America Found Drowned In Bathtub GOP Suspected

Our goal is to shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub… Grover Norquist GOP

"How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses 2 points?" … Pope Francis

You hear from Paul Ryan and his generation, the hypothetical generational theft to come if Social Security and Medicare are not gutted for the current baby boom generation ready to retire.  Blah blah blah, we baby boomers have heard it over and over again. 

Well generational theft is real and it’s here.  They are the Reagan generation of instant gratification without working for anything.  They started out selling insurance under Reagan and just kept selling magic beans to whomever they could bilk out of their life savings.  They bleed their parents, and family members to invest in their latest scheme.  They know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

They are the real generational thieves, the tail end of the baby boomers born after 1950.  You know who they are.  They are the generation that didn’t have to go to war during the Vietnam era and therefore are always anxious for the next war they won’t have to fight. 

They are the blowhards that say, you have to spend money to make money.  They are Republicans and voted for George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.  They want to privatize Social Security because all those billions of dollars sitting in Social Security could be invested in the stock market for higher returns.  Social Security and Medicare are the old way; they have the new, get rich quick way.

They are the ones that came up with ARM loans so you could buy a Mc Mansion with little to no money down.  The premise they came up with regard to ARM loans was, you always would make more money, so don’t worry about tomorrow.

They always had a new car, kept buying bigger and bigger homes, boats, vacation condo’s, the sky was the limit.  And they were able to keep up that lifestyle by bilking “stupid” people out of their hard earned money.

The baby boomers were the ones who put 20% down to buy a modest home.  Baby boomers took out 30 year mortgages and saved in their 401K for retirement.  They paid into Social Security and Medicare, fought the wars and knew the value of a dollar.  When the Reagan generation wanted to privatize Social Security, baby boomers said “no”, that’s fool hardy.

So the Reagan generation came up with mortgage backed securities.  Those securities were worthless junk but Reganites paid the securities rating agencies to rate them as triple A.  They then sold those worthless securities to teachers unions and government workers unions and municipalities as triple A, low risk, low return, in for the long haul investments. 

Many of them in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s became billionaires on Wall Street selling that crap to Baby Boomers.  Now that the entire pyramid scheme has collapsed they are in our government and protect themselves from prosecution by offering to pay fines in order to remain free to do it again.

The Wimpy Ronald Reagan generation would always pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.  They always had a new get rich quick scheme.  Then when things went belly up on their latest scam they would file bankruptcy every seven years and start again.

Where the baby boomers respect and admire the experience and wisdom of their elders, the Reagan generation looks at them as prospects; stupid people who worked for a living.  When you are a smart Reaganite, you let the stupid work and you make money off of them.

They are the ones who walk into the bar and buy a round for everyone.  The Mr. Big, who you always wonder, where did they get all that money?

Now the bar tab is due, and they blame the $17 trillion dollar debt on the baby boomers, and their desire to retire with security.  They have cleaned out 401K’s and government pensions and now stand with their pockets inside out saying “it’s generational theft to expect our children to work”. 

Rather than prosecuting them for their generational theft of our retirement funds and government pensions, and savings they now want to return to the “cat food” days when all the elderly could afford to eat was cat food.  But now, cat food costs the same as people food, because it is a Wall Street commodity.

The Reagan generation looked at the U.S. Postal Service and saw money to be taken.  Rather than taxpayers of this country expecting their government to provide basic services, the Reaganites want to privatize the postal service into a for profit business.  Instead of citizens enjoying reasonable postal rates for shipping, get ready for that $10 package you need to ship costing $50.

The Reagan generation looked at all that government money going into our public schools and decided to redirect those tax dollars into private charter schools.  They fired tenured teachers with master’s degrees and filled those slots with inexperience teachers.  In private charter schools the accountability they demand in public schools does not exist.  The public schools federal food subsidies are cut and hungry children cannot learn. 

The Reagan generation looked at government workers and all their pension money and went after the largess.  They say the government cannot provide the same level of services that the private sector can for less.   They demand government be cut down by eliminating jobs and give tax breaks to the wealthy. 

