-made man like Soros baffles me.

Soros should be a poster boy for what Republicans claim are their ideals; a man who pulled himself up by his bootstraps. He escaped Nazi-occupied Hungary as a teen with nothing but the clothes on his back, and he managed to become a billionaire with his wits and hard work. He gives millions to charity, he helped end apartheid in South Africa by giving money for scholarships to black students there and he helped end Communism by funding dissident movements behind the iron curtain.

I have heard people say Granholm is not qualified, but she is as qualified as one of the best Justices in the history of the court: Chief Justice Earle Warren. His resume is similar to Granholm’s resume. He served three terms as the governor of California, the only person to serve more than two terms. Like Granholm, he also served a term as state Attorney General.

Granholm has repeatedly said publicly she intends to serve the remainder of her second and last term that ends next year. But realistically, if the President asks such a huge responsibility of her and offers such a massive opportunity how do you say no?

The comedy styling of Saul Anuzis

I enjoy laughing and comedy. That’s why my favorite radio show is the “Stephanie Miller Show.”

Usually it’s not a good thing to generalize, but. Liberals are actually funny. Conservative's lame attempts at comedy almost always fall flat. For examples, we just need to look at “comedians” Rush Limpbaug and Ann Coulter or the Faux attempts at the Daily Show rip-off, the Half-Hour News Show. Limpbaug and Coulter are hilarious if you are a racist homophobia.

In addition to my daily doses of Stephanie to make me laugh, I also have Michigan’s Republican Party Chair Saul’s Anuzis’s daily dose of spin via what he calls “Articles of Interest” on his “blog.” It’s not really a blog because he does not allow any comments. I guess I can’t blame him because of the crap his staffers write, but he should not call it a blog. But I guess if I wrote that stuff I would not want to have to try and defend it. You find the kind of humor there that makes you say, “is he for real.”

Today, he is enjoying the fact that Kalamazoo businessman Jon Stryker is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. This is the same Justice Department that fired U.S. attorneys because they refused to investigate and make up charges against Democratic politicians. The same Justice Department that for the first time in history has been politicized and used as a weapon by the bushies. Nixon used the IRS to go after his enemies, but Bush used a department that is supposed to uphold the law to go after enemies. I guess former Nixon aide John Dean had it right when he used the title “Worse than Watergate” for his book about the Bush Administration.

And why do Anuzis and the GOP hate Stryker? What is his crime? He contributes to Democrats. In his daily does of BS, Anuzis claims that Stryker “spent more than $5 million of his own money buying a majority in the Michigan House of Representatives.” I hope Anuzis keeps believing that was the reason.

But the funniest line from Anuzis is this one, “”After spending millions of dollars to buy Governor Jennifer Granholm’s re-election…” That’s’ one of the sickly, funny lines. Hey Saul, did you forget who your candidate was in 2006? Your candidate's only qualification for the job was that he inherited millions of dollars from his family’s pyramid scheme. He spent millions of those inherited dollars trying to buy the seat.

Stryker is a rarity among Democrats who happen to be rich; he inherited his business that makes him rich. Almost every conservative billionaire has inherited their money.

The hatred of billionaire philanthropist George Soros if a perfect example of the misguided GOP hatred. Here is a man who escaped Nazi-occupied Hungary as a teen with nothing but the clothes on his back, and he managed to become a billionaire with his wits and hard work. He gives millions to charity, he helped end apartheid in South Africa by giving money for scholarships to black students there and he helped end Communism by funding dissident movements behind the iron curtain. You would think he would be a hero to the right and a model of what they say they stand for. No. Why? Because he contributes to liberal causes, he's the devil and evil. They call him the liberal sugar daddy.

Contrast that to the conservative sugar daddy – the one they hate to talk about - Richard Mellon Scaife. He got his money the old fashioned way, he inherited it by being a principal heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune.

Scaife is the class act that bankrolled the conservative hit magazine “The American Spectator,” and he also financed the so-called” Arkansas Project” that paid people to come up with dirt on President Bill Clinton.

For an excellent story on that you should read “Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative” by former American Spectator writer David Brock, who now operates the web site that Bill O’Reily calls the “Left Wing Smear site Media Matters.” All they do at Media Matters is post his words and actual videos.

No wonder billo hates them.