Lest We Forget: The Naked Truth About the Tea Party, and Why it Must Be Stopped!

Ok America, we’ve been brought to the brink by the toxic hatred and hypocrisy of the Tea Party movement, something this site has tried to warn people about since 2010. And while the country was severely damaged, and millions of Americans injured as a result, the total devastation of our economy and our standing in the world was narrowly avoided….this time. But what of our future? How many more must suffer at the hands of a movement fueled by hatred, fear, anger, and a total disregard for our country, our Democracry, and our Constitution?

That is why it is important to remind all of America of where the Tea Party comes from, and what their motivations were, and are. Likely, few recall the story of Midge Hough, who in late 2010 was instrumental in pulling back the curtain on the then relatively new Tea Party Movement that was raising a shrill and discordant voice during the healthcare debate taking place at the time.

Attending a town hall meeting held by Congressman Dan Lipinski to thank him for his early support of the healthcare legislation then in the House of Representatives, she was invited by the Congressman to speak, and she got up to tell a tragic personal story of losing her 7 month pregnant daughter-in-law Jenny, and her unborn grandchild due to a lack of health insurance, which effectively blocked adequate access to the primary and critical care she needed when she contracted pneumonia. You see, Jenny had been left to the mercy of three indifferent ERs who had little interest in an uninsured patient, and she, and her child, became yet another statistic of America’s woeful healthcare system that for the uninsured, provides the minimum, and ultimately insufficient, treatment.

As Ms. Hough recounted this personally tragic story, it was then that she was heckled and derided by the Tea Party Patriots, a group led by a woman named Catherina Wojtowicz. The event was written about in the local newspaper, the Southtown Star and captured on a video that went viral on YouTube:

What followed was a chorus of condemnation of the Tea Party and it’s doctrine of hate and vitriol, as the attack was read about or seen by literally millions of Americans who, for the first time, saw the truly dark side of the Tea Party Movement. The leader of the Tea Party group responsible, Ms. Wojtowicz, was condemned by Keith Olbermann as a ‘Worst Person in the World,’ and the story was a featured segment on The Ed Show on MSNBC called ‘No Shame Tea Party.’

Now, in the rubble of the near disaster brought on by the Tea Party and their campaign to get rid of Obamacare, which would result in a whole new generation of Jenny’s, it is important to remind Americans of what is at risk if they continue to remain complacent and allow the Tea Party and their extremist candidates to continue their assault on our nation, our freedoms and our democracy.

While they would have you believe their movement is about spending and big government, the reality is that the Tea Party manifesto is one that celebrates hatred, racism, demagoguery, intimidation, and most importantly lies. This is something we have seen all to clearly in recent days as Tea Party darlings Ted ‘the Cubanadian Imposter’ Cruz and Sarah ‘half-term’ Palin led an ugly, and unwelcome demonstration at a non-partisan Veterans Group event at the WWII Memorial, where speakers called for the POTUS to put down his Koran and get up off his prayer rug, and where a man held up in a confederate flag in front of the White House where a black family lives. This only reinforces Midge Hough’s experience from November 2010, as do many other cases of Tea Party extremism and intimidation since the movement burst on the political scene.

This is why November 4, 2014 is now so important to the future of America. That day, when America votes for members of the U.S. House and Senate, represents a critical juncture in the history of our Republic, when all Americans must stand up to be heard in order to protect that which our Founding Fathers intended; a country that embraces diversity, welcomes those of good intent who want to live among us, promotes equality for all, and allows for the free and civil expression of differing points of view.

A Primer on the Tea Party’s Hypocrisy

The fact that America is just about the only country in the world without universal healthcare has provided the Tea Party terrorists with a unique and powerful WMD to us against the American people, and they don’t intend to miss the opportunity.

So here we are America, standing on the edge of the abyss, with our democracy at risk and the well being of millions of Americans hanging in the balance. And why is this happening? Because of a small core of radical jihadists who have taken one branch of our government hostage with the intention of inflicting as much harm on our country as possible. Yep, while America worried about the threat of terrorism from abroad, the terrorists in our midst, the Tea Party Movement, made their move to destroy our democracy and harm Americans in ways Al Qaeda could only dream about.

To understand how we let this happen, we need only look back to 2009 to see just how insidious and cunning these terrorists were, and how they and the secret forces that bankrolled them carried out their diabolical plan of destruction.

Shortly after the bail out of Wall Street and the nation’s largest banks by the government to avert economic disaster, and in the immediate aftermath of Obama taking office, Rick Santelli, a rich Wall Street fat cat who until then was an irrelevant and embarrassingly untalented media personality on CNBC, went on an alleged ‘spontaneous rant,’ blaming everyone from Obama to the Congress for being irresponsible, promoting bad behavior, and screwing the average person. It was then that Santelli, as scripted by the Koch brothers and the Heritage Foundation, suggested that perhaps people should do what the Patriots did in Boston to protest taxes and have a Chicago Tea Party. In that rant he conveniently neglected to mention the real culprits that had brought the country to the brink; the rich and powerful Wall Street interests of which he was, and still is, a part.

