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.

The middle class will make their voices heard in Lansing this week

It will be a busy place in Lansing for the next couple of days as people from all over the state are stepping up to voice their concerns over Republican policies that are taking the state back years, taking away their right to vote for their leaders and busts unions.

A group of community activists are organizing “A Storm the Capitol” rally beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Corner of Michigan Ave., and Capitol Ave. in Downtown Lansing. The Facebook page for the rally says it will run until 6 p.m. Wednesday, and it says many people are staying the night for an all-night vigil until the doors of the Capitol open in the morning.

The House is expected to take up the main bill in the anti-union and anti-Democratic Emergency Financial Managers (EFM) package of bills on Tuesday because the Senate approved a different version of House Bill 4214 last week. Many people want to voice their displeasure with that anti-freedom bill.

But those patriots will not be alone on Tuesday. The AARP is holding a “It’s Not Fair Rally” from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday on the Capitol steps and lawn to protest the Governor's plan to tax pensions. The AFL-CIO and Michigan League for Human Services will also be on hand on Tuesday to stand up for Michigan’s poor, middle class and elderly. They don’t have a lobbying firm.

One of the 40 anti-union and anti-middle class bills introduced so far in this legislative session will be considered, and the House Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on HB 4287 that will do away with the prevailing wage law. The hearing will start at 10:30 a.m. in 519 House Office Building, 121 N. Capitol. The meeting is open to the public.

On Wednesday beginning at noon on the Capitol steps the Michigan AFL-CIO affiliate unions and Working Michigan are holding a rally to stand up for Michigan’s middle class.

At 9 a.m. Wednesday in Room 519 of the House Office Building, 121 N. Capitol, the House Education Committee will take up HB 4306, a bill that forces local school boards to privatize services. All committee hearings are open to the public.

As always, a small contingent of teabaggers armed with video cameras will be there to try and provoke a confrontation. At a recent three-hour rally, a teabagger Republican and Grand Traverse County Commissioner managed to get 31 seconds of a confrontation on tape where a guy gave the teabagger the finger, which he promptly posted to a rightwing blog. They are trying, and failing, to paint these peaceful and energized working people as violent union “thugs,” so I expect them to be more and more desperate as public opinion continues to swing to the side of union workers.

Be careful, and the best thing to do is just walk away.

County commissioner calls teachers, police officers and firefighters animals

There is no doubt that the latest round of union-busting by Republicans is about politics because union, workers and the middle class tend to support Democrat, but the hate coming from the right is just amazing.

Only in their world are teachers, police officers and firefighters thugs and animals, but that’s what at least one elected Republican thinks. Pro-worker rallies were held all over the country in support of Wisconsin public employees on Saturday, and more than a thousand people showed up in Lansing.

But this is what teabagger Republican Grand Traverse County Commissioner Jason Gillman thinks of teachers, state employees, police officers and firefighters.

“For my part, I am convinced many of the labor union members that go to these rallies are little more than animals,” he said on the leading rightwing blog “RightMichigan.”

This is an elected official.

Remember that when they use police officers and firefighters as props at press conferences; it appears they are only standing next to these “animals” for political purposes.

Unlike in Wisconsin where the conservative, billionaire Koch brothers are busing in tea baggers, only a few are showing up in Lansing despite attempts to get more to try and get a confrontation on tape. It’s kind of like in Egypt where pro- Mubarak demonstrators tried to incite violence so they could say to the world that the pro-democracy demonstrators there were violent.

But only a handful of teabaggers like Gillman showed up in Lansing, but with so many pro-union people they managed to get an entire 31 seconds of a confrontation on tape from a rally that lasted more than three hours. We only see 31 seconds where a guy gave Gillman the finger and told him to fuck off. Nothing before or nothing after.

Democrats stayed away from teabagger “rallies” that were initially organized and promoted by the most extreme rightwing and anti-government groups out there that include militias, secessionists and neo-Nazi white supremacist groups, and they are financed by cash laden Washington, D.C. lobbying firms and people like the Koch brothers. Make no mistake about it, the attack on unions is to kill Democratic supporters and teabaggers showing up at pro-union rallies is to provoke a confrontation.
Among the many attacks I have endured from anonymous right-wingers on this blog includes the talking point that “elections have consequences.” At no time, that I recall, did a Republican take the position that they were going to take away collective bargaining rights. That they were going to push right to work for less was a given, but it’s not the same.