The Reagan generation hates government subsidies for Amtrak and starve their budget then complain that Amtrak isn’t efficient and is a waste of taxpayer money.  Over 30 million people use Amtrak. 

So this Thanksgiving there won’t be much to be thankful for, Republicans have cut SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program) just in time for the holidays. While Republicans gorge themselves for Thanksgiving, many, many go hungry.

Happy Thanksgiving from the GOP.  They have finally shrunk America enough to drown in a bathtub. 

By Patricia Baeten 

Kaboom! Nuclear Option Goes Off

Oh the horrors, Democrats finally took the nuclear option.  The fainting couches at Fox News are full to the brim.  Viewers are treated to clips of Democrats warning Republicans about using the nuclear option to confirm Bush’s judges, ad nausea.

So, let’s take a little trip down the memory hole.  George Bush lost the 2000 election by over a half million votes and lost Florida in spite of his brother’s and family friends’ machinations.  After James Baker filed the lawsuit Bush v. Gore, daddy’s pals on the Supreme Court made an extra-judicial decision to overturn the election.  Bush and Cheney came into office making a full assault on our Democracy as if they had an overwhelming victory.

Starting with Bush’s pick for Attorney General John Ashcroft, the judicial system in the U.S. was forever pushed far right. 

According to Democracy Now here’s a sample of John Ashcroft’s legacy prior to being nominated for AG:

He persistently attempted to block school desegregation in his state; a federal court threatened to hold the state in contempt for his failure to comply with a court order.

He gave a lengthy interview to the Neo-Confederate magazine Southern Partisan, in which he praised Confederate leaders who fought to preserve slavery, including Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.

He distorted the record of a highly qualified African American state Supreme Court Judge and misled his colleagues in the Senate, successfully sabotaging the judge’s nomination to a federal district court.

He received an honorary degree from Bob Jones University and spoke there just three years ago; the Christian university has a segregationist history and until recently banned interracial dating and marriage.

But was Ashcroft filibustered?  No, he went on to become Attorney General and spent about $8,000 for drapes to cover “Lady Justice’s” naked breast.  He wrote the Patriot Act and allowed the torture of prisoners.  Republicans said over and over, the President has the right to an up or down vote on his choices.

Upon arrival in the White House, Bush fired all judges and began filling those seats with the biggest cavalcade of clowns in this country’s history.  Attorneys from Pat Robertson’s Regent University and Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University were prominent in the Bush Administration.  Bush’s nominees had a basic requirement, an extreme religo-crazy agenda. 

Two of Bush’s appointees that Democrats objected to were Janice Rogers Brown and Pricilla Owen.  Both were right-wing extremists.  So Republicans made a deal with Democrats, pass Bush’s picks and we will avert the “nuclear option”.  Those nut cases are still on the court today making judgments on personal religious philosophy rather than established law.

Then there was the controversial December 7, 2006 midterm dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys who were George W. Bush appointees.  There had been a mid-term election and these attorneys failed to indict Democratic politicians ahead of the election.

One of those fired attorneys was David Iglesias, who was the subject of the movie “A Few Good Men” and was played by Tom Cruise.  Iglesias a Republican and a JAG officer had received a positive performance review just before he was fired by Bush.

Iglesias was the U.S. Attorney for New Mexico where Republican Representative Heather Wilson was up for reelection.  New Mexico’s Republican Senator Pete Domenici and Representative Wilson made phone calls to Attorney Iglesias to pressure him to bring charges of corruption against Democratic Senate President Pro Tem, Manny Aragon before the election.  The FBI had been investigating Aragon for possible kickbacks in connection of construction of two courthouses in Albuquerque.

According to a 2007 article by Michael Coleman in the Albuquerque Journal:

Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias told Congress on Tuesday that Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson made "inappropriate" calls to inquire about public corruption cases.

Iglesias told House and Senate committees the calls from his fellow Republicans marked the first time he had ever received inquiries about an ongoing federal investigation from a member of Congress.

"I got the distinct impression I was to take action before (the general election)," Iglesias testified.