After Santelli’s amateurish performance, the Tea Party Movement was born and immediately went viral. People who for 8 years could have cared less about a Republican Administration that drove the country deep into debt, waged two wars we could not afford, endangered our civil liberties with a Justice Department bent on prosecuting political enemies ahead of criminals, and lied to the public on a regular basis, were suddenly enraged by an Obama Administration that was but 60 days old. And following Santelli’s corporate supplied script, everyone who feared having a black man in the White House began blaming everything that was wrong in the world on the Federal Government. And Wall Street and Big Business, who bore the bulk of the responsibility for almost bringing down our economy? Well, they conveniently got a pass. Go figure!

With websites, chapters and organization seemingly appearing overnight and funded by mysterious and unseen benefactors, the Tea Party Movement leveraged all of middle America’s greatest fears to fuel a movement that whispered a little too loudly about the POTUS’ being a black man for the racists among us; gave rise to ‘birther’ claims for the paranoid conspiracy lovers out there; shouted threats of retribution for immigrants stealing our plush jobs flipping burgers and trimming hedges to satisfy the anti-immigration set; and called for punishment at the alter and in the law for those with alternative lifestyles to the delight of the religiously righteous and homophobes alike.

Some sensed that this new movement was less about government spending and frustration with ineffective government, and more about racism and white anger at losing power and preference. Others charged that it was yet another example of rich, educated and powerful forces manipulating populist anger and fears so average Americans would do their dirty work, even if it was contrary to their own self-interests.

And while the main stream media ignored these concerns, and happily rode the movement’s notoriety and YouTube targeted antics to ratings glory, troubling evidence suggested more at work than a populist uprising. Such as the report in Playboy (that was subsequently pulled under mysterious circumstances from the Playboy site) suggesting Santelli’s rant was not off the cuff “but rather it was a carefully planned trigger for the anti-Obama campaign.” In other words, a carefully organized and sophisticated campaign, one in which Santelli served as a frontman, using the CNBC airwaves for publicity, for a cabal of right-wing interests including the infamous Koch family, multibillionaire owners of the largest private corporation in America, and funders of right-wing think-tanks and advocacy groups. The scion of the Koch family, Fred Koch, was also a co-founder of the notoriously extreme, right-wing John Birch Society.” And that “Big Business was pouring tens of millions of dollars into their media machines in order to destroy just about every economic campaign promise Obama has made,” and that what is at stake “isn’t the little guy’s fight against big government, as Santelli and his supporters claim, but rather the “upper 2 percent”’s war to protect their wealth from the Obama Adminstration’s economic plans.”

So yeah, it was pretty clear then, and is even more clear now that the whole Tea Party thing was not a wave of outrage from the proletariat standing up against oppressive government and injustice. Nope, it was the rich and powerful basically doubling down to make sure they would continue becoming richer and more powerful on the backs of the average Joe and Jane. And guess what, with the help of the mainstream media, Fox News, and the almost pathological avoidance of the American voter to even question what they’re being told, let alone take the time to actually investigate the facts, the Tea Party plan worked beautifully….UNTIL NOW!

What the masterminds from Wall St. and in America’s corporate boardrooms didn’t count on was how ugly and dangerous the movement would become. One only had to look at Tea Party signs and the rhetoric displayed at the well funded rallies that sprang up to know the movement was getting pretty ugly. Or the town hall meetings where the movement came equipped with scripts and talking points provided by insurance companies and lobbyists, which they used to stifle discussion and shout down elected officials as they set the standard for thuggish behavior and mob mentality intended to intimidate and threaten. Or the spectacle of Tea Party enforcers, some wearing Americans for Prosperity logos on their hats and shirts, attacking a man with Parkinsons at a healthcare reform rally, or three male supporters of Tea Party darling Rand Paul stomping on the head of a woman who was protesting at one of his rallies.

This ugly and hateful foundation then spawned a class of GOP Tea Party candidates, many of whom were unfit to hold a job at McDonalds let alone hold elected office, like deadbeat dad Joe Walsh of Illinois. With a remarkable number of them combining the lie induced Tea Party rage with the limited attention span of the American voter and getting elected.

So now, the country now finds itself once again teetering on the edge of economic Armageddon due to the Tea Party fueled government shutdown and coming Debt Ceiling crisis. And the creators of the Tea Party movement, the Wall St. elite, now find themselves also facing disaster as a result.

And these terrorists are not content with just destroying our economy, they also are bent on harming as many Americans as possible by denying them access to healthcare as they seek to destroy the Affordable Care Act that people are now flocking to. The fact that America is just about the only country in the world without universal healthcare has provided the Tea Party terrorists with a unique and powerful WMD to use against the American people, and they don’t intend to miss the opportunity.