It’s absurd that workers should give up a civil right they fought and died for, for many years just because of a wave election. Perhaps the greatest civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, died supporting striking workers. The final campaign of King’s life was in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.

Sanitation workers went on strike for pay and working conditions after two workers had been crushed to death when the compactor mechanism of the trash truck was accidentally triggered in a rainstorm. As the strike lengthened, King agreed to lend his support to the sanitation workers, spoke at a rally in Memphis March 18, and promised to lead the large march and work stoppage planned for later in the month. He was in town for that march when he was assassinated.

Pro worker rally set for Saturday in the Capitol

Working citizens all over Michigan plan to gather at the State Capitol in Lansing at noon on Saturday, Feb. 26 to make their voices heard on the unacceptable attacks on the civil rights of workers, to protest the tax shift from the rich and powerful to the middle class and the working poor and to urge the Legislature to focus on creating jobs instead of union busting.

The rally will run from noon to 3 p.m., and a couple of progressive groups and organized labor are doing the organizing. One event is called “Storm the Capitol,” and the other one is called “The Rally to Save the American Dream.” Both events have the same goals, and the important thing is to just be there.

On Tuesday and Wednesday thousands of workers made it to Lansing to protest the attacks on workers’ rights, and this is a continuation of that. Teabaggers on Tuesday also tried to organize a counter rally designed to provoke a confrontation, but since they were outnumbered 50-1 they kept to themselves. The confrontations only come from them when the numbers are on their side.

But they plan to try it again, and a group called "We the People of Mid-Michigan” is trying to rally the troops on Saturday at the same time.

In addition to few real concerned conservative Republicans, teabagger groups have attracted the most extreme rightwing and anti-government groups out there that include militias, secessionists and neo-Nazi white supremacist groups, and they are financed by cash laden Washington, D.C. lobbying firms and corporations. It will be tough to ignore that element because they will do everything to provoke a confrontation, and we must do everything to ignore those attempts to give them ammunition.

Teabaggers looking to cause and record confrontations

You knew this was coming: Michigan residents are rallying at the Capitol in Lansing tomorrow on Feb. 22 to protect precious collective bargaining rights that people literally gave up life and limb to win, but it appears teabaggers are organizing a counter rally at the same time to try and provoke a confrontation.

Something called the “Southwest Michigan Patriots” is organizing a “Tea Party Rally” on the west side of the Capitol along Walnut St. The leading Republican teabagger blog is also telling their people they are busing in to “Get pictures, and take video” in an obvious attempt to provoke a confrontation they can record and put up on Youtube.

Republicans in Michigan are trying to bust public sector unions in the form of balancing the budget. Two weeks ago they voted anti-democratic and union busting House Bills 4214-4218 out of committee that will repeal Public Act 72, the current law governing emergency financial managers (EFM). The bills give them more power that includes disenfranchising the voters and terminating contracts negotiated with labor unions in good faith.

The public sector unions are gathering at 9 a.m. Feb. 22 at Central United Methodist Church, 215 N. Capitol, at the Corner of Ottawa and Capitol to march on the Capitol.

What is happening in Michigan is part of a larger union-busting strategy planned by Republicans not only in Michigan, but in Ohio and Wisconsin, and Worker Solitary rallies are planned all over the country to fight the obvious union busting strategy. Teabaggers are also trying to provoke confrontations in Wisconsin as well as in Michigan.

Teabagger groups have attracted the most extreme rightwing and anti-government groups out there that include militias, secessionists and neo-Nazi white supremacist groups, and they are financed by cash laden Washington, D.C. lobbying firms. It will be tough to ignore them because they will do everything to provoke a confrontation, and we must do everything to ignore those attempts to give them ammunition.

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.

Local teabgger group sponsoring false attack on the U.S. Constitution

Something called the “912 Liberty Tea Party of Western Livingston County” is bringing us nine straight weeks of misinformation, courtesy of Christian historical revisionist and Republican activist David Barton.

The counterfeit 9-12 movement is a political scheme hatched by deranged hatemonger Glenn Beck launched on Faux “news” in March 2009 , and the local group is holding a screening of Barton’s video series attacking the constitutional principle of separation of church and state that has given Americans more religious freedom than any people in world history.

Baron runs an outfit called “WallBuilders” where he makes a lucrative living traveling the right wing's lecture circuit “where he offers up a cut-and-paste version of U.S. history liberally sprinkled with gross distortions and, in some cases, outright factual errors,” according to Rob Boston, assistant director of communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

The local teabagger group ran an ad in the Fowlerville News & Views touting a weekly, nine week showing of Barton’s revisionist history, calling him a historian and inviting people to “Come learn what was taught in our classrooms until the 1940s.”