Monica Goodling, a Regent University (Pat Robertson) grad had been in charge of decisions on the hiring and firing of the attorneys.  At a congressional hearing on the political firings of the seven attorneys she admitted judges were hired on the basis of political predisposition.

So here we are today, the Democrats finally invoked the nuclear option.  Finally.   Our Government has been paralyzed by the Republican Party.  We must move forward.

Republicans aren’t interested in compromise, nor are they interested in sanity.  They filibuster everything, from appointments of staff and judges to the most minor legislation.  If you were dealing with sane, reasonable people you wouldn’t have to resort to the nuclear option of passing appointments with a simple majority.  But alas, we are not dealing with sane, reasonable people; we are dealing with the new Republican Party.  Sane need not apply.  Kaboom!

By Patricia Baeten

Ding Dong the Obamacare Witch is Dead

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel has been making the physician rounds on cable stations to sell the fiasco he helped to create called Affordable Healthcare Act.  For those of you who don’t know, Dr. Emanuel is the brother of Rahm Emanuel current Mayor of Chicago and former White House Chief of Staff to Obama.  So it is no surprise that the person who was instrumental in creating Obamacare was none other than Rahm’s brother, Ezekiel.

And Ezekiel isn't very tolerant of sick people, the death panels were named after his idea that after a certain age it is a waste of money to pay for life saving operations.  While he is a doctor, he is a bioethicist, which would explain his lack of bedside manner.  

According to Betsy McCaughey’s August 2009 article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Obama's Health Rationer-in-Chief:

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, health adviser to President Barack Obama, is under scrutiny. As a bioethicist, he has written extensively about who should get medical care, who should decide, and whose life is worth saving. Dr. Emanuel is part of a school of thought that redefines a physician’s duty, insisting that it includes working for the greater good of society instead of focusing only on a patient’s needs. Many physicians find that view dangerous, and most Americans are likely to agree.

Obamacare was a disaster from the get go.  The country was ready for universal healthcare provided by the government we pay taxes into.  It doesn’t make sense that our country would provide healthcare for the very young and the very old and throw the rest of its citizens to the mercy of a for-profit Wall Street based insurance system.

Since the repeal of Glass-Steagall, the insurance companies have made life and death decisions based on profit margins and something called “shareholder” value.  They continued to raise premiums to ensure continued profits for those at the top, while dropping coverage as soon an insured became ill or denied coverage for expensive life-saving treatments based on dubious “pre-existing conditions”.

This ridiculous “affordable healthcare” law was an abomination from the maternity coverage for all to the “give a buddy a government contract”.  Requiring all citizens to buy overpriced, profit driven insurance was never feasible, especially with the ungodly high unemployment rate along with the huge drop in wages. 

A for profit healthcare system is not feasible, “for profit” and “healthcare” are incongruent that is why no industrialized nation has a “for profit” system. 

If that wasn’t bad enough, turn the contract for the IT services over to a Canadian company with a really bad record, but has ties with Obama and his Chicago thugs in the White House.

Obamacare is based on lies stacked upon lies, starting with Obama’s campaign promise of Medicare for all.  His campaign promise was a lie and he knew it.  If one had listened to Obama, they would know he like his predecessor George W. Bush wanted to be transformational like Reagan.  Transformational meaning screw the American people, everything is for profit. 

Reagan’s transformation began with Alan Greenspan calling for repeal of Glass-Steagall as early as 1987.  While a lot of people concentrate on the effects of the repeal on investment banks and commercial banks, credit default swaps and derivatives trading, the repeal opened the gates of hell for insurance based national health care system traded on Wall Street.

If you are old enough to remember the Reagan years, they transformed America into a debtor country with healthcare only for the rich, high priced insurance for the rest.

Now Obamacare is going up in flames like the Hindenburg.  When the House of Representatives passed Obamacare, it included a public option.  The Senate had a sound Democratic majority and could have passed the house bill with a simple majority.  However, the Democrat’s Leader, Hapless Harry Reid said it couldn’t pass the Senate unless it had 60 votes. 

The Senate Democratic establishment of Lieberman, Dodd, Schumer, Reid, Biden et al,  took out the public option and voila, the Obama/Lieberman Democrats passed the bill with just a simple majority, no 60 votes needed. 