We can only hope that as more and more Americans become aware and realize how they have been duped by the Tea Party Movement and the lies being told by politicians in the pockets of corporate lobbyists and by corporate leaders on Wall Street and in Big Business, the anger will continue to grow, and they will finally come to their senses at the ballot box. The sad truth is this…if we don’t stand up and take action to destroy the terrorist Tea Party Movement, then we as a nation, a people and a democracy, may not survive.

We didn’t have to read the TEA LEAVES to see this coming!

One need only look at Tea Party hypocrites like John Boehner to know that we are facing a much more dangerous enemy from within than from without, and that compared to today’s GOP, no terrorist organization in the world is more of a threat to our democracy.

America now stands on the brink of an economic calamity of potentially catastrophic proportions, the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives is in tatters due to a core of Tea Party maniacs who are in a position to fundamentally impact millions of American’s lives in tragic and even potentially deadly ways, and it appears that our government is hopelessly paralyzed for the foreseeable future.

Of course for some, it is not a surprise that we now find ourselves in this mess. Most reasonably intelligent Americans saw this coming a long time ago. But sadly, too many people either didn’t listen, or they didn’t believe it was possible that the sort of dangerous extremism the Tea Party represented could really happen in our country. Well, guess what, it can and it has, and now millions will pay with their money, their livelihoods and in some cases, their lives.

The reality is, this is about Obamacare.  And what is most galling is that the very elected officials who claim to love the Constitution and stand for true Americans, are the ones who are trashing our democratic institutions by trying to subvert a law that has been upheld electorally and legally!

But the main stream media fails to ask tough questions and the 24/7 noise of cable news and talk radio continue to promote a false equivalency when in truth, only one party, the GOP, is responsible for this mess.  And then of course there is the American voter, who is so lazy they never question the nonsense the politicians or the empty suits and talking heads in the media are feeding them, choosing to pay more attention to voting for American Idol than they do in voting to send representatives to Washington DC, resulting in a government that is populated by wholly unqualified individuals who have no other objective than to either enrich themselves or impose their religious and moral views on others.

It may be too late, but some Americans are starting to come around and realize just how dangerous the Tea Party is. As posted in a prescient TMPC article from two years ago “Tea Party Movement Getting Americans Steamed” the view of the Tea Party is going in the proverbial toilet.  The problem is we’re still stuck with the 2010 class of Tea Party representatives who are likely to screw things up for another year, so it will only get worse as Tea Party hypocrites embarrass themselves and their idiot constituents with childish behavior like the fak-I-buster by Ted (who’s your daddy Boehner?) Cruz, and by continuing to pursue their dangerous agenda intended to harm innocent Americans.

Come November 2014, the people of America who are paying attention must do something about this lest we lose our freedoms, our nation and our Democracy forever!

Tough Times for the Tea Party Just Keep Getting WORSE!

It is not going very well for the Tea Party these days, and by the looks of things, it is only going to get worse. Just consider these recent Tea Party disasters and disappointments:

• Caribou Barbie declines to step up to the plate in the Presidential race (probably because she realized that she would be expected to work at it for the full four years).
• Then the movement’s second choice, Michelle Bachmann, reveals just how shallow and unsubstantial a candidate she is after a surprise showing in the Iowa Caucuses, as her campaign unravels so badly that even high ranking Tea Party leaders urge her to shut her campaign down.
• Perry follows as the next ‘Great Right Hope’ and after roaring to the top of the heap fueled by Tea Party hate, he flames out as the national stage proves to be more than he can handle and he has one cringe inducing moment after another.
• Then the Tea Party’s hopes of enlisting Governor Chris Christie of NJ to run for President turn out much like an attempt to lift up the plus size Governor would…they are crushed and flattened like a pancake
• Now the latest darling of the Tea Party’s affection (or delusions, you decide), Herman (Naa Naa Naaa…Lookin’ Good Mama) Cain looks to be embroiled in all kinds of nasty business about past indiscretions involving females in his employ, with the biggest damage being done not by the accusations (which are basically he said / she said), but more by his, and his campaign’s awful attempts at managing the crisis.

Of course, all this comes as the Tea Party finds it is less popular among Americans than Homosexuals and Muslims, and as the Occupy Movement (a true grass roots effort) basically appropriates the Tea Party message in ways that actually make sense, i.e. focusing on the real problems impacting the middle class, be they caused by business, government, or the dangerous intersection of both that controls so many people’s lives and that leaves so many powerless.

So now, as the Tea Party Movement continues to crash and burn, and as more and more Americans by the day see it for what it is, a corporate creation intended to do the bidding of rich and powerful interests like the Koch Brothers, yet another humiliation smacks Tea Partiers in the kisser…the long anticipated, and long awaited TEA PARTY HD NETWORK, that was supposed to bring the movement into the media age and spread the Tea Party gospel in crystal clear HD, now turns out to have been nothing but a scam by unscrupulous profiteers looking to make a buck and screw the average Tea Partier. Yep, in an ironic twist that even the most imaginative screenwriter would be hard pressed to come up with, the Tea Party is royally screwed by the very same types of people the movement has decided to go to bat for…people who worry only about making money, generating profits, and who will do whatever it takes to make that happen.

