Texas Tea Party Senator Cruz is Calling for a Government Shutdown After ONLY Four Days in Office

Way to go Texas -- you have hit a new low in electing a Senator!

Texas sent Tea Party Senator Ted Cruz to DC who in less than a week in the US Senate is trying to rewrite history along with proving he is going to be an obstructionist by talking about they need to shut down Government like in the 90's.  American people were furious at Republicans for shutting down Government in 1995-96 which seems lost in his comments.  Sen Cruz also forgets that Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress which led to the six-day shutdown costing taxpayers about $800 million after a stalemate with Pres Clinton.

GOP had just taken over, elected Gingrich Speaker, and became very arrogant thinking they were completely in charge and what they wanted was going to happen.  How did that work out?  That is $800M that the Government had to pay out thanks to the stubbornness of Republicans in Congress led by then Speaker Gingrich and stubbornness President Clinton holding firm on his budget of excess spending.  Two hard headed people ended up costing the taxpayers.  Both sides over the years have forgotten that when they do something stupid, the taxpayers get the bill.  Twice the Government was shut down under Clinton:

From November 14 through November 19, 1995 and from December 16, 1995 to January 6, 1996 the U.S. government was shut down as a result of a budgetary impasse between Congress and the White House. The shutdown was precipitated by a dispute between Democratic President Bill Clinton and Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich over domestic spending cuts in the fiscal year 1996 budget and resulted in a bipartisan agreement to balance the budget in seven years' time.

Politically speaking, President Clinton got the better of the 1995-96 government shutdown. Whereas Gingrich expected the public to side with the Republican Party during the dispute, opinion polls showed that a majority of Americans felt that the impasse had been the result of Republican obstinacy. However, the 1995-96 government shutdown demonstrated the costs of divided government and, more importantly, shifted the political discourse to the right. Although the budget deal restored many of the Republican's proposed cuts in domestic spending, Clinton adopted a more centrist position for the remainder of his presidency. Clinton's move to the right was exemplified in his State of the Union Address of January 27, 1996, in which he declared that "the era of big government is over."  

Unlike the 90's where we actually had some rational senators on both sides, today the GOP is going into negotiations saying they are not budging while starting to talk about shutting down Government.  The GOP House in 1995 was convinced on the second shutdown that it would enable them to take out Clinton to put a Republican in the White House but being the experienced politico that he was, he used it to his advantage moving to the center winning reelection.  With an agreement between Clinton and Congress in place to reign in spending, the US had a balanced budget for the first time in a long time.  Republicans then went from controlling spending during the Clinton years to runaway spending on new programs and earmarks during the Bush 43 years costing them the Congress in 2006.

Senator Cruz has obviously not figured out that circumstances are different today and the American people thanks to the internet are much smarter on how Government operates.  President Obama was reelected by over five million votes and has the support of the American people.  In the Senate where the Democrats had to defend 23 seats they picked up two seats while Republicans lost two seats out of only ten they had to defend.  The House lost the popular vote by of one million but retained control because of gerrymandering but still ended up losing seats.  In 1994, the Republican Party was in a very strong position just having taken over the Congress after years of Democrat control, but Republicans overplayed their hand and helped re-elect Bill Clinton because of their stubbornness.

We are seeing that stubbornness once again with the 'my way or no way' stance which lost them support in the 90's and is losing them even more support today.  The GOP Congress seems to have no intention of working with President Obama as some are still acting like he is not the legitimate President.  The American people spoke in 2012 and many in the Republican Party did not hear what was said.  Instead we have more hard right Senators making dumb comments on hard right talk radio.  Does Cruz think this is going to get him support across the Country so he can run for President as we are already seeing mentioned?  He is already calling for a 1995 style shutdown showing that he is controlled by the Koch Bros Tea Party faction along with their groups.  This is insanity talk IMHO:

Republican Senator Calls For Repeat Of 1995 Government Shutdown: ‘If We Hold Strong We Can Do That Again’ 

By Scott Keyes posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Jan 7, 2013 at 3:22 pm
Tea Party-aligned Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), within days of being sworn in, is already calling for a government shutdown unless Congress agrees to massive budget cuts. 

During an appearance on Mark Levin’s radio show Friday, Cruz waxed poetic about the last time Republicans successfully shut down the government in 1995, arguing that a shutdown leads to better economic policies. “Because Republicans stood strong in 1995, we saw year after year of balanced budgets,” Cruz said. He went on to call for a repeat as Republicans hold the nation’s fiscal solvency hostage in the debt ceiling fight next month. “If we hold strong we can do that again,” the Texas Senator declared: 

CRUZ: What would happen if the debt ceiling isn’t raised is it would be a partial government shutdown. We’ve seen this before, we saw this in 1995, when Republicans in the House shut down the government. What happened was it was a partial shutdown, there was some political cost to be paid but at the end of the day, because Republicans stood strong in 1995, we saw year after year of balanced budgets and some of the most fiscally-responsible policies Congress has produced in the modern-era. If we hold strong we can do that again. It just comes down to Republicans. Are we willing to stand strong and face the wrath of the mainstream media criticizing us and the president saying nasty things about us?

Excerpt:  Read More at Think Progress

Not to realize that Republicans do not control the Senate like they did in 1995 shows a lack of common sense and maturity in my book which I have come to expect out of Tea Party office holders.  They have zero common sense as witnessed with Rep Bachmann submitting a bill this session to repeal Obamacare that has already cost the taxpayers $50M with the other 33 repeal bills.  Bachmann is the example of a gerrymandered district and then she only barely won with a ton of money and a challenger who had never run for office.  Bet she loses in 2014 with the Democrats finally waking up to the fact they have to nominate good candidates to take out Tea Party candidates.

Came out yesterday that only 8% identify themselves as Tea Party today?  We are not talking about a liberal poll -- we are talking about a Rasmussen Poll which is slanted right:

The Tea Party is more unpopular than ever before, according to a Rasmussen poll released Monday, with just three in 10 voters holding favorable views of the movement. Half of respondents said they view the party unfavorably. 

Those numbers represent a considerable dive in support since the Tea Party's heyday in 2009, when a majority of voters rated it favorably. 

Many of the Senate challengers with Tea Party backing were defeated in 2012, and the movement suffered another PR blow after a falling out among the leadership of the Tea Party group FreedomWorks. 

Although most members of the House's Tea Party Caucus were reelected in November, the group had some high-profile losses, including the defeats of former Reps. Joe Walsh and Allen West. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), the chairwoman of the House Tea Party Caucus, barely retained her seat. 

The movement is now widely seen by the public as declining, according to the Rasmussen poll -- 56 percent of voters said the Tea Party became less influential over the past year, and just 8 percent said they identified as part of the Tea Party movement.

With all the background that the Tea Party is losing its support in the Country, along comes the new Texas Senator Cruz spouting off about shutting down government as a member of the minority in the Senate.  This says to most people with common sense that some Republicans in the Congress have no intention of working with the President and are going to go use the same obstructionist tactics as before.   That obstructionism is leading to new rules on filibusters which have a good chance of passing.

Blame the media for part of this with even covering what a Freshman Senator has to say and then saying he could run for President in 2016.  How stupid has the inside the beltway media become?  The GOP pushes a narrative and facts don't seem to matter to many of today's political reporters as they report the GOP narrative.

Where is leadership in the Senate to tell a Freshman to learn the ropes before spouting off -- MIA.  Minority Leader McConnell seems to be more worried about his own reelection and if Ashley Judd is going to run against him, then actually running the GOP Caucus.