According to SourceWatch, Barton “has teamed up with conservative radio and talk show host Glenn Beck. On July 7, 2010 Barton taught the first lecture in Beck's online seminar series entitled, "Glenn Beck University." His lecture, entitled "The Black-Robed Regiment," revolved around the idea of teaching the "true" history of America's founding. Beck’s Web site refers to Barton as “Prof. David Barton,” but Barton holds no advanced degrees and does not teach at any legitimate institution. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Christian Education from Oral Roberts University. While Beck is not an actual historian, he has posed as one since the 1990s.

Barton also has a wretched history of supporting racism and prejudice. According to Boston, “Barton addressed the Rocky Mountain Bible Retreat of Pastor Pete Peters' Scriptures for America, a group that espouses the racist "Christian Identity" theology that insist that white Anglo-Saxons are the "true" chosen people of the Bible and charge that today's Jews are usurpers.”

People duped into watching Barton’s “American Heritage Series” can expect, according to Boston, “a compilation of quotes from historical figures discussing the importance of religion or morality to government wrenched from their historical context, and, of course, outright lies; like the one that James Madison is claiming that the future of the U.S. government is "staked upon...the Ten Commandments" that does not appear in the body of Madison's writings.” Or the biggest lie that Thomas Jefferson, who coined the metaphor "wall of separation between church and state,” went on to add that the "wall" was meant to be "one directional," protecting the church from the state but not the other way around. “

Boston also says Barton’s favorite tactic is to “cite obscure legal decisions from state and federal courts in the 19th century that failed to uphold separation of church and state. These magically become "proof" that the concept is mythical. Again, no context is given, and needless to say, the voluminous court decisions that reached the opposite conclusion are not mentioned.”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State is a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational organization based in Washington, D.C. founded in 1947 dedicated to preserving the constitutional principle of church-state separation as the only way to ensure religious freedom for all Americans.

The Center for Media and Democracy publishes SourceWatch, a specialized encyclopedia of the corporate front groups, PR teams, "experts," industry-friendly groups, and think tanks trying to influence public opinion on behalf of corporations or government agencies for citizens and journalists looking for documented information.

Words have consequences

Words have meaning and consequences, and once again the anti-governments rhetoric from the right may have again claimed innocent victims.

The shooting on Sunday of Democratic U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona that killed six people and wounded 13 others by an apparently deranged college student may not have been committed by a right-winger, but the hateful anti-government rhetoric launched by tea baggers shortly after the President took office could certainly have violent effects. I don’t see it as much different than the Oklahoma City bombing.

Clarence W. Dupnik, the Pima County sheriff, hit the nail on the head at a news conference when he said it was time for the country to “do a little soul-searching.”

“It’s not unusual for all public officials to get threats constantly, myself included,” Dupnik said in the New York Times. “That’s the sad thing about what’s going on in America: pretty soon we’re not going to be able to find reasonable, decent people willing to subject themselves to serve in public office.”

I got into a brief exchange with a rightwing on Facebook yesterday, and when I looked at her page, this was her tag line to describe herself: “Our country is in serious distress. There are dangerous people in charge, and every step they take, provides that much more control over the American people. We must stand up to this socialist agenda!”

Constant crap like that could certainly lead a deranged person to violence.

That anti-Obama and anti-government rhetoric took an uglier turn in March when the historic health care insurance reform bill was passed, including cutting the gas line at the home of a legislator’s family, making death threats and violent phone calls, and shouting malicious verbal insults. Several Democratic Congressmen were spit on and subjected to racist and homophobic insults as they prepared to vote on the bill.

In fact, Giffords herself suffered some of that violence when her office was vandalized after the vote. Giffords appeared on MSNBC to talk about being targeted by the PAC of half-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin after Giffords voted for health insurance reform. Palin had circulated a "hit list" - just removed - of political targets, which included Giffords. A map had been circulated with crosshairs placed over Giffords’ district and others.

Palin should have been called out for using inflammatory phrases like “Lock and load” and "Don’t retreat, reload.”

Giffords’ opponent in the general election was a tea bagger, and he used some of the same symbolism and hateful rhetoric Palin used. In June 2010 her opponent organized an event where supporters could shoot assault rifles with the candidate. A promotional advertisement for the event said, "Get on Target for Victory in November Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly."