You know, in a way it is kinda sad. Just think of the creative, innovative and imaginative programming we could have been treated to. Why, one need only remember that famous rebuttal to the President’s State of the Union that was given by Michele Bachmann, when she appeared to be staring off into a corner while addressing the nation. Yep, she was staring into the Tea Party HD Network camera, instead of the one that was being used to broadcast to the nation and the world. Let’s face it, you won’t find that kind of ‘out of the box’ thinking when it comes to broadcasting at NBC, CBS, ABC, or even Fox News!

Melissa the Martyr: a victim for wanting America to fail?

For Melissa the Martyr, and for the Tea Party Nation, only one side is allowed to vilify, demonize, denigrate, attack, threaten and dehumanize their opponents, and only one side has license to say whatever is necessary to promote their agenda, no matter how dangerous or damaging it is to their fellow countrymen and to their nation.

After calling for America to fail so that she may see her political agenda fulfilled, Melissa Brookstone now finds she has become the victim of unscrupulous persecution and egregious attacks against her from the insane left and the progressives, led by dark forces funded by George Soros and supported by the lunatics from the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Yes, after making such accusations as…

• The President, Democrats in Congress, the media and all progressives are committing treason
• That these same horrible politicians and activists are part of global conspiracy to destroy our Democracy
• That they are socialists
• That they are bent on collapsing the American economy
• And after she advocated that small businesses should stop all job creation to bring down the country and the POTUS

Melissa the Martyr is now casting herself as a victim because of the furor over her manifesto that SEEKS TO HARM AMERICANS AND PROMOTE THE FAILURE OF THE U.S. ECONOMY IN PURSUIT OF HER POLITICAL AGENDA!

OH THE HUMANITY!

And as the owner of Colorado Process Servers and a member of several professional associations including NAPPS, PSACO and the PPIAC, Ms. Brookstone is now claiming her livelihood is being impacted all because of vicious attacks by the liberal, George Soros funded, smear machine (and not because she has decided not to hire employees she might need to conduct business), a smear machine that is are making outrageous claims like…

• Demonizing her unfairly just because she made the ever so reasonable and rational assertions that the POTUS, all media, and all progressives are socialists and that they are guilty of treason!
• Libel for being unfairly called a “Tea Party leader” by this website and multiple other news outlets that have reported her as a Tea Bagger Queen, Leader and Activist, all because she is (apparently) an unwitting or unknowing leading voice and blogger on one of the Tea party movement’s signature websites, Tea Party Nation.
• This site making ‘death’ threats against her. A claim that unfortunately for her, has not a shred of truth or evidence to support it and which she cannot prove, making some wonder if she has this site confused with Ann Coulter, who reguarly advocates murdering her opponents, or the millions of Tea Party faithful who brandish their weapons as intimidation and threats to those they oppose, such as the threat made against this blog by one of Ms. Brookstone’s supporters, Charlie Z.
• George Soros being behind this site and the attacks on her, something we at this site did not know, and which we are thrilled to hear because that means we’ll be driving much nicer cars in the very near future!

Poor, poor Melissa the Martyr…all she did was post in the public domain a manifesto that seeks to harm American citizens and the U.S. economy for personal and political gain, resulting in public outrage and a call to action that is intended to make sure that people know about it so she can PROUDLY and COURAGEOUSLY own her words and her beliefs.

But how dare people force her to be accountable, force her to own her words, and force her to take responsiblity for what she advocates and believes! For Melissa the Martyr, and for the Tea Party Nation, only one side is allowed to vilify, demonize, denigrate, attack, threaten and dehumanize their opponents, and only one side has license to say whatever is necessary to promote their agenda, no matter how dangerous or damaging it is to their fellow countrymen and to their nation. And of course, that side is the one Melissa the Martyr shares with her Tea Party brethren. The fact that the rest of America doesn’t know this truth to be self evident? Well, that is unjust, unfair, unreasonable, and frankly un-American as far as Melissa the Martyr and the Tea Party Nation are concerned!

The Case Against Tea Party Nation Martyr Melissa Brookstone

See also Melissa the Martyr: a victim for wanting America to fail?

Well now it seems that Tea Party Nation activist Melissa Brookstone’s is casting herself as a martyr because of the furor over her manifesto that seeks to harm Americans by calling for the cessation of all job creation. The owner of Colorado Process Servers and a member of several professional associations including NAPPS, PSACO and the PPIAC, Ms. Brookstone made a variety of outrageous claims, including; the President, Democrats in Congress, the media and all progressives are committing treason; that they are part of global conspiracy to destroy our Democracy; that they are socialists; and that they are bent on collapsing the American economy. Therefore, she is going to stop all hiring, and by extension calls for all small businesses to do the same in order to destroy the Obama Administration. IN OTHER WORDS…PROMOTE THE FAILURE OF THE U.S. ECONOMY IN PURSUIT OF HER POLITICAL AGENDA! And now, because she is having to own up to what she advocates she is now saying SHE is the victim of vicious attacks by the liberal smear machine, specifically…