GOP lost Senator DeMint as a member of the Senate Tea Party when he resigned to head a think tank but gained Cruz who may end up being much more annoying and obnoxious. DeMint had experience in the House and spent time in the Senate before he started speaking out and then forming his PAC to elect Tea Party candidates.  Cruz hasn't even been there a week before speaking out on shutting down the Government which I guess you could say is typical of what the Country has come to expect of elected Tea Party conservatives.  At one time the conservatives had principled ideas but today it is about raising money off of ludicrous statements and being obstructionists.  They want cuts but mention defense and they run for the hills screeching like a ban-chi.

Voting against Hurricane Sandy relief did me in completely along with not wanting to raise taxes on the wealthy.  Same group that spent $50M to try and repeal Obamacare.  The lack of caring for others out of a lot of today's Republicans in Congress has made me lose what little respect I had left for the GOP.  These GOP members of Congress who voted against Hurricane Sandy relief didn't hesitate to vote for relief for their own state in the past.   Guess they only believe in relief for a red state today -- blue states need not apply seems to be the message they are sending.

Do the Country a favor and vote out the Tea Party in 2014 to return common sense to the Congress.

Chinese Xinhua News Agency Goes after Romney China-Bashing Blasting as 'Ironic'

Just maybe these comments by Santorum are the missing puzzle piece to explain this election and how some Republicans who I thought had better sense jumped on the Romney bandwagon.  Others of us could see right through the Romney facade in 2008, but have to admit he has taken it to a new low in 2012.  This could explain some of the outrageous remarks I see on various websites defending Romney not only on Libya but now his attacks on China which is really dumb since they own a lot of our debt.  Romney attacking China is beyond stupid, it is dangerous to our economy.  These comments by Santorum make me so happy at the last minute I could not cast my vote for him in the primary and threw it away voting for Governor Perry:

Santorum: ‘We Will Never Have… Smart People On Our SideBy Judd Legum on Sep 15, 2012 at 5:20 pm 

Speaking Saturday at the Values Voters Summit, Rick Santorum said that “smart people” would never side with conservatives. Watch it, via RWW. 

Santorum also claimed “the media” and “colleges and universities” would not be “on our side” because “they want to tell you what to do.”  

Rather, according to Santorum, the conservative movement will be supported by “the church and the family.” This summer, however, a group of Catholic nuns have launched a bus tour “to shed light on the effects the House Republican budget would have on the people.

Did Santorum just say that if you are smart, you will never be conservative?  Guess he includes himself in that and after some of his dumb statements in the primary, I would tend to agree.  This makes me even happier that I no longer consider myself a part of today's conservative movement because they are so far right if you don't think and talk like them, then you are considered a 'socialist,' a 'communist,' or even 'un-American.'   They have become and the judge and jury of freedom of speech which only applies to what they and other conservatives have to say.  

Over the many years I have been around politics I have seen dumb and dumber from both sides but this just might take the cake this week with Romney -- first on Libya and Egypt and now taking on China.  First of all it is a long standing tradition that Presidential candidates don't involve themselves in foreign affairs when the Country is in the middle of a crises.  Not only did Romney involve himself in the Libyan crises but he got it wrong while trying to score political facts.  Now the man who while at Bain made millions of dollars from outsourcing jobs to China is attacking China.  If that is not dumb then I don't know the meaning of the word dumb.

You shake your head at the abject stupidity of a man running for President and will also throw in some of the Republicans members of Congress who cannot quit bashing China.  Did the Romney Republican members honestly think they could bash China and sooner or later they wouldn't strike back?

Xinhua said such China-bashing had been "a cancer in U.S. electoral politics, seriously plaguing the relations between the two countries. 

"It has also become a handy tool for U.S. politicians who try to court the votes and support of ill-informed voters by ratcheting up antagonistic sentiment towards China, while truly serious social and economic woes within the United States have been left unfixed." 

Liked the fact that the China News Agency threw it back at Romney that he had made millions from sending jobs to China after Bain closed American plants outsourcing the work to China.  We are dealing with a candidate who not only doesn't believe rules apply to him, but we are supposed to believe everything he says as facts don't matter.  Romney supporters obviously do not deal with reality or they would not be bashing the rest of us for telling the truth.  Hard to believe that any thinking person could support Romney after this last week.

Mitt Romney China-Bashing Blasted As 'Ironic' By Country's Xinhua News Agency

Reuters | Posted: 09/14/2012 3:41 am 

BEIJING, Sept 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's attacks on China and promise to name the country a currency manipulator if elected are foolish and hypocritical, China's official Xinhua news agency said on Friday. 

In a strongly worded English-language commentary, Xinhua said Romney's anti-China rhetoric, if converted into policy upon him assuming office, would trigger a catastrophic trade war and damage the already weak global economic recovery.
"It is rather ironic that a considerable portion of this China-battering politician's wealth was actually obtained by doing business with Chinese companies before he entered politics," Xinhua wrote. 

"Such blaming-China-on-everything remarks are as false as they are foolish, for it has never been a myth that pushing up the value of China's currency would be of little use to boost the chronically slack job market of the world's sole superpower, not to mention to magically turn the poor U.S. economic performance around." 

Romney has repeatedly pledged to get tougher with China on its trade and currency practices, including pledging to quickly declare China a currency manipulator if elected. 

His opponent, President Barack Obama, has accused Romney, who founded and led private equity firm Bain Capital, of outsourcing jobs to both India and China. 

China says the yuan's exchange rate is essentially set by market forces, and that the currency has appreciated about 30 percent against the dollar since a landmark revaluation in 2005. 

The Chinese government has generally been silent in the run-up to the November presidential poll due to a policy of non-interference in the affairs of other countries. 

But state media has waded into the debate to lambaste what it sees as attempts to play the "China card", in a reflection of official thinking and concern the country's name is being unfairly dragged through the mud overseas. 

(snip)

The United States should "put its own fiscal house back in order, substantially slash its tremendous military expenditure, and optimise its economic structure", it added. 

"It is advisable that politicians, including Romney, should abandon ... short-sighted China-bashing tricks and adopt at least a little bit of statesmanship on China-U.S. ties." (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Ron Popeski)  

Source:  Reuters

Is Romney trying to start a Cold War with China like he wants to do with Russia?  This recent chain of events starting with Romney's ill timed lies to score political points even before all the details.  He blamed the President and then Secretary of State for the uprisings in Libya and Eygpt which led to Al Qaeda using the demonstrations for cover to attack and kill four people including the Ambassador at the Libyan consulate.  Santorum, the Romney mouthpiece, is also blaming Obama for the deaths.  The Romney camp including the candidate would not admit for several days the demonstrations were set off by a radical trashy film against Islam which he originally refused to condemn until he saw the tide had turned against him and his comments.   How many Republicans who say they support him are actually going to vote for him on November 6th?

Romney's attacks on Obama and SoS Clinton have now been compounded with his attacks on China as he panders to the far right.  These attacks on China are making his big donors and some fellow Republicans nervous who are now saying behind the scenes that they don't believe he would follow through what he says he would do against China if elected.  Get that -- HE WOULDN'T FOLLOW THROUGH WHAT HE IS SAYS HE WOULD DO AGAINST CHINA IF ELECTED.  This is an admission by the people who know him that you cannot believe what he says.  Imagine that -- been saying that for over a year and in 2008.  What if they are wrong and he does follow through?

And if he did, many analysts say, he’d likely spark a disastrous and counter-productive trade war that would hurt both American consumers and the workers he says he’s trying to protect. But Romney advisers say voters shouldn’t expect him to back off the tough talk if he gets elected, and other experts say fears of a “trade war” are overblown since the Chinese need the American market just as much consumers like cheap Chinese imports.