Right-wingers are already spinning the shooting, claiming just because the alleged shooter was not a tea bagger they bear no responsibility for their hateful anti-government rhetoric that has created an atmosphere of threats of violence and actual violence.

Over at wrong Michigan they are trying to make the claim that the same kind of rhetoric hateful comes from the left. Simply not true. They are trying to make the claim that Dupnik’s comments are hate speech. Again, not true. Only in their word is calling them out on their MO is it hate speech.

It’s hard for them to find examples to prove that lie, so they dug up a comment on Daily KOS where a campaign volunteer for the Blue Dog Democrat said he will not only no longer campaign for Giffords but will not vote for her because she voted against Nancy Pelosi for House Minority Leader, saying “And is now dead to me.”

Please explain to me how this constitutes a death threat or hate speech. We keep hearing about angry liberals, but I have never heard of a liberal blowing up a building, murdering a doctor or shooting a Congresswoman.

What may be even funnier are right-wingers falling back on the old standby lie of the “liberal media.” That favorite false political strategy will never die, and they can always fall back on it.

Is this a Second Amendment solution teabggers like to talk about?

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.

Hysteria absent from back to school speech this year

What a difference a year makes.

At the start of last school year, Republican teabaggers were in hysterics that President Obama was going to address students on the first day of school on the importance of education, staying in school, working hard and perseverance. Parents threatened to boycott the schools, and some even threatened recruit “other parents to keep their children home on fall student count day if the district aired the speech.”

This was the height of the Astroturf teabagger movement, and they falsely claimed the President telling the kids to study hard, stay in school and work hard was “socialist indoctrination.” Rightwing talk radio hosts even tried to organize a "Keep Your Kids Home." That crap led many districts allow student to opt out, tape it to show later instead of live and some even ignored it.

On Tuesday at 1 p.m. President Obama will deliver his second annual Back to School speech on at Julia R Masterman Middle-High School in Philadelphia, PA. The President’s Back to School speech will be streamed live on the White House web site, and schools can also view the speech on CNN which has said it plans to take the event live.

Despite all the false rhetoric and outright lies from the right and the Republican noise machine, the news about this year’s speech has been extremely quiet. Apparently, right-wingers are too busy trashing the 1st Amendment to worry about this annual event by all U.S. presidents.

Selection of Johnson as the GOP SOS nominee kills another teabagger talking point

The selection of Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson as the Republican nominee for Michigan Secretary of State at their disorganized and chaotic convention on Saturday busts another teabagger myth.

There near take over of the convention and their uproar over placing a teabagger party on the November ballot dispelled the myth that this was a nonpartisan, grassroots effort that was neither Republican nor Democratic, and that proved that the fake, Astroturf teabagger farce is just the militant arm of the GOP.

One claim the teabaggers have made on many occasions is that they are not fans of "career politicians," yet the majority of teabggers supported Johnson. If you look up the phrase "career politician" you may find her photo.

The question that needs to be asked is what hasn’t Johnson ran for.

I don’t have a problem with career politicians, but the hypocrisy of teabggers is just stunning.

She started out as an Oakland County Commissioner. She then ran and won in the State House and was term-limited there. She then ran as clerk and won. In 2006 she was the Amway’s guy’s Lt. Gubernatorial candidate, and she went back to being the clerk after the two got spanked in the election. Now, she’s the SOS candidate.

That is in sharp contrast to Democratic SOS nominee Wayne State University law Professor Jocelyn Benson, and a first time candidate. The person officially nominating her at Sunday’s Michigan Democratic Parry convention in Detroit said it very well when she said people don’t wake up one day as children saying they want to be Secretary of State, but Benson’s résumé makes it look that way. Her qualifications are very impressive.

Benson graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College. She subsequently earned her Masters in Sociology as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University, and she received her J.D from Harvard Law School, where she was a general editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Benson also worked as the Voting Rights Policy Coordinator for the Harvard Civil Rights Project, worked as a summer associate for voting rights and election law for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and she was an investigative journalist for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

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.

Teabaggers causing problems at GOP convention

If you would have told me a few years ago that the Republican Party could move any farther to the tight I would have said that was impossible, but the extreme Astroturf Teabaggers are driving the party off the cliff.

Subscription only MIRS is reporting there may be some fireworks at the GOP state convention in Lansing on Aug. 28. Bill Ballanger, editor and publisher of Inside Michigan Politics and one of the most respected pundits in the state, told MIRS that the convention “could be pandemonium.”