The bill was crafted by insurance companies without input from physicians, nurses, unions or patients.  With a sleight of hand, these pseudo Democrats assured the insurance industry their profit stream would not dry up under a President Obama.

Most of those Democrats are no longer there, they were soundly rejected and the blue dog Democrats like Brent Stupak have been sent to the pound.  Real Democrats like Al Franken, Alan Grayson, Marcy Capter, Maria Cantwell and Elizabeth Warren will have to take the blame for the handiwork of Obama and his Wall Street Democrats.  Elizabeth Warren and John McCain have introduced a bill to reinstate Glass Steagall, lets hope it passes.

So now this Obama atrocity has destroyed the sick, hobbled healthcare system we had and made it worse.  That is the story of everything Obama has had his finger prints on.  When George W. Bush was president, Newt Gingrich said the Democrats bumper stickers should say “Had Enough?”  So true today.

Look at the “high speed rail system” we were promised.  Obama decided that only states that wanted to participate would get money for high speed rail.  Imagine if Eisenhower’s interstate highway system was like that.  That is the mess you have with Obama’s high speed rail scam.

So this is what you get when the American people are not allowed to pick their candidates.  When the two parties control the primaries and whose votes they will count, you get a president that answers to his campaign donors.  It was true with Bush and true with Obama.  And all that bullsh*t about Obama’s campaign being financed by individual donors is just that, bullsh*t. 

Obama raised over $300 million in October 2008 while over 700,000 Americans were losing their jobs each month.  Those donations were in $200 or less prepaid untraceable credit cards.  That comes to $1 million for every man, woman and child in the United States.

But those banks that printed up those credit cards were handsomely rewarded and continue to be rewarded with the Federal Reserve printing $38 billion a month to bail them out.  Now we all pay the price for a president who has never accomplished anything in his life.  Totally unqualified for the office, he makes G.W. Bush look like Franklin Roosevelt.

Now after the insurance industry rejiggered their insurance plans in anticipation of the 2014 deadline to purchase their products, Obama has decided to throw a wrench in the gears and in an attempt to save himself and his democrats.  He throws out a meaningless, useless fix that can be overridden by State Insurance Commissioners intensifying the horrific mess he created.

There is no way to fix this mess, absolutely no way.  Well I guess we’ll have to stand back and watch this fiasco come to its natural conclusion, the worst law ever passed by the worst congress and worst President in history. I just hope not too many lives are lost in the interim.

By Patricia Baeten

Is The Secretive Carlyle Group in Charge of Spying for America?

 

You have to wonder what Edward Snowden saw that was so horrific and egregious it would make him give up everything for nothing in return.  He was making around $200,000 a year working in paradise, now he will be on the run for the rest of his life.  It really makes me wonder about a lot of things that are going on. 

"You can't come forward against the world's most powerful intelligence agencies and be completely free from risk because they're such powerful adversaries. No one can meaningfully oppose them. If they want to get you, they'll get you in time.

But at the same time you have to make a determination about what it is that's important to you. And if living unfreely but comfortably is something you're willing to accept, and I think it many of us are it's the human nature; you can get up everyday, go to work, you can collect your large paycheck for relatively little work against the public interest, and go to sleep at night after watching your shows."

Edward Snowden

  

I started thinking, how is it that jobs that you thought only your government legally could do are being outsourced on a massive scale to private contractors.  Edward Snowden worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, so I started wondering, who is that contractor and how did they get this government contract?  

The Obama Administration claims they had no idea the spying program existed nor did they know world leaders were having their private communications spied on.

According to an article in the Washington Post by Neil Irwin, “Seven Facts About Booz Allen Hamilton”

Booz has 24,500 employees, $5.8 billion in revenue for its 2013 fiscal year, $219 million in profits and a stock market value of $2.5 billion.

It's majority-owned by the Carlyle Group.  Carlyle, who owns 67.3 percent of Booz Allen's stock, is a global private equity giant having $176 billion in assets managed in 114 different funds.