If the rest of his advisers are as out of touch with the real world as Williamson was about his comments blaming Obama for Libya and Egypt not the film, the Romney camp is in trouble on foreign policy.  It started with the Romney attack calling Russia our #1 geopolitical foe and now these China attacks show a Cold War mentality from not only  his advisers but the candidate himself.  Then there are Rush's comments which the conservative sites along with Fox News picked up saying Al Qaeda gave up Bin Laden to help Obama.  Noted that Rush says something and the next day the Romney campaign takes up the same mantra.

Romney and his campaign need to be so thoroughly defeated that they can never rise from the ashes again with these former Bush/Reagan advisers now working for Romney sent to the trash heap of history with comments like Williamson and others made this week.  Then you have the Rush comments siding with the lies Romney told about Libya and Egypt.  My favorite was Fox News where Sen McCain got in a dust-up with Hannity.  Seems that Hannity, the foreign policy expert (sarcasm), couldn't believe McCain wouldn't agree with him.  Any candidate who hires these foreign policy advisers who work for Romney or follows instructions of the foreign policy experts Rush, Hannity, Beck and Fox News deserves to lose big.

Now some donors and Republicans have doubts about Romney on China.  Maybe it is because they are finally seeing Romney releasing what he would do if elected, and it is not what they expected.  Shame on them for believing anyone who says you have to elect me to see my plans.  That should be an automatic disqualification for any candidate.

Doubts grow on Mitt Romney’s China threats
By BEN WHITE | 9/15/12 4:07 PM EDT 

Mitt Romney is hoping his tough talk on China policy will win him votes — but few of his big business donors or fellow Republicans support what he’s saying or believe he’d follow through if elected. 

(snip)

Also on POLITICO: China: Romney's rich because of us)

The Republican nominee has renewed his sharp line of attack on President Barack Obama’s China policy, arguing in a new ad, on the stump and in a fundraising pitch to supporters that he would take a much brawnier approach to the abusive Chinese trade practices. He’s repeatedly said one of his first acts as president would be to formally label China a currency manipulator and slap punitive tariffs on Chinese exports to the U.S.

“I want to make sure that if a nation cheats like China has cheated, we call them on the carpet and don’t let it continue,” Romney said this week in Virginia, returning to what’s been a recurring theme of his campaign. 

That may play well in the Rust Belt, where automobile and other manufacturers are especially vulnerable to China’s trade policies and there’s wariness of Obama’s less confrontational approach. 

But there’s fear that Romney’s threat — if actually carried out — could damage the U.S. economy. The Chinese could retaliate by slashing purchases of U.S. debt, driving up our interest rates. Any new tariffs on Chinese exports would also increase prices for U.S. consumers, who have grown accustomed to cheap Chinese goods filling U.S. store shelves. 

Branding China a currency manipulator also could stop cooperation in other areas of dispute and force all disagreements to go before the WTO, which could take years to reach a ruling of uncertain consequences.

“What would happen is we would badly damage our relations with the Chinese while also raising the question of consistency regarding other nations that also manage their currency,” said Tony Fratto, a former Bush administration economic adviser and spokesman. 

(snip) 

“It is unclear what China’s initial reaction would be [to Romney’s proposed actions]. But none of the scenarios are positive,” the executive added. “Will they ban some of our exports? Maybe. Will there be crippling tariffs? Maybe. It would set into motion a very unpredictable and possibly very damaging series of events.” 

(Also on POLITICO: Romney's new ad whacks China) 

Daniel H. Rosen, a partner at the Rhodium Group and an expert on the Chinese economy, said there would be a wide-ranging effect to the policies the Republican nominee is championing.
“If a Romney presidency starts with aggressive new unilateral tariffs for China, then American firms from General Motors to General Electric and Microsoft should all plan ahead for retaliatory treatment,” Rosen explained.

Read more:  Politico

Maybe Santorum is right that Romney needs the far right that basically is not very smart behind him because those of us who think can see through the con man.  That is one reason why many of us have joined Republicans for Obama to support the President against this 'severely' conservative flawed candidate, Romney.

Paul Ryan's Anti-Abortion Bill Co-sponsor GOP Senate Candidate Akin (MO): Victims Of ‘Legitimate Rape’ Won’t Become Pregnant

Turns out it is not only Akin but the new Romney Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan who are part of this hard right view on abortion:

Last year, Akin joined with GOP vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as two of the original co-sponsors of the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” a bill which, among other things, introduced the country to the bizarre term “forcible rape.”

If not for the public outcry, the term "forcible rape" language would have stayed in the bill:

Although a version of this bill passed the GOP-controlled House, the “forcible rape” language was eventually removed due to widespread public outcry. Paul Ryan, however, believes that the “forcible rape” language does not actually go far enough to force women to carry their rapist’s baby. Ryan believes that abortion should be illegal in all cases except for “cases in which a doctor deems an abortion necessary to save the mother’s life.” So rape survivors are out of luck.

Someone must have gotten to Akin from the Senate Republicans or more likely the Romney campaign as he has now released a statement that he misspoke.  Yeah right and there are pigs flying by my window.  The cat is out of the bag as this is not the first time he has made comments about rape as he was part of a group including Paul Ryan in the House of Representatives last year supporting a bill changing the definition of rape to include only “forcible rape.”

More from Michelle Goldberg who explains who Akin and Ryan would likely target:

Under H.R. 3, only victims of “forcible rape” would qualify for federally funded abortions. Victims of statutory rape—say, a 13-year-old girl impregnated by a 30-year-old man—would be on their own. So would victims of incest if they’re over 18. And while “forcible rape” isn’t defined in the criminal code, the addition of the adjective seems certain to exclude acts of rape that don’t involve overt violence—say, cases where a woman is drugged or has a limited mental capacity. “It’s basically putting more restrictions on what was defined historically as rape,” says Keenan.

Akin is against the morning after pill given to rape victims as he sees it as a form of abortion.  In his mind if they won't become pregnant from a rape, how does he call the morning after pill a form of abortion?

Do people like Akin and Ryan want women who become pregnant from rape and incest to have to go back to the back alley abortions which were done away with when the SCOTUS ruled on Roe v Wade?  More importantly do the Republican men who think like this neanderthal want women to leave the Republican Party in droves because a lot of women including Republican women find his comments reprehensible.  If he had any integrity, he would withdraw from the race.  So this is what the candidates from the Koch Brothers/Romney Tea Party Republican Party look like?  They truly have started a war on women!

Women in MO better think twice about voting for Akin for the US Senate or for the Romney/Ryan ticket since Paul Ryan shares Akin's views.  If he the best the GOP has to offer in the Missouri Senate race then Republicans deserve to lose big for choosing a far right winger to run for Senate who has offended women of America with his remarks.   No amount of saying he misspoke is going to change most women's minds because his original comments are so outrageous.

GOP Senate Candidate: Victims Of ‘Legitimate Rape’ Won’t Become Pregnant

By Zack Beauchamp posted from ThinkProgress Justice on Aug 19, 2012 at 5:40 pm 

Senate Candidate and Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) told a local television station on Sunday that “legitimate rape” rarely produces pregnancy because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” Akin cited conversations with unnamed doctors for the bizarre claim. 

Watch it: 

Akin in coordination with Paul Ryan sponsored legislation that would redefine rape in federal law to limit funding for abortion providers and has a long track record of uninformed and extreme views about women’s health. He has a consistently radical anti-choice voting record in the House, wants to ban the morning after pill, and has expressed concern that criminalizing marital rape gives women “a legal weapon to beat up on the husband” during a divorce.