• She is offended by attacks on her, including the use of a Wanted Poster (without crosshairs I might add and that only says the reward is the gratitude of reasonable Americans) after she calls out the POTUS for treason, damns all media, and accuses all progressives of being socialists.
• She claims libel for being called a “Tea Party leader” yet she is a leading blogger on Tea Party Nation, and multiple news outlets have reported her as a Tea Bagger Queen, Leader and Activist.
• She claims this site has made ‘death’ threats, which is not only a lie, but the height of arrogance to think that anyone would bother to go to such lengths over her political views or her opinions. She obviously has us confused with Ann Coulter, or the millions of TPers who love brandishing their weapons as intimidation and threats to those they oppose, such as the threat made against this blog by one of Ms. Brookstone’s supporters, Charlie Z. No Melissa, don’t flatter yourself, you ain’t that important.
• She blames George Soros as being behind this site and the attacks on her. If only! We’d be driving much nicer cars if that was the case.

But the worst thing is she thinks that she is being terrorized and her profession and livelihood attacked! News flash Melissa…you posted your manifesto in the public domain. Our call to action is to make sure that people know about it, including those you do business with. Come on Ms. Brookstone, have the cajons to hold true to your beliefs! You expressed them, now own them! The Tea Party Nation does not suffer cowards easily!

THE CASE AGAINST TEA PARTY NATION MARTYR, MELISSA BROOKSTONE


• Resolved that: The Tea Party, the Tea Party Nation as represented by Melissa Brookstone and the Republican Party, in alliance with a global Corporatist movement, have participated in what appears to be a globalist corporate agenda of securing and controlling wealth, and the waging of class warfare against U.S. citizens and their constitutional rights in the pursuit of happiness, equality, fairness, and indeed our Constitution itself, with the ultimate goal of destroying the democratic institutions of the U.S. and converting us into a corporate controlled Plutocracy.
• Resolved that: Ms. Melissa Brookstone, as a leader/activist in the Tea Party Nation has demanded and called for what amounts to a jihad against hard working Americans and the efforts to improve the economic well being of the nation and of U.S. citizens, and that because the Tea Party, the Tea Party Nation and the Republican Party are controlled by a cabal of wealthy corporate interests who will not stand up for or support the Democratic institutions that are our foundation, they have allowed this and yielded what are rightfully due to all Americans, the ability to seek and find adequate employment to support themselves and their families.
• Resolved that: By their agenda and actions, those in the Tea Party, those that are members of Ms. Brookstone’s Tea Party Nation, those that are members of the Republican Party, and those that represent the hidden wealthy corporate interests guiding these efforts, who claim they are dedicated to protecting and defending our Constitution and the American way of life, have committed treason against the United States.
• Resolved that: The current leadership of both the Tea Party and the Republican Party, in conjunction with conservative anarchists from all around the country, especially those from privileged upper middleclass sanctuaries and the right leaning news media headed by Fox News (and indeed, most of the gutless, cowardly and ratings seeking mainstream news media.) have worked in unison to advance a pro-corporate, an anti-middle class, and an anti-diversity ( anti-disadvantaged, minority, alternative lifestyle, elderly, education, woman, reproductive rights, compassion ) agenda.
• Resolved that: These same factions expect that, by carrying out a radical pro-corporate agenda, which includes efforts to repeal Obama “Care” and thus inflict on our nation the deadly and destructive healthcare system that has been responsible for millions of deaths and untold misery for Americans, class warfare and the garnering and control of the majority of wealth, and expanding corporate control and domination of our everyday lives, while killing Americans in this country with an environment that is hostile and indifferent to the needs of the poor, sick elderly and disenfranchised, including the redirecting of America’s wealth and money to generate excessive profits to benefit the few ( the average CEO for the S&P 500 companies earned $11,358,445 in 2010, meaning that in one workday they earn $45k, or about 92% of the $49k that the average American household earns in an entire year!!! ), and by controlling and wasting more money than most Americans see in a lifetime, and saying they need this wealth because they are the “job creators”, when in fact all they have “created” have been lobbying jobs to protect their interests and their gravy train.
• Resolved that: Our Tea Party leaders, the Republican Party politicians that curry the Tea Party’s favor, most of the cowardly and gutless mainstream media led by Fox News, and most of those from the privileged upper middle class enclaves, have now encouraged and supported “The Tea Party Movement” and their demonstrations and disruptions at congressional member town hall meetings and governmental proceedings, which have been perpetrated across the country for most of the last three years, and which are being populated by various agitators, Americans for Prosperity employees and organizers, lobbyists for major corporations and even delegates for wealthy interests like the Koch Brothers, and are protesting against the average Americans, the poor, the elderly, those seeking an education, and those seeking jobs, something I thought I’d never see in my country, in my lifetime.