The article goes on to say that 99% of Booz Allen Hamilton's revenues come from services they provide to the U.S. government.  They reported operating income of less than $200 million on revenue of $5.1 billion.  That’s pretty staggering and what’s even more crazy is that their bottom line was 9 times higher in 2013 than it was in 2010.  That year, 2010 was the same year that the “tea party” came into existence and Republicans took over the House of Representatives.

So the U.S. government is the source of basically ALL of their $5.1 billion in revenue.  And, they are almost exclusively owned by the Carlyle Group.

Sometimes called the Ex-Presidents Club, Carlyle has a glittering array of ex-politicians andbig league bankers on its board. Former secretary of state James Baker is managing director while ex-secretary of defence Frank Carlucci is chairman. George Bush senior is an adviser. John Major heads up its European operations. 

In the wake of 11 September came a fear of anthrax attack. One company that benefited was Pittsburgh- based IT Group, which won a number of contracts to clean up anthrax-infected buildings, including the Hart Senate Office Building. Carlyle owned 25 per cent of the firm, which it subsequently sold on. Likewise its investment in US Investigation Services, a company that specialises in checking the background of employees, saw business improve dramatically.

Well, talk about taking lemons and making lemonade.  Not only did they make a shitload cleaning up after the anthrax attack, but they were able to use that as an excuse to go to war and war is where the Carlyle Group really makes a killing.

The Carlyle Group was the subject of a documentary called “Iron Triangle The Carlyle Group” the Bush family, the Saudi Royal family, Osama Bin Laden’s family and Donald Rumsfeld’s inner circle are just some of the high profile figures who have played a direct role in the rise of one of the most powerful and influential and secretive firms in Washington.

So the Carlyle Group has been conducting all the spying and surveillance in the U.S. that encompasses every country and government in the world.    Under the Obama Administration more whistleblowers and journalist have been threatened and prosecuted than under all other presidents combined.  

According to an article in Mother Jones titled “Obama’s War on Whistleblowers”, this White House has leaked information favorable to Obama without regard for National Security while crushing whistleblowers who release information that is not favorable. 

So if these private contractors conduct surveillance on everyone in the United States and the World including World Leaders, what is to keep them from cherry picking information that will further enrich or empower themselves even if it means spying on world leaders or to an extreme, having them eliminated?

The secret information is used by Obama to determine who will be killed in extrajudicial drone attacks.  What’s to keep these private contractors from passing on the names of their adversaries for elimination by the Obama Administration?

In an article written in The Nation by Lee Fang titled “How Spy Agency Contractors Have Already Abused Their Powers”, the dangers of these agencies contracted by the U.S. Government to Spy are enumerated.

Could the sprawling surveillance state enable government or its legion of private contractors to abuse their technology and spy upon domestic political targets or judges?

Two years ago, a batch of stolen e-mails revealed a plot by a set of three defense contractors (Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies and HBGary Federal) to target activists, reporters, labor unions and political organizations.

The plans— one concocted in concert with lawyers for the US Chamber of Commerceto sabotage left-leaning critics, like the Center for American Progress and the SEIU, and a separate proposal to “combat” WikiLeaks and its supporters, including Glenn Greenwald, on behalf of Bank of America— fell apart after reports of their existence were published online.

The episode also shows that Greenwald, who helped Snowden expose massive spying efforts in the United States, had been targeted by spy agency contractors in the past for supporting whistleblowers and WikiLeaks.

While Palantir boasts that its government-backed technology is geared towards helping the military track terrorists, stolen e-mails from HBGary Federal show the firm and its senior executives were eager to use its platform on behalf of the Chamber, one of the largest corporate lobbying associations.

In the fall of 2010, the Chamber had received unflattering attention, first from a New York Times piece about allegedly laundered money from AIG, and then from my reporting at the Center for American Progress’ Think Progress blog about foreign funds flowing to the Chamber’s 501(c)(6) entity used to run campaign advertisements. 