Akin’s crusade against women’s access to medical services fits with his broader worldview, which is heavily influenced by a particularly virulent group of fundamentalist thinkers described as “Christian supremacists” by the Anti-Defamation League.  

The NY Times shows the same video in their article which has an update from Senator McCaskill:

August 19, 2012, 5:53 pm
Candidate’s Comments on Rape Draw Criticism
By REBECCA BERG 

Comments by Representative Todd Akin, a Republican running to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, are drawing condemnation after he asserted that victims of “a legitimate rape” have biological mechanisms to prevent pregnancy. 

“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” Mr. Akin told KTVI-TV of St. Louis in an interview that was broadcast on Sunday. 

The comments drew a sharp rebuke on Sunday from Senator McCaskill, who is in a tough fight against the Republican candidate. 

“It is beyond comprehension that someone can be so ignorant about the emotional and physical trauma brought on by rape,” the senator said in a statement. “The ideas that Todd Akin has expressed about the serious crime of rape and the impact on its victims are offensive.” 

Mr. Akin later released a statement saying he “misspoke.” 

(snip)

Mr. Akin has been a staunch opponent of abortion as a lawmaker and on the campaign trail; he also opposes the morning-after pill, which he considers to be a form of abortion. 

Last year, House Republicans, Mr. Akin among them, supported a bill changing the definition of rape to include only “forcible rape.” 

“This is clearly something that he believes,” an aide to Ms. McCaskill said Sunday.  

Excerpt:  Read More at the NY Times

Michigan's Republican Governor Snyder Touts Emergency Manager Law

I am speechless that a Republican Governor would sign this bill into law passed by a Republican Legislature.  The Emergency Manager of the Muskegon Heights school district converted the school district to a charter system run by a private company.  That means someone appointed by the Governor as the Emergency Manager has a right to come into an entity like a school district, oust the school board, and change them from a public school to a charter school.  The Emergency Manager for Detroit schools has set the ceiling of  61 students in a classroom.  How is a teacher in the public schools supposed to handle 61 students.  

Knew that Michigan had economic problems due to the downturn of jobs but this has turned into a dictatorship type governing throwing out elected public officials.  The fact that the Governor has the power to appoint this Emergency Manager blows my mind.  

Yesterday the Michigan Governor Snyder was touting this new law before the Michigan Supreme Court said the petitions could go forward to have an election on this bill in November.  The Election Board had thrown out the petitions because the font size changed.  What is going on with Republicans who were elected in 2010?  Thought Republicans were about democracy but this is an example of someone who never should have been elected which is what some longtime Republicans were saying but the Tea Party came in, spent a lot on ads, and lied about other candidates.  Now I know my initial reaction to Snyder was right.  

When you read this, you are left with wondering how these people can get by with passing a law that takes away the elected officials in a public entity, install one person who can sell and do whatever they want with the entity, and nothing the citizens can do.  Is this what the far right takeover of the Republican Party is all about?  To get their people in place even if they have to resort to removal of duly elected officials?  This is scary that is is happening in Michigan.  What state is next up for the members of the far right Tea Party?

There is an emergency–an emergency for democracy. 

Public Act 4, a law passed by Republican majorities in the Michigan Legislature in March 2011, gives Gov. Rick Snyder power to appoint an emergency manager for any city, town, village or school district in Michigan undergoing a “financial emergency.”The State of Michigan itself admits in official exhibits it released to the court in the Summary of Arguments:

“Con — This bill allows the emergency managers too much power and control over local units of government. Emergency managers can’t be trusted to act in the interests of the local nut and will use the enhanced powers granted under this bill for their own gain. Stripping local officials of the powers is anti-democratic.”

Read more about the challenge to the Emergency Manager Law (Public Act 4) that Sugar Law Center is leading.

Usually when I see the term Social Justice I have a negative reaction but in this instance they are doing the right thing.  No state should have a law on this books like this that gives the Governor way too much power.

Michigan Supreme Court: Put emergency manager law on the ballot 

Fri Aug 3, 2012 2:21 PM EDT 

Delivering signed petitions in February. 

The voters of Michigan will get a say on the state's emergency financial manager law. In a 4-3 decision, the state supreme court ruled today that the petition drive met the requirements and should be certified for the November election. That petition had been challenged by a group based in the office of a member of the elections board that rejected it. The challenge alleged that the type on one line of the petition was not 14 point. The court ruling is remarkably technical (pdf) -- font nerds, skip to page 18 for the time of your lives -- and the most exciting part might be this: 

In the present case, plaintiff used 14-point Calibri font for its petition heading, as attested to by plaintiff's printer. 

Today's ruling means that the emergency manager law will go on ice, after it's officially certified, until the referendum this fall. That has large and potentially confusing implications for the towns and school districts the state has taken over under the law. 

What happens to the Muskegon Heights school district, which a new emergency manager just converted to a charter system run by a private company? Who's in charge in Benton Harbor, where elected officials have been stripped of all power and a blizzard of recall attempts is underway? Do Detroit schools have to keep their new ceiling of 61 kids in a class, as ordered by the emergency manager? For that matter, does Detroit still have to slash its city workforce under the consent agreement they signed to avoid getting an emergency manager? 

However the answers turn out, the campaign to repeal the emergency manager law can now begin. By dragging the matter out this long – the petition could have been certified back in April -- supporters of the law have taken away weeks that the repeal effort could scarcely afford to lose. The repeal side is trails by 10 points in the polls, but there are twice that many undecided voters for their campaign to try to reach.

  

Romney’s ‘We Did Build This’ Events Feature Businesses Built With Government Subsidies And Contracts (OOPS!)

In my lifetime it is hard to remember a campaign that is so dishonest as that of Mitt Romney and so non-transparent.  What was the RNC and the so-called establishment thinking getting behind his nomination?  Was it the big donors because they (RNC) needed to fund the Convention and campaign?  Have news for them if they had held fair debates, same rules for all states in the primary, and not supported a culture of win at any costs for the Romney campaign including cheating, we wouldn't be at this spot today.  They would have had the money from honest donors who didn't want anything in return.

Anyone who says a businessman does everything on his own without help to build the business is a buffoon.  Romney told Olympic athletes that they had help which they all acknowledge.  He has given speeches about the help businesses receive from the Government and infrastructure.  Guess the businesses in today's Romney World are different because they did in all on their own using their own hands according to this ad:




OOPS!  There is a slight problem:

In “These Hands,” the Romney campaign repeated the out-of-context quote, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else did that.” Jack Gilchrist, the owner of Gilchrist Metal Fabricating in Hudson, New Hampshire, incredulously asks, “My father’s hands didn’t build this company? My hands didn’t build this company? My son’s hands aren’t building this company? …Through hard work and a little bit of luck, we built this business. Why are you demonizing us for it?”  

In context, Obama’s speech was not “demonizing” small business owners but simply challenging the idea that wealthy and successful individuals have never benefited from government services.

And, as it turns out, Jack Gilchrist is no different. The New Hampshire Union Leader reports today that Gilchrist benefited from millions of dollars of government loans and contracts to get his business on its feet: 

In 1999, Gilchrist Metal received $800,000 in tax-exempt revenue bonds issued by the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority “to set up a second manufacturing plant and purchase equipment to produce high definition television broadcasting equipment,” according to a New Hampshire Union Leader report at the time…

Last year, Gilchrist Metal also received two U.S. Navy sub-contracts totaling about $83,000 and a smaller $5,600 Coast Guard contract in 2008, according to a government web site that tracks spending. 