I, an American, who is part of the vast majority who puts my country and my fellow citizens above my own interests and those of the wealthy corporate interests that seek to destroy our country and our way of life, part of the class that produces the vast majority of real value, filling and performing the important jobs and completing the work that needs to be done in this country, hereby resolve that I will seek to find, silence and ultimately defeat Melissa Brookstone, the Tea Party, the Republican Party, and the wealthy corporate interests that seek to tear down our democracy and forever corrupt the American Dream that we all aspire to.

The Reality Behind the Tea Party?

See also Melissa the Martyr: a victim for wanting America to fail?

I hate to say it, but has anyone really checked into who is behind Ms. Brookstone and the Tea Party Nation? Maybe it’s just me, but I gotta tell ya, it is sounding more and more like a partner to Al Qaeda by the day!

We knew this would happen sooner or later. It appears that the Tea Party has jumped the shark and dropped all pretense of being anything but a corporate and Wall Street occupied movement intent on destroying our basic Democratic foundation, and exploiting Americans for wealth and profit. The leader of Tea Party Nation, Melissa Brookstone, has called on all small businesses to “not hire a single person” in order to bring down the Obama Administration. In other words, she is advocating that all job creation cease, that millions of Americans remain or become unemployed, and that the families and children of America should suffer in poverty and joblessness in order to promote her, and the Tea Party’s worldview, one that sees all who oppose them as un-American, Socialist enemies of the state.

Now, while I appreciate the right to free speech when it comes to political views, I do find it troubling when that speech not only advocates doing harm to Americans, but also when it comes from a group of people who by the day, seem to be losing their hold on reality as shown by some of the rationale they have used to make this call to action, such as…

1. “The Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Senate, in alliance with a global Progressive socialist movement, have participated in what appears to be a globalist socialist agenda of redistribution of wealth, and the waging of class warfare against our constitutional republic’s heritage of individual rights, free market capitalism, and indeed our Constitution itself, with the ultimate goal of collapsing the U.S. economy and globalizing us into socialism.”
2. “President Obama has seized what amount to dictatorial powers to bypass our Congress, and that because the Congress is controlled by a Progressive socialist Senate that will not impeach one of their kind, they have allowed this and yielded what are rightfully congressional powers to this new dictator.”
3. “The current administration and Democrat majority in the Senate, in conjunction with Progressive socialists from all around the country, especially those from Hollywood and the left leaning news media ( Indeed, most of the news media. ) have worked in unison to advance an anti-business, an anti-free market, and an anti-capitalist ( anti-individual rights and property ownership ) agenda”

Now of course, these angry and passionate charges neglect some very painfal truths that are somewhat incovenient when it comes to taking Ms. Brookstone seriously, to whit:

1. Ms. Brookstone openly admits there is some uncertainty that the Obama Administration and their cohorts are intent on collapsing the American economy when she writes ‘it appears’ that is their intent. Well Melissa, there is no ambiguity about the Tea Party’s intent. Their hand picked representatives in Congress clearly, obviously and very proudly made every effort to collapse the American economy in the Debt Ceiling crisis. So why no call to action by your organization against those representatives who obviously hate America, and all Americans?
2. Ms. Brookstone asserts that having claimed dictatorial power, congress has taken no action to unseat Obama from that lofty perch because they will not take action against their own. Problem is, Republicans have a majority in the House and a Senate minority that can stonewall anything. Is she saying Boehner and Cantor won’t take on Obama’s power grab because he is one of them???
3. She also claims a conspiracy between our evil government, Hollywood and the mainstream media who are all in cahoots to take down our Democracy! Well, I do agree that Fox News does want to do that, but not to pursue a new world order. Rather, it is to help corporations solidify their stranglehold on our country and on Americans so they can increase their already obscene profits, an effort the Tea Party unwittingly supports as the foot soldiers doing the dirty work of the GOP and the wealthiest among us.

Best of all, the dubious and blatantly false claims made to support her call to eviscerate the American middle class appear next to advertisements that bring into question the sanity of the Tea Party Nation’s core constituents, like the Privacy Wear ad that guarantees big brother will not be able to gaze longingly on your private body parts should you have to submit to a full body scan at the airport, and the most comprehensive guide to the end of times ever offered, titled “A Charted Journey Through Revelation!”

You know, come to think of it, looking at the accusations made, the call to action, and the advertisments, one need only change a few words here and there, and you would swear you were looking at an Al Qaeda website. I mean really, the charges made against the POTUS and the government sound like a JIHAD against the great American Infidels (in this case, socialists, liberals, Hollywood, yadda yadda yadda). The call to action, to stop job creation and plunge millions of Americans into misery and despair, would seem to be a goal that would align nicely with what the Taliban would love to accomplish. As for the advertisements? Well, what Al Quaeda terrorist wouldn’t love to have Privacy Wear to help them smuggle something on a plane; and change a few words in the ‘end of times’ guide and you could have a “A Charted Journey to Finding 72 Virgins,” which is more or less as rational and real as what’s being hawked on the Tea Party Nation website.