So according to Lee Fang’s Nation Magazine article, in the fall of 2010 (the year the tea party took over the house) the Chamber of Commerce allegedly laundered funds from AIG and facilitated the flowing of foreign funds to the Chamber’s 501(c)(6) entity to run campaign advertisements.   Are the secret spy agencies funded by the U.S. Government using information to affect the outcomes of elections to ensure an uninterrupted flow of governmental money into their coffers?  I think the answer is yes.

An article in the Oregonian entitled “Wyden, Blumenauer say private contractors play too powerful a role in spy agencies”,

Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Earl Blumenauer told a Portland audience Friday that the U.S.intelligence network relies too heavily on hundreds of thousands of private contractors who have gained top security clearances.

In addition, Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said after their appearance that the panel is close to releasing a report showing that contractors played a major role in the "interrogations and torture" of terrorism suspects.

Blumenauer, who has also been critical of government surveillance activities, said some 500,000 contractors are among the one million Americans who have top-security classifications.

Sheesh, who doesn’t have top-security classification.  Is it any wonder that Edward Snowden feared for his life?  Is it any wonder the Glenn Greenwald fears for his freedom as an investigative reporter protected by the First Amendment?  Why was Michael Savage banned in Britain?  It doesn’t make any sense. 

Why were warnings from Russia about Tamerlan Tsarnaev ignored by the FBI?  Would a terrorist attack on Boston suit the purposes of these private spying contractors?

I think there’s a lot to be learned in knowing more about these “private, secret societies” like the Carlyle Group that are conducting our spying.  We need to know how much these agencies have gained financially since 9/11/01. 

By Patricia Baeten

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Edward Snowden the International Gift That Keeps on Giving

Well, well it seems the Bush Doctrine of belligerent foreign policy has not only been continued but “enhanced” by the Obama Administration.  Now there are some in the international playground with their undies in a bundle.  Angela Merkel is not happy that her personal, private phone calls have been intercepted and monitored, nor are the presidents of Mexico or Brazil. 

This is the biggest foreign policy disaster since George Bush’s spy plane was shot down over China on April Fool’s Day 2001. 

Bush’s in your face foreign policy started with China, by announcing his decision to sell advanced anti-missile air defense systems to Taiwan.  The announcement served no military purpose because the destroyers wouldn’t be ready until 2006, but Bush was appeasing the extreme right of the Republican Party who were still fighting communism.

The systems didn’t even work; they failed every test that Bush tried, even the one where they put a sensor on the nose of the dummy missile to attract the anti-missile interceptor.  But that didn’t matter they were going to show how tough they were to China and enrich the defense contractors to boot.

Well, during a saber rattling demonstration of their power, Bush and Cheney decided to fly a spy plane over China.  During this maneuver our spy plane flew into one of two Chinese spy planes that were spying on our spy plane.  A Chinese pilot was killed and our spy plane was forced to land in Hainan, China.

Bush’s immediate reaction was strident, demanding the US pilots be released and the Chinese return our spy plane without boarding or looking at it.  (And he demanded the pilots have their bibles.)  The Chinese pretty much laughed at Bush and told him he had to apologize first.  They said he had to apologize and say pretty please to get the spy plane back.  Bush hesitated so the Chinese said he had to say I’m sorry, pretty please with a cherry on top can I have my spy plane?

After much squealing and bravado, Bush apologized and our most sophisticated spy plane was completely dismantled by Chinese aeronautic scientists, taking every bit of US technological advancements available.  The plane was then boxed up and shipped to Bush, C.O.D. 

God what some dopes, and to think this administration is even more stupid than that. 

Let’s take a walk down memory lane.  On May 20, 2013 Edward Snowden, a 29 year-old whistleblower who was employed by CIA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, fled to Hong Kong.  Snowden had revealed classified information to Guardian journalist, Glenn Greenwald, about a massive international communication surveillance program being conducted in secret by the NSA in the U.S. 

When his story was revealed and that he was hiding in Hong Kong, Snowden garnered the sympathy of people of the world.  His act of civil disobedience in blowing the whistle on the United States government’s massive spying program made him a hero to citizens of the world. 

The Obama Administration immediately began demanding that Hong Kong extradite Snowden to the US to face espionage charges.  In response, hundreds of demonstrators took to Hong Kong’s streets voicing support for Snowden, calling for the arrest of Obama.  Pro-Snowden demonstrations broke out around the world.   

Then the Obama Justice Department tried to legally extradite Snowden but bungled their attempt.  The extradition request did not fully comply with Hong Kong law so Snowden was free to leave.  Hong Kong also requested the U.S. to clarify reports from Snowden that the NSA had hacked into computers in Hong Kong violating the rights of their citizens.

So, from Hong Kong Snowden fled to Moscow with the intention of flying to Cuba and on to Venezuela. But a pissed off Obama revoked Snowden’s Visa so he couldn’t travel and demanded Russia extradite Snowden.  Well, we don’t have an extradition treaty with Russia and Snowden didn’t have a Russian Visa, so Snowden was stuck there.  He began requesting asylum from any country.

While Snowden was stuck in Russia, Obama was all over the map, with “I don’t care about Snowden” to threats to any country’s leader that would allow asylum.  At one point, Putin said “It is Like Shearing a Pig There’s Lots of Squealing and Little Fleece”.  In the end Putin allowed Snowden to remain in Russia.

Now we find out Merkel’s phone has been tapped by the NSA since 2002, under George W. Bush.  Makes you wonder what private information Bush was thinking about while meeting all those world leaders.  You wonder when looking at his facial expressions and body language as he’s meeting foreign leaders “what personal information did he have on them?”    

So Edward Snowden is just the “Gift that Keeps on Giving”.  Makes you excited to see the next chapter of this saga.

By Patricia Baeten

GOP Eats Their Tea Party Young

Ah, yes.  It was just a matter of time before the GOP would recoil from its begotten.  The GOP sold its soul to the Koch Brothers long ago.  They were patient in building their Frankenstein’s monster.  It took over 30 years, but it’s here and now it’s turning on them.

The GOP was once a somewhat noble party, or as noble as Republicans could ever get.  The party of Goldwater is gone.  It didn’t just disappear though; it was extinguished by the Reaganites. 

The eleventh commandment as it is called, “thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican” was originally coined by California Republican Party Chairman Gaylord Parkinson.  The commandment was used to solidify the Republican Party after the 1964 defeat of Barry Goldwater in the presidential election.  Goldwater was labeled an extremist for his conservative positions and declared unfit to hold office by fellow Republicans.

Reagan picked up the “commandment” during his first five primaries of the 1976 Republican primary race against incumbent Gerald Ford and lost all of them.  He abandoned this approach in the North Carolina Primary and defeated Ford 52-46.  Reagan’s attacks weakened Ford and cost him the general election.

The Republican party before and after George W. Bush, began threatening its members to vote in lock step or the party would not financially support their candidacies.  They purged the party of any member who did not toe the party line.  This was particularly evident in the Medicare Part D legislation under George W. Bush.

Representative Billy Tauzin R-LA was the architect of the Medicare Part D prescription drug legislation.  The law was a nightmare for seniors and pharmacists but brought huge profits to the drug manufacturers who paid Tauzin handsomely in return.  In order to pass the bill, the party leadership, including Rep. John Boehner R-OH walked the floor, delivering threats and twisting arms.  Boehner passed out checks from the tobacco industry to purchase their votes. 

One former Representative, Nick Smith R-MI was retiring and was against the bill.  His son, who was running for his seat, was offered a $100,000 contribution and national support if Smith would vote for the bill.  If he didn’t they would run a candidate against his son and cut off all money and GOP support.

Well, the rest is history.  So when the “Tea Party” was conjured up like Frankenstein in a GOP friendly laboratory funded by the Koch Brothers and their many conservative think tanks, all was happy in GOP land. 

As these crazy’s, many who appeared to be on Social Security and probably Social Security Disability due to low I.Q.’s and schizophrenia, were bused across the U.S. to show up in Democratic town hall meetings on Obamacare, it was great fun for the GOP to watch. 

These people were filmed dressed in Colonial Tea Party attire with teabags stapled to their hats, like one big Halloween party screaming for smaller government or better yet no government.  What they didn’t know was, with no government they wouldn’t receive their Social Security checks, Disability checks and the Post Office wouldn’t deliver their badly needed Psychotropic drugs.

Well, it’s always fun until someone loses an eye.  Pretty soon these nut jobs were getting out of hand and their puppet masters, the Koch Brothers started running candidates against any Republican with a modicum of sanity.  While their candidates were adored by the Tea Party and won contests on the state level, on the national level they were seen as what they were, nuts.

The Tea Party had a level of success in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The House holds elections every two years, after all how much harm could they do in two years. 

The House Tea Party was pretty well held in check until the Tea Party was able to get a couple U.S. Senators elected, Ted Cruz R-TX (naturally) and Mike Lee R-UT.  Good old Ted told the Tea Party in the House to ignore Boehner and demand the government be shut down if the demands to repeal Obamacare were not met.   

They were told they could blame it on Democrats for not caving to their demands and there was plenty of money and if the government defaulted on their debt, it wasn’t a big deal.

Now that the polls show national revulsion over shutting down an entire government for no reason, the Republicans are boxed in and losing ground fast, very fast.

For instance, we are seeing headlines like:

Texas Judge Carlo Key Flees the GOP: ‘These Are Not My Values’

Carlo Key, a judge in Bexar County, Texas, has left the Republican Party, and he blames the Tea Party. “Rational Republican beliefs have given way to ideological character assassination,” says Key in a video announcing his switch to the Democratic Party, ahead of his reelection campaign. “Make no mistake, I have not left the Republican Party. It left me.”

Fox News is heading for the fainting couches over an Alan Grayson campaign ad seen here:

Ha ha, they have demanded an apology from Representative Grayson, who said “fat chance, if the hood fits wear it”. 

Maybe Fox should be listening to Texas Judge Carlo Key mentioned above.  His reason for leaving the GOP was this:

Key’s big concern, like so many Americans who have voiced their disapproval of the GOP, is with values. His local party supported a San Antonio City Council member, Elisa Chan, who was caught making derisive comments about the local LGBT community, calling its members “disgusting” and “unfit to be parents.” As an elected official, Key was expected to attend a press conference where he—and others—would defend Chan. He couldn’t do it. “I got in my car,” said Key in an interview with The Daily Beast, “and I said, ‘I just can’t go. These are not my values.”

More headlines:

In Utah, tea party favorite Sen. Lee faces GOP backlash over government shutdown

Lee’s approval ratings in Utah have cratered, and prominent Republicans and local business executives are openly discussing the possibility of mounting a primary challenge against him. Top Republicans are also maneuvering to redesign the party’s nomination system in a way that would likely make it more difficult for Lee to win reelection in 2016.

Tea party tactics cause business groups to rethink GOP support

"If I was your political broker, my advice would be that you sell your Republican shares and buy the Democrats," Bill Graves, chief executive officer of the American Trucking Associations, said at the group's annual convention in Orlando, Fla.

Yes, it was just a matter of time.  But Democrats shouldn’t be too excited because their rank and file are not much better.  Democrats would be well advised to take to heart what is happening in the Republican Party and have a real shakeup in their own party.  Hapless Harry Reid and Lousy Nancy Pelosi have to go; they are holding the party back.  We need new leadership, fast. 

Elizabeth Warren needs to be the new Democratic Senate Leader and Alan Grayson needs to be the leader in the House.  It is time for real Democrats to take over and hold the Obama Administration responsible for the train wreck that is Obamacare.  It needs to be completely revamped from an insurance company executive retirement plan to a real healthcare plan for the American people.

We need a new Attorney General, Eric Holder has to go.  There are too many in the Obama Administration that are way too cozy with the criminals on Wall Street. 

Our 100 year commitment to the Federal Reserve expires in December.  It is time to take a long, hard look at the Private Banking Companies that comprise the Federal Reserve. 

What better time to break our ties with the Privately Owned Federal Reserve Bank, than when they have bought up all those worthless mortgage backed securities they have been sticking the American treasury with.

Happy Halloween GOP, your monsters have arrived.

By Patricia Baeten

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