The businessman now famous for the ad admits he did take Government help to build the business. Nothing wrong with that as that is what these programs are for but what is terribly wrong is to represent that you had no help and built the business with only your hands and hands of family members.  Guess his family built the building where  they are located only with their own hands as well.

Fox News and Rush Limbaugh led the Romney camp in the direction they wanted him to go even it was a total misstatement of what the President said due to the editing of Fox News.  It is like Limbaugh is a puppet for Fox News today and Romney is a puppet for Fox News and Rush.  Romney or his surrogates run out to make fools of themselves routinely parroting what Fox News or Rush has to say with no fact checking.  Fox News is about the last place I would quote today.  If you want to find investigative reporting with links, you now have to use more liberal sites.

It is simply mind boggling what has happened to Conservatives who are backing Romney.  They turn into pretzels and refuse to hear anything negative about the man or positive about Obama.  Facts don't matter today.  The people on the right who yelled the loudest about Obama not releasing his college records (he should have released them) are the ones turning into crickets on Romney's tax returns and Bain Capital.  We are not supposed to go after the "perfect" candidate in their minds.

Is this what happens to a political party when it is taken over by the followers of Ayn Rand, who make up a large portion of the far right and Tea Party, along with big donors like the Koch Brothers?  Truth doesn't matter, it is the narrative?

The Romney's "We Did Build This' Events are not exactly what they imagined as the info below points out.  Seems these business people rounded up by the Romney camp did have help which was exactly what President Obama was saying.  The Romney camp has proved Obama's points were correct when you get passed the redacted Fox News/Limbaugh spin: 

Romney’s ‘We Did Build This’ Events Feature Businesses Built With Government Subsidies And Contracts 

By Aviva Shen on Jul 25, 2012 at 3:12 pm 

Today, the Romney campaign is hosting an entire series of campaign events based on President Obama’s misinterpreted comment about small businesses. While Obama’s full speech made a “no man is an island” argument, the Romney campaign has seized on the quote, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that” as evidence of Obama’s disdain for small business owners.

 Romney, ignoring the fact that he has echoed this same sentiment on multiple occasions, organized 24 “We Did Build This” events in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia, Ohio, Iowa, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Nevada. At each event, local business owners are speaking about their self-sufficiency in running a business and how government is hindering their growth. 

But, like the New Hampshire business owner showcased in Romney’s attack ad on the issue, many of these business owners have received significant support from the government, a ThinkProgress analysis finds.

• Ball Office Products hosted the “We Did Build This” event in Richmond, Virginia. The company received a loan of $635,000 through the Small Business Administration in 2012, according to USASpending.gov. The company was also awarded a lucrative $52,525 contract with the General Services Administration just a year after its founding.

• Midwest Tape, a media distributor of Holland, Ohio, was showcased at a local event and has been contracted by the Department of Defense since 2008, earning a cumulative $13,659.

• Columbus Truck and Equipment was featured in a neighboring event and has received $6,643 in contracts with the Department of Defense.

• Cranston Material Handling Equipment Corporation, the owner of which spoke Wednesday morning at a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has reaped a total of $61,729 in contracts with the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs since 2007.

• Systems Engineering Co.The owner of Systems Engineering has received a total of $180,200 in DOD contracts, as recently as last year.

• Brady Industries in Las Vegas has received $54,425 in contracts with Veterans Affairs since 2009.

• Pennsylvania business PRL Industries Inc. received a $167,847 contract through the Department of Homeland Security for ship and boat propulsion components for the U.S. Coast Guard in August 2008. Janis Herschkowitz, who spoke on behalf of PRL, Inc. used to be a director of the National Consumer Cooperative Bank, which, defined in Herschkowitz’ own words, was created by Congress “to meet personal, social or business needs, especially in low- and moderate-income communities by forming cooperatives.”

• An Iowa event featured Competitive Edge, Inc. which was contracted by Veterans Affairs for $3,543 to make informational refrigerator magnets.

• J & W Cycles of Missouri was awarded $25,808 in contracts from the DOD and Department of Interior.

• Total Resource, featured in a Sparks, Nevada campaign event, has been a federal contractor since 2010, and received a $11,200 contract from the DOD in 2009.

• Applegate Insulation, which hosted one of the events in Michigan, benefited from an energy saving federal tax credit worth 30 percent of the installation project, up to $1,500.

• Home Instead Senior Care supported Romney in Roanoke, Virginia, even though home health care companies receive 75 percent of their funding from public programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Home Instead franchises in Virginia have received at least $3,613,549 in federal funding through the Department of Veterans Affairs since 2008. Chris Head, who represented Home Instead at the event, has previously lamented the low Medicaid reimbursement rates in Virginia and told the Roanoke Times that he wished state funding had helped save the now-defunct local Mill Mountain Theatre.

• Ed Nagle of Nagle Trucking in Ohio also took issue with Obama’s speech, which mentioned roads and bridges as examples of essential government support. But less than a year ago, Nagle protested an idea to privatize the Ohio Turnpike, noting that the privatized Indiana toll road “has diminished in its quality and it’s become a lot more expensive.”

While the “We Did Build This” event was intended to “allow small business owners the chance to respond to President Obama’s claim,” it is clear that many of these owners exemplify the combined powers of individual effort and government support that Obama — and Romney — have praised. 

Additional reporting by Steven Perlberg.  

Source:  Think Progressive

Once again Romney and his campaign are proving to the American people they will say and do anything for votes even knowing it was a lie from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh that started this.  It is the narrative which the Romney campaign plays by and in the process have thrown truth and honesty out the window with the win at any cost mentality.

Does he have an enemies list like Nixon?

Wes Harris, Arizona Tea Party Leader, Seeks To Recall John McCain Over Huma Abedin Defense

This quote from Harris should have every Republican up on arms but unfortunately the party is quickly being taken over by the likes of conspiracy theorists like Bachmann along with the Tea Party who support her:

“Go to hell, Senator, it’s time for you to take your final dirt nap,” Harris concludes.

What a nasty thing to say about anyone you disagree with and that is the problem today by some of those on the right as they attack viciously anyone who disagrees with them.  This election has been an eye opener at just how many nasty people are involved in today's politics and makes you wonder why anyone would run for office or take a job that would put them in the target zone.

In Arizona being Hispanic is a problem to some of these people who don't care if they are here legally or not -- they put them all in the same category.  Saw some of that when I helped out McCain in the Senate primary race against Hayworth using this blog.  Some of the Hayworth supporters were way over the top and frankly bigots.  Shame on Senator McCain for believing people no matter their origin or race should be given a chance to be successful.  (sarcasm)  The more I have learned to know about the Senator, the more respect I have for him.

No longer listening to some posters on sites where if you don't agree with their outlandish statements, you are the one with the problem and are called names.  I took my blinders off some time back but this man tops everyone although Mark Levin I have been told is over the top in his rhetoric defending Michelle Bachmann, but then he also supported "I am not a witch" O'Donnell and the lackluster candidate in Nevada Sharron Angle.  We cannot forget Rush Limbaugh and his over the top rants he keeps making.

What do conservative pundits have in common?  They work for Clear Channel who is owned by Bain Capital.  The deal in which Bain Capital became one of the owners of Clear Channel was initiated just a short time before Mitt Romney's first run for president.    

Wouldn't it be great if a Republican presidential candidate could just buy the support of just about every major conservative talk show host in America? Well, it may not be as far-fetched as you may think. Clear Channel owns more radio stations (850) than anyone else in the United States. They also own Premiere Radio Networks, the company that syndicates the radio shows of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck, among others. Needless to say, Clear Channel basically owns conservative talk radio in the United States.  

Imagine this, Rush got a big raise just when Romney is running for office this time, does little research on Romney and gets on board.  Why anyone listens to his rhetoric today and cannot think for themselves makes me wonder who they are.  I guess I have a different group of people for friends and family because no one I know listens to these pundits any more.  Most of my friends are like me and listen to sports talk radio or music.  Much less upsetting.  When you find yourself talking back to the radio, time to turn to another station.


What is upsetting to common sense conservatives who happen to be Republican is that people like this Wes Harris who heads a Tea Party is damaging the Republican brand whether some want to admit it or not.  But then some Republicans are perfectly happy to be a member of a party that doesn't think twice about attacking people who are not white or a member of their evangelical church.  You see it when some of these people talk at Town Halls.  I am frankly embarrassed by some of their comments which are right out of the gutter.  Is this what the leaders of the Republican Party want the face of Republicans to be?  


Marco Rubio was criticized for standing up against the Bachmann group along with others but none have been treated like Senator McCain although it is starting to come close for Rubio as Debbie Schlussel attacks the Senator:

UPDATE: Marco Rubio joins the chorus of Islamo-pandering Republi-dhimmis attacking Michele Bachmann (maybe Muslims helped him avoid criminal charges for illegally charging tens of thousands of dollars in personal expenses to his Florida GOP credit card)***  

The hatred is going to destroy the Republican Party if the leadership is not careful.  When you choose to hate someone and will do anything to destroy them, you have lost your way and that is exactly what I am seeing today out of some so-called Christians who are vicious and hateful with no basis in fact.  They are so filled with hate and doom and gloom that it makes you wonder how long the Republican Party can survive before people like me and a lot of others take a walk.  


What happened to the Party of Civil Rights or the positive outlook of Ronald Reagan or willingness to help others less fortunate?  Looks like it doesn't exist anymore as the Koch Brother's Tea Party movement has taken over a lot of the Republican Party with the Kochs joining with other big donors to elect Romney.  Is it so they can get the DOJ off their back for alleged bribes in the Middle East?  Would they destroy the Party to get out of serious trouble.  Without a doubt just like their speculation on oil drove up the prices which hurt our economy.  They are rich, selfish people who only believe what they want matters so they formed organizations like Americans for Properity and the Tea Party movement to get their way.  


The hatred of Obama is so far over the top I find it embarrassing to be a Republican with the racist comments thrown at the President.  Been told if I don't support Mitt Romney, then leave the Republican Party.  I am not leaving yet because I want to make sure my voice is heard as a longtime Republican, but that day could be drawing near if things don't change after November.  I will not remain in the same party with a bunch of bigots who look no further than the color of a person's skin, their religion, or nationality and report conspiracy theories as facts even when they have been disproved. 


Truth does not seem matter to some of these people today -- it is the narrative which is important.   Just like Fox News reporting on what Obama said cut out major portions and changed the whole meaning and next day Romney takes it and runs with the Fox version.  Did the same thing yesterday with the foreign minister of Australia -- misquoting his words to say what he wanted which caused the foreign minister to issue a statement to set the record straight. Is this who you want for a President?  That's who the Koch Brothers and other major donors want!  Just remember the Koch Brothers help found the Tea Party movement -- same movement that has bred people like Harris.

Wes Harris, Arizona Tea Party Leader, Seeks To Recall John McCain Over Huma Abedin Defense 

The Huffington Post | By Nick Wing Posted: 07/24/2012 10:14 am Updated: 07/24/2012 2:28 pm
Conspiracy theories about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin being linked to the Muslim Brotherhood publicly dribbled down to the lower echelons of conservative politics this week, with an Arizona Tea Party leader promising to launch a recall effort against Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for his defense of Abedin. 

Last week, a group of Republican lawmakers led by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) drew widespread condemnation from both sides of the aisle for the loosely sourced contention that Huma Abedin, the Muslim-American wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. 

McCain strongly pushed back against this charge, taking to the Senate floor to call the allegations "nothing less than an unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable woman."
Wes Harris, the founder and chairman of the Original North Phoenix Tea Party, now says McCain's words have given him grounds to mount an effort to unseat the longtime senator.
In an interview with the Arizona Capitol Times, Harris called McCain an "embarrassment," before laying out a variety of unapologetic anti-Islamic sentiments.  

“Have you ever read the Quran? I suggest you do so, because anyone that is a Muslim is a threat to this country, and that’s a fact,” Harris told the Times. “There is no such thing as a moderate Muslim. If they are Muslim they have to follow the Quran. That’s their religion and that’s their doctrine.”

According to the Times, Harris believes Muslims are incapable of being loyal to the U.S., because he claims that their faith in Islam and the Quran trumps any other allegiance. He also apparently believes Muslims shouldn't be able to serve in the State Department at all.
“Is [Abedin] a Muslim? Is she an active Muslim?” Harris asked the Times. “I rest my case. That’s all she needs to be.” 

In his email airing his grievances, Harris also linked to the Bare Naked Islam blog, an internet clearinghouse for Islamophobia that claims to have further proof of Abedin's supposed ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. One post touts a new report from the Center for Security Policy, the right-wing think tank behind the paper that led to Bachmann and her cohort's initial inquiry, that seeks to unveil the "Islamist" roots of Abedin's mother. 

While other top Republicans, including House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), came out to reject Bachmann's accusation, Harris says McCain's defense of Abedin is just the latest in a string of actions that have warranted a recall effort. 

“Go to hell, Senator, it’s time for you to take your final dirt nap,” Harris concludes.   

Source:  Huffington Post

Sen Jim Inhofe (R-OK) Trying to Find Support for Highway Funding from Tea Party Lawmakers

My recommendation is that every Tea Party lawmaker drive I-40 from the AR line to OKC and then tell all of us how important it is to keep the Keystone Pipeline Funding in the Transportation bill when it is an add-on.  When are lawmakers going to stop this nonsense of putting extras on funding bills.  Anyone with a brain knows this is a non-starter in the Senate.  We are 49th in road and bridge repair in OK -- frankly I almost have quit driving I-40 and going under overpasses for fear that concrete will drop off the bridge which has happened in the past.  Finally they are fixing I-35 in the Norman area so a chunk of concrete cannot fall down again.

Do these people not understand the longer you allow infrastructure to deteriorate the more it is going to cost.  Maybe it is time to have toll roads who self fund the fixes like we have seen with our Oklahoma turnpikes and then the driver's can blame Congress for the toll roads.

The Senate wants to fund near the same level they have been funding the transportation bill which seems like a good idea.  The one thing that is a federal obligation with the federal highway system is road and bridges and yet some Tea Party Members of the House don't believe it should be funded at near current levels?  They are also pushing for Keystone which is an add on to the budget.  Without it, they plan on voting against the transportation bill in many cases.  Has anyone ever heard of doing the right thing for the America people as poor roads and bridges are a safety hazard which could cost lives.

Senator Inhofe is a huge supporter of the Keystone Pipeline and believes it will eventually be approved so why is it necessary in this environment for the House to attach it to the transportation bill?  I am tired of the games being played on both sides.  Members of Congress are sent to represent all the people not just their big donors or special interest groups. Then you read this out of the House:

But many conservatives do have a problem with it and have opposed using general fund money. House Republicans authored a highway bill that would have cut spending on roads and bridges by 34 percent — meaning a loss of $800 million to Oklahoma over six years. Gary Ridley, Oklahoma's transportation director, said a cut of that magnitude would jeopardize critical highway projects in the state — and lives.

One of the items the federal government is responsible for (roads and bridges) they want to cut by 34% but these same House members wants to waste my tax dollars on their pet causes.  Republicans in the House have also become like their counterparts when President Bush was in office -- investigation happy.  There are way too many investigations going on that never end wasting our tax dollars.  There is so much can be cut from the Federal Budget and the House wants to concentrate cutting on roads and bridges?  Very foolish and makes me wonder where some of them got their idea of what it means to represent a whole district and a state because they seem to only want to please the special interest groups that elected them.

Why would want them reelected if they are not independent of lobbyists, special interests groups, and their big donors?  Both sides act like little kids that if they don't get their way, they are going to take the ball and go home.  Democrats were horrible during the Bush years, and now I am seeing the same thing out of Republicans.  They need to grow up and put America first.

Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe trying to persuade Tea Party lawmakers to support highway funding   

Conservative Republican Jim Inhofe is a lead negotiator on a highway bill that has some funding problems and a provision that would approve the Keystone XL pipeline 

By Chris Casteel | Published: May 27, 2012

WASHINGTON — With another deadline fast approaching, Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe is working to persuade members of his party that they should support a highway bill that keeps road and bridge funding close to current levels. 

“With this attitude out there, where so many members of the Senate and the House have this fear of the Tea Party people, they're scared to death to vote for anything that has a bunch of zeros in it,” Inhofe said in an interview.

Inhofe, of Tulsa, spent part of last week calling freshman House members — “all Tea Party,” he said — and trying to convince them that it would be the “conservative position” to support legislation that would stabilize transportation funding for two or three years.

If Congress can't come together on a long-term policy, he said, the uncertainty will continue to cause serious problems for critical projects. Moreover, he said, the bill now under consideration would change some provisions of federal highway policy — such as spending road and bridge money on roadside attractions — that have long rankled conservatives.
At the end of the week, Inhofe felt like he was getting through to them. 

“I don't want to say that each one of them is going to support it, because we don't even know what (the bill) is going to look like yet, but they're all anxious to have a bill and to pass it,” he said. 

Rep. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, is among the freshman lawmakers trying to negotiate a highway bill that could pass the House and Senate. And he's the type of conservative that Inhofe is trying to win over. 

“Transportation has a unique federal role,'' Lankford said, “but with billions of dollars of government waste, we must find a way to pay for the essential areas of government by making cuts to non-essential programs.” 

Windfall for Oklahoma

Inhofe is the top Republican on the Senate committee that has jurisdiction over the highway bill. He was chairman of that panel when the last long-term highway bill passed in 2005 — legislation that included thousands of earmarks and a huge funding windfall for Oklahoma.
That bill expired in 2009, and Congress has procrastinated since, granting only temporary extensions that have frustrated state highway officials. The latest extension ends on June 30. House and Senate negotiators are hoping to beat that deadline with a bill, rather than another short-term fix. 

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, the lead Senate negotiator, told reporters last week that lawmakers were “making good progress.” 

“I would say great progress,” she said, adding that 80 percent of the bill was non-controversial.
Inhofe said Boxer was “overly enthusiastic and overly optimistic, and I tell her that to her face and to other people because I want people to know the truth about this — it's not all that easy.” 

One of the main sticking points is how to pay for the bill; one of the others is the Keystone XL pipeline. 

Funding and Keystone

The Highway Trust Fund, which holds the proceeds from the federal gas tax, is the primary source of money for U.S. road and bridge construction. But money flowing into the fund has been declining while construction costs have been rising, and Congress has had to dip into the funds that pay for domestic programs and defense to make up the difference. 

Inhofe has no problem with that. He is a fiscal conservative, he often says, except when it comes to defense and infrastructure. 

(snip)

Excerpt:  Read more: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-sen.-jim-inhofe-trying-to-persuade-tea-party-lawmakers-to-support-highway-funding/article/3678926#ixzz1wIJCOZzn

DeMint: "I don't think people realize that we're borrowing money to pay back debt that is coming due."

Want to go on the record that arrogance is not limited to Obama and Pelosi as Republicans have their own share. What is needed in DC is a dose of humility from the White House and Members of the Congress.

Republicans backed by the movement lost in some key Senate races, including Sharron Angle who failed to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada.

Analysts have said Republicans would have had a stronger chance of capturing the Senate with more established candidates. But DeMint has offered no apologies.

"There's not one Republican senator who would have been elected without Tea Party support," he said.

"This is make-or-break time for Republicans in our country. We have to pull our country back from a precipice," DeMint said.

"I don't think people realize that we're borrowing money to pay back debt that is coming due. China and other countries are chiding our mishandling of our currency."(Reuters)

Most Americans are not as dumb as DeMint thinks we are as we know we owe a huge debt to China that is coming due. Don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. Doesn't he realize that the Tea Party movement started by the Ron Paul and his people was about that debt and how Congress was spending much more than we take into the US Treasury and selling the debt overseas to places like China. The headlines were everywhere that China was rapidly buying up our debt which led to the backlash. Never met anyone who didn't understand we had to pay China back someday.  Some of you may question my saying Ron Paul started the Tea Party movement like he claims, but it is a fact to most of us who follow politics in Middle America:

Sarah Palin may be the face of the Tea Party movement today, but it started with Ron Paul in 2007. That December, on the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, Paul's presidential campaign supporters participated in a "money bomb," a one-day online fundraising blitz that raked in $6 million from 40,000 people nationwide, and drew upon the 1773 protest's anti-tax sentiments. (Ron Paul Helped Inspire the Tea Party Movement)

In addition Mr. DeMint says that every Republican candidate elected was because of the Tea Party. That is a flat out lie and he has to know it.  Is DeMint trying to tell Oklahomans that Dr. Tom Coburn would not have been reelected without the Tea Party when he won over 70% of the vote and the people working his campaign were the same grassroots Republicans who worked his campaign in 2004.  Made tons of calls in 2004 and made more this time as a member of the Oklahoma grassroots.  Give me a break! Who does DeMint think makes up the largest share of the Tea Party? Grassroots Republicans in most states where I have connections!

Bet John McCain would not agree with DeMint's statement when you realize the Tea Party leaning people of Arizona worked for his opponent in the primary (didn't bother to vet his opponent either but blindly followed the radio pundits and posters on line) and the grassroots establishment Republicans worked for McCain's re-election. Same people who worked for his Presidential campaign in 2008.  Anyone who follows this blog knows I wrote a lot about that primary and what a bad candidate Hayworth was.  Then it finally came out he had done informercials touting free money.  Where were the pundits then -- still supporting Hayworth despite the facts.

We held every Republican Senate seat that was up for election in the Senate and now DeMint tries to take credit for all the incumbents winning because of the Tea Party? Even Ken Buck in Colorado who DeMint had close ties with said his campaign was made up of the Colorado grassroots Republicans and the Tea Party was only a small portion.

In Florida, the County Chairs were some of the first Flordians to go Marco Rubio over Crist. If DeMint thinks that Rubio would have won in such a resounding manner without the Florida grassroots Republicans think again. We have now been branded the establishment by DeMint and Palin even thought most of us have been part of the grassroots Republican movement for years all because we didn't join a Tea Party movement.

How many members of the Tea Party are also grassroots Republicans who belong to County parties and attend State Conventions? I bet the number is very high in a lot of states. We have noticed that a lot of the outspoken Tea Party people come from the Tea Party Express who for the most part doesn't even understand how Government or elections work especially the FEC rules.

Now let's look at the flip side since DeMint thinks every Republican candidate was elected by the Tea Party. Using that flawed analysis then Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell, Dino Rossie, John Raese, and Ken Buck should be US Senator-Elect as they were heavily favored by the Tea Party. Outside the Tea Party Express who are these people who are organized enough to swing elections? They are not my neighbors who are members of the Republican party. An activist in NM has never met a Tea Party person nor have people I know in Florida except for the senior citizens Tea Party people who got out and worked campaigns as grassroots conservatives long before the Tea Party.

Guess DeMint has not been getting around too many campaigns in other states as he does not recognize the people working campaigns for Republicans in most areas of the Country come from the Republican grassroots not the Tea Party. Here in Oklahoma we took great pride as the grassroots Republicans in sending Dr. Coburn to the Senate in 2004. He was the best candidate even if Denny Hastert and others in DC worked against him but he won big. His race was one that a lot of campaigns have looked at with their campaigns to see how it was done. His funding in DC was cut off but Senator-Elect Pat Toomey's Club for Growth stepped in and along with the grassroots we funded his campaign with him winning a 3-way race in primary with no runoff and winning the general going away. Back in 2004, where was no Tea Party.

Don't think there is one member of the Republican grassroots that doesn't believe in the ideals that started the Tea Party movement, but we have been going to Town Halls for years as members of the grassroots. The ones who attended were mostly senior citizens who have been Republicans for years here and elsewhere. The ones who did make the most noise at the Town Halls were Ron Paul supporters or Libertarians.

Just don't get it and have to wonder why a real poll on how many people consider themselves in favor of the Tea Party ideals are the Republican grassroots who work the campaigns and are already activitists. Others are independents, libertarians, or Democrats who were fed up with DC. Most of the new people who claim to be Tea Party did not work in campaigns in many states but who DeMint says are the ones who got every Republican Senator elected.

In some states like Colorado and Nevada we keep hearing that Republicans may have had better candidates in the primary who were defeated but we see it more as the candidates who won the primary being naive about running a general election race where you have to move to the center to win the independent votes needed for victory.  The winners of the primary were also establishment candidates by definition.   Sharron Angle was a member of the Republican Executive Committee of her county for years and a State Representative. Ken Buck was a county district attorney. Dino Rossi had run statewide before and same with John Raese. They were all good people who probably should have listened more to some people who had run close races like Dr. Coburn than other people who had not won a tough race.  Tea Party Express should have stayed out of NV as it cost votes and didn't help Angle win.

Do not believe NRSC should get involved in primary campaigns period -- look at Florida where they endorsed Crist. Bad move! Let the states decide and that goes for people from out of state like Tea Party Express getting involved on the ground in primaries when they don't live in the state. It is one thing to donate money, but the Express was on the ground in Delaware, Nevada, Arizona, and other states.

Tea Party Express went all out for our two worst candidates -- O'Donnell and Miller. So did the pundits. Do these people not vet candidates as it wouldn't take much to realize these people should not have been running. Read the Anchorage Daily and have learned a tremendous amount about the Miller campaign. Trying to throw out a ballot with the 'L' in cursive and the rest printed correctly is not 'count every vote.' More like Al Gore.

Miller is a disgrace in this write-in counting that is in progress. Yet pundits and posters are still defending him and blaming the media for cherry picking ballots to show that he tried to throw out because an 'r' looked like a 'v' and things like that. He tried to keep records sealed because he lied in 2008 and quit before being fired. He should have never been the candidate but Palin and DeMint went for him because he was the anti-Murkowski candidate. BTW, Palin donated $5,000 to the Lisa Murkowski campaign last year for the person she dislikes.

Murkowski ran a louzy primary and it bit her but like her or not, she has run a masterful write-in campaign. One thing she has shown is that because you win the primary doesn't mean you will win the general.

Think the media with the help of people like DeMint and Palin have over hyped all of this Tea Party movement for stories and now they are believing their own hype. There are a lot of people who were brought into the process especially in the northeastern states but in Middle America where we have a strong grassroots who make up a large portion of the Tea Party movement it was ignored by the media led by Fox News.  Having grassroots Republicans as part of the Tea Party doesn't fit the narrative.

DeMint in the Reuters article went over the top again and yet he thinks he can run for President and find all these Tea Party people supporting him. They will be supporting Ron Paul for the most part as a large portion of the Tea Party is made up of his supporters and Libertarians who will never support someone like DeMint in the Presidential race.

It goes back to the Paulbots saying throw every incumbent out of Congress on the websites which was ludicrous since they were supporters of Ron Paul who is a member of the House. Just who is the establishment they love to demonize? Dr. Coburn of Oklahoma? How about Paul Ryan of Wisconsin or Eric Cantor of Virginia? They love to go after John Boehner who by the way is not going to be using the Pelosi plane but commercial instead to fly back to Cincinnati. Why not throw in Jeff Sessions of Alabama? If we elected men and women near the caliber of any of the these people (we did this time for the most part), we would have a conservative House and Senate with a load of Common Sense. Most of the more moderate Republicans from conservative states didn't survive 2006, 2008, or the primaries in 2010. Some of those like in Utah were not ousted as much for their votes as they didn't do anything.

This whole deal trying to pit the Tea Party against the grassroots has to end including the threats if you don't do what I say, then I are going to bolt the party. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. As Ron Paul will tell you that running without GOP support does not have a happy ending. Does DeMint honestly think with roughly 55 million registered Republicans they are all going to follow someone from South Carolina who grandstands? There are roughly 72 million Democrats and 42 million registered independents who the vast majority would never vote for someone like Jim DeMint or Sarah Palin for President.

We need a candidate for President in 2012 who can appeal to a wide range of people. Note to people like DeMint and others: We cannot win without Independents being on board so that means you move to the middle not the right. American people are mostly center right and don't want someone from either party who is unappeaseable and refuses to listen to common sense. That applies to both parties -- the far left of the Democrats and the far right of Republicans. The 'my way or no way' crowd is not going to get elected in a lot of states including my State of Oklahoma where in the primary the person who was far right lost big to a Conservative with Common Sense Mary Fallin who has more of a backbone and who will stand up against Obamacare and other bad bills coming out of DC more than most men I know.

DeMint has some good ideas but it is being overshadowed with his continual grandstanding while trying to get support for running for President.  He has lost all common sense and is believing the media that he is the 'kingmaker' of the last election.  His final total if you take out grassroots candidates who won with heavy grassroots support is not very good which is why he wants you to believe that all Republicans who won were Tea Party candidates.  With that scenario that would include Ron Kirk of Illinois who is definitely not a Tea Party candidate.  County Chairs who are now considered establishment were responsible in a lot of areas for getting out the vote and the support.  Where were the organized Tea Party members in many states in Middle America and the south who made the telephone calls or worked campaigns?  Does he honestly think that Independents and Democrats who are members of the Tea Party movement are going to make calls for Republican campaigns?  Not going to happen in most states outside the northeast. 

Nice to know as part of the grassroots we are now part of the Establishment because we are not a member of the Tea Party movement so we are no longer a conservative and not needed.  Only the Tea Party people are the conservatives now in some people's worlds.   Two of us go back to the days of passing out literature for Goldwater as teenagers and have been conservative since then.  We have been part of the grassroots helping Republican candidates for years but we are not part of the 'real' or 'pure' conservatives as touted by the far right so we don't count.  The good thing is that most candidates love to have us and others helping out their campaign because we believe in winning seats not standing on principle for bad candidates and losing. 

Any person who stays home or supports a candidate that cannot win in the general, might as well vote for the Democrat that they agree with 0% of the time because the candidate they chose not to support that they agree with 80% of the time is going to lose with that ideology.  If you don't win seats, your agenda goes down the drain as witnessed in 2006 and 2008.  We would have thought they learned a lesson but with the arrogance we are seeing along with the threats, we do not think so.  This is one time we would love to be proved wrong.