“The convention could be pandemonium,” he said in MIRS. “Who gets the lieutenant governor nomination and the secretary of state nomination could be on hold. It could spill over into Sunday."

MIRS also reported that the county conventions on Thursday were a zoo. It appears the same thing even happened in predominantly Republican Livingston County, despite attempts at spin to downplay it, and the tea baggers are causing a split.

Apparently, the state convention is supposed to be a one-day convention without caucus meetings, but MIRS is reporting that Gene Clem, a leading tea bagger, said “a movement is underfoot to have a pre-convention on Friday night” for teabagger delegates.

Clem told MIRS “the group may also take a straw poll at that Friday night caucus over what is expected to be the biggest convention battle -- the race for the party's nomination for Secretary of State.”

The problem is there have been no arrangements for a Friday night caucus.

For all the excessive media coverage of the predominantly racist and fringe tea baggers, they had very little effect in the primary election. But Ballanger said the tea baggers are making some noise at the convention. After all, the teabagger farce has always been the radical and millitant fringe of the Republican Party.

"I would say this is the biggest insurgent wave to hit the Michigan Republican Party since the Pat Robinson takeover in 1987," Ballenger said in MIRS. "I don't think we had a real showing by the Tea Party manifesting itself in the primaries.”

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.

Big Surprise: Hune endorsed by teabaggers

Local tea baggers endorsing Joe Hune for the 22nd State Senate District is as much a surprise as cold temperatures in Michigan in December.

Apparently, Hune’s answer in a debate last week that UN black helicopters are coming for his handgun was just crazy enough to earn the endorsement of the Hartland area tea baggers called “RetakeOurGov.” The fact is they just wasn’t to take it back from Democrats.

Teabagger organizer Wes Niagara - whose 15 minutes should have been up a long time ago - told the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus that he decided to back Hune after last week’s candidate forum.

“After watching the debate, it was clear to me that Joe has the traditional mainstream values and the fiscal values which are sought after by the ‘tea party’ movement,” Nakagiri said.

Hune has turned into an extremist since he started hanging with teabaggers, so the endorsement had to come before the debate. Hune’s comment about the UN even led to a follow up story, but what should have rated a follow up was Hune’s lame answer on the movie film credits where he claimed he didn’t know the package included a tax rebate, even though just about everyone in the state knew.

For comedy relief, we have Nakagiri’s last quote:

“Not only does Joe Hune share the values of conservatives and disaffected Democrats, he demonstrated the passion and backbone to stand up for what he believes,” he said.

No Democrat I have ever met shares those extremist views, and only the fringe of the Republican Party holds those views.

It seems ironic that the tea baggers are endorsing at all. On “Off the Record,” Gene Clem, the founder of the Southwest Michigan Tea Party Patriots and one of the original members of the Michigan Tea Party Alliance, appeared on this week’s show and said tea baggers don’t endorse candidates.

Regardless, they only candidates they will endorse will be extremist Republicans.

Don’t forget to vote for Chuck Fellows, the Democratic candidate for the seat, on Tuesday.

Teabagger Senate candidate still clinging to myth that black helicopters are coming for his gun

Republican State Senate candidate Joe Hune’s offhand remarks about the United Nations and the 2nd Amendment in a debate last week surprised and caught so many people off guard that the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus decided to do a follow up story on that remark.

Hune and his GOP opponent for the open 22nd District seat, Howell City Councilman Paul Rogers, squared off in a debate last week sponsored by the paper. Hune was asked a follow up question as to why he thought the 2nd Amendment is more important than the 1st Amendment, and did he believe the 2nd Amendment was under attack and by whom. Hune’s reply flabbergasted the paper’s news editor and publisher.

“We have consistently heard, time and time again, that there are folks who are absolutely concerned about the United Nations nuke treaty - I believe exactly what it is - trying to essentially give some of our rights away to the UN, which is exactly the wrong place to go,” Hune said.

Hune’s belief that black helicopters are coming for his handgun is a long held anti-government, Michigan Militia belief, and Hune’s embrace of the racist and anti-government teabagger movement is showing.

That would be bad enough, but it appears that those extremist views are beginning to be held by the majority of the Republican Party that has steady moved to the right; so much so that it has fallen off the cliff and driven all moderates out of the party.

What Hune is misrepresenting and lying about is the UN Small Arms Treaty. What it basically does is combat the illicit global trade of small arms. In fact, the treaty would not hinder the right to produce, export or import arms, and it is aimed at ensuring common international import and export standards to prevent illegal trafficking. It also includes not only the illegal trade in guns but the sale of fighter planes, unmanned aerial vehicles, missiles and light weapons.

The fact is this has nothing to do with the sale or manufacture of guns in the U.S., and no President can ever ban handguns in the U.S. through the signing of an international treaty.

Chuck Fellows, the Democratic candidate for the 22nd District that includes Livingston County, Shiawassee County and a southern part of Ingham County, injected some sanity in the follow up, saying Hune is making "fear-mongering" remarks.

Fellows told the paper that he fully supports gun-ownership rights under the Second Amendment, but the proposed UN treaty has absolutely nothing to do with handguns in the U.S. Not only that, a draft treaty isn't expected to be written before 2012, and all international treaties require the approval of two-thirds of the U.S. Senate before they are considered ratified and in effect. Michigan is just coming out of the Bush recession - the worst since the Great Depression - and needs jobs right now, not false fear-mongering.

"He's bringing forth issues that really have nothing to do with the state of Michigan,” Fellows told the paper. “The state of Michigan has one major problem, and that's jobs.

Even after having a few days to think about it, Hune is sticking to that lie. He claims this is a big issue with people in the district. That may be the case with a few fringe teabaggers, but not the majority of voters. I know you have to tack right to win a primary election and play to the base, especially in predominately county like Livingston, but Hune has gone off the cliff.

GOP and teabaggers are beside themselves that their hateful rhetoric might actually have to go before voters

Apparently, the near impossible has happened, and the teabaggers may actually establish themselves as a third political party and obtain ballot status in November. But Republicans and the alleged “leaderless” teabaggers are up in arms over it.

Apparently, Mark Steffek, from Reese in Tuscola County, who described himself as head of the party that turned in the petitions, turned in petitions on Wednesday with almost 60,000 signatures, according to the Detroit Free Press, well above the required 38,013 signatures needed to obtain ballot status.

Both the Michigan Republican Party and various teabagger groups are claming this is the work of an imposter, designed to drain votes away from the Republican candidates. The latter part of that is true; it will drain votes away from GOP candidates because the teabaggers are the violent, racist fringe of the fringe Republican Party.

They also claim this is the work of the Michigan Democratic Party. In fact, Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser said that in a statement, but that is simply not true.

You will remember when the anti-Obama teabagger farce began almost 18 months ago the claim was that it was a nonpartisan, grassroots movement consisting of both Republicans and Democrats because they were angry at both political parties and big government. Events quickly proved that not to be the case, and events left no doubt that the teabaggers wee the racist and violent arm of the Republican Party. The reaction of Weiser just confirms that.

We were also sold a bill of goods that the teabaggers were a grassroots uprising, but that was quickly debunked when it was revealed it was a creation of two Washington, D.C. think tanks and lobbying groups. Teabaggers still cling to that “grassroots” lie, claiming there is no leader and that there are just individual groups not aligned with the GOP or each other. The claim that "the tea party is a grassroots movement that belongs to everybody” is just one more lie.

But now so-called teabag leaders are claiming this cannot be a legitimate petition drive because they don’t know the people behind the petition drive. If it’s leaderless like they claim, then why is it not surprising that they may not know them. I don’t know every Democrat in the state or even in Livingston County.

I’m very surprised to see teabaggers achieve ballot statues because the teabaggers don’t stand for anything but hate, racism and anti-government rhetoric, and they are the violent wing of the Republicans Party. It would be nice for them to stand up for what they say they believe in, but they know voters will soundly reject them.

But like I said back in May when the petition drive was first news, they have a lot of roadblocks to getting real candidates on the ballot. I didn’t think it could get enough signatures, but I was wrong about that.

The hurdles to getting candidates on the ballot in November are huge. The party has to obtain a facility to hold a convention, publish a call to the convention, draw up bylaws, transmit that Information to the Secretary of State and accomplish the hundreds of details that goes along with a convention by August 3. Then it has to find actual candidates to run. Finding good candidates to run against long odds, like recruiting a good Democrat to run in a strong Republican area and a Republican in a strong Democratic area is difficult. Finding good candidates will also be imposters will be even harder.

I’m very anxious to see how this plays out. The unsuccessful teabagger petition drive to deny Michigan residents health care showed some cracks in the "tea party" and alleged teabagger leaders Joan Fabiano and Wendy Day were at each other’s throats over it.