I hate to say it, but has anyone really checked into who is behind Ms. Brookstone and the Tea Party Nation? Maybe it’s just me, but I gotta tell ya, it is sounding more and more like a partner to Al Qaeda by the day!

Why You Shouldn’t Compare Occupy Wall Street to the Tea Party (by Ishaan Tharoor)

With the Occupy Wall Street protests gaining steam in the U.S., it seems obvious to link it with the other grassroots movement that recently shook up American politics — the Tea Party. My colleagues’ pieces number among a flurry of others pondering the parallel. Michael Scherer recast Occupy Wall Street as the Tea Party of the American left. Roya Wolverson suggested how the two movements, coming from diametrically-opposed sides of the political spectrum, could find common ground (and perhaps actual policy influence) in their mutual distaste for a Washington dominated by the vested interests of corporations. But while the similarities are noteworthy, they obscure more relevant truths about Occupy Wall Street, the supposedly inchoate movement that has transfixed the American media in recent weeks. I enumerate these truths after the jump.

1. Occupy Wall Street is an expression of a global phenomenon. A cursory glimpse at newspapers over the weekend would have shown scenes of mass protest across European capitals and cities elsewhere in the world, all in solidarity with the anti-greed protesters in New York. The Tea Party, for all its early brio, commands no such solidarity, nor does it care for it. It’s a hyper-nationalist movement in the U.S., lofting the totems of the Constitution and the flag. Few viable political factions across the Atlantic advocate the Tea Party’s anti-big government, libertarian agenda (though the xenophobic, culturally-conservative wing of the Tea Party would perhaps see eye to eye with Europe’s Islamophobic far-right). (See photos frome the Occupy Wall Street protests.)

Many of the Occupy Wall Street’s participants, on the other hand, consciously see themselves as part of a worldwide uprising, a flame first kindled by the Arab Spring and borne across the Mediterranean by anti-austerity protesters in Europe. In all three settings, social media has played a vital role in mobilizing and organizing the disaffected and the disenfranchised. In all three settings, activists and protesters have drawn to varying degrees from a toolbox of leftist, anarchist protest tactics and made do with minimal institutional support or funds. And in all three settings, the protesters have pulled together sympathizers from across myriad political camps within their countries and somehow made a virtue out of their movement’s lack of central leadership. The U.S. economy may not be facing the same existential pressures as those of Greece or Spain, nor are American protesters facing the sort of desperate brutality meted out on brave dissidents in Tunisia, Egypt, or Syria. But the call for social justice echoes the same across continents.

2. Occupy Wall Street is fueled by youth. Reporters covering the ongoing occupation of Zuccotti Park have encountered and profiled a host of characters from all walks and stages of life. One of my favorite interviews so far has been Marsha Spencer, a 56-year-old grandmother who can be found on weekends at the Park’s western edge, knitting gloves and scarves for fellow protesters. She makes no bones about what’s driving Occupy Wall Street — young people: college students saddled with years of debt, 20-somethings struggling to land a job, and an entire generation banging its head on what seems to be the ever-lowering ceiling of their possibilities. “It’s all about them,” Spencer told me on a rainy morning last week in Zuccotti Park.

Not true for the Tea Party, whose typical supporter is older, wealthier, and whiter than the American demographic average. It is a movement, by and large, of the haves — not the have nots. “It’s essentially reactionary,” says David Graeber, a professor of anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, who helped set up Occupy Wall Street’s much-heralded General Assembly and is one of the first people to push the movement’s now ubiquitous slogan ‘We are the 99%’. “The Tea Party core group is white middle-class Republicans who are angry that they seem to be losing their position of preeminence in society.” The ranks of Occupy Wall Street, on the other hand, are most heavily populated by young people, who, says Graeber, “are supposed to be the ones at the forefront, re-imagining their society.” Their protest fits into a long continuum of student and youth rebellions, most recently seen in the Mediterranean rim countries mentioned above. (See “‘The Whole World Is Watching’: Occupy Wall Street Stares Down the NYPD.”)

3. Occupy Wall Street may prove much harder to co-opt into the political mainstream. Many have speculated what direction Occupy Wall Street will turn as it picks up momentum and encroaches on the U.S. 2012 Presidential campaign. Will the protest get co-opted by the country’s big unions? Will D.C.-based advocacy groups like MoveOn.org try to exploit for its own ends the success of motley, diverse bands of protesters occupying dozens of downtowns across the U.S.? And, most importantly, will Occupy Wall Street radicalize the Democratic base the way the Tea Party energized the far-right of the Republicans?

At present, it’s hard to see how Occupy Wall Street can generate the left-wing, Democratic versions of Rand Paul or Michele Bachmann. Few of the protesters one speaks to have any tolerance for either political party, which they say are both equally enmeshed in a political system entirely beholden to vested corporate interests. The Tea Party, boosted by financial titans and one of the U.S.’s most influential cable news network, was able to make the leap from grassroots anger to effective Beltway politicking. Occupy Wall Street has no such benefactors nor mouthpiece, and will have to undergo a massive — and potentially divisive — transformation should it become the sort of tempered, streamlined (what many would deem ‘compromised’) political player that can actually throw its weight behind the Obama Administration. For the time being, it remains a social movement far more interested in the sort of “direct democracy” practiced during occupations than that which gets negotiated in the corridors of power in D.C. The sentiments below may have been expressed by an exasperated Greek blogger in June, but they reverberate around Zuccotti Park today: (Watch TIME’s video “The Friday Showdown at Occupy Wall Street.”)

We will not suffer any more so that we can make the rich, even richer. We do not authorise any of the politicians, who failed so spectacularly, to borrow any more money in our name. We do not trust you or the people that are lending it. We want a completely new set of accountable people at the helm, untainted by the fiascos of the past. You have run out of ideas.

4. Occupy Wall Street still believes in politics and government. And this is where another important line has to be drawn. Whereas much of the Tea Party’s programmatic ire seems directed at the very idea of government — and trumpets instead the virtue of self-reliance and the inexorable righteousness of the free market — Occupy Wall Street more sharply decries the collusion of corporate and political elites in Washington. The answer, for many of the protesters I’ve spoken with, is never the wholesale dismantling or whittling away of the capabilities of political institutions (except, perhaps, the Fed), but a subtler disentangling of Wall Street from Washington. Government writ large is not the problem, just the current sort of government.

Because, at the end of the day, Occupy Wall Street, like most idealistic social movements, wants real political solutions. Excited activists in Zuccotti Park spoke to me about the advent of “participatory budgeting” in a number of City Council districts in New York — an egalitarian system, first brought about in leftist-run cities in Latin America, that allows communities to dole out funds in their neighborhoods through deliberation and consensus-building. It’s the same process that gets played out every day by the activist general assemblies held in Zuccotti Park and other occupation sites around the U.S. To the outside observer, that may seem foolishly utopian — and impracticable on a larger scale — but it’s a sign of the deep political commitments of many of the motley protesters gathering under Occupy Wall Street’s banner. They want to fix government, not escape from it.

Ishaan Tharoor writes for TIME and is the editor of Global Spin. You can find him on Twitter at @ishaantharoor. You can also continue the discussion on TIME‘s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIMEWorld.

Read more: http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/10/18/why-you-shouldnt-compare-occupy-wall-street-to-the-te

Occupy Chicago – A View from the Streets

Media Lies; Praise the Corporate Led Tea Party Movement, Trash the True People’s Movement

…those same Wall St. and corporate shills on Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN and across all of the media, who sang the praises of the false Tea Party movement as being an example of American exceptionalism and the common man standing tall, will show just how dishonest and duplicitous they are as they rail against what is a real movement to fight against the real threat to America and our Democracy; the abject greed and lust for power that resides on Wall Street and in the corporate boardrooms of America.

Shortly after the bail out of Wall Street and the nation’s largest banks by the government to avert economic disaster, and in the immediate aftermath of Obama taking office, Rick Santelli, a rich Wall Street fat cat who until then was an irrelevant and embarrassingly untalented media personality on CNBC, went on an alleged ‘spontaneous rant,’ blaming everyone from Obama to the Congress for being irresponsible, promoting bad behavior, and screwing the average person, and in the process suggesting that perhaps people should do what the Patriots did in Boston to protest taxes and have a Chicago Tea Party. In that rant he conveniently neglected to mention the real culprits that had brought the country to the brink; the rich and powerful Wall Street interests of which he was, and still is, a part.

After Santelli’s amateurish performance, the Tea Party Movement was born and immediately went viral. People who for 8 years could have cared less about a Republican Administration that drove the country deep into debt, waged two wars we could not afford, endangered our civil liberties with a Justice Department bent on prosecuting political enemies ahead of criminals, and lied to the public on a regular basis, were suddenly enraged by an Obama Administration that was but 60 days old, and following Santelli’s corporate supplied script, began blaming everything that was wrong in the world on the Federal Government. And Wall Street and Big Business, who bore the bulk of the responsibility for almost bringing down our economy? Well, they conveniently got a pass. Go figure!

With websites, chapters and organization seemingly appearing overnight and funded by mysterious and unseen benefactors, the Tea Party Movement leveraged all of middle America’s greatest fears to fuel a movement that whispered a little too loudly about the POTUS’ being a black man for the racists among us; gave rise to ‘birther’ claims for the paranoid conspiracy lovers out there; shouted threats of retribution for immigrants stealing our plush jobs flipping burgers and trimming hedges to satisfy the anti-immigration set; and called for punishment at the alter and in the law for those with alternative lifestyles to the delight of the religiously righteous and homophobes alike.

Some sensed that this new movement was less about government spending and frustration with ineffective government, and more about racism and white anger at losing power and preference. Others charged that it was yet another example of rich, educated and powerful forces manipulating populist anger and fears so average Americans would do their dirty work, even if it was contrary to their own self-interests.

And while the main stream media ignored these concerns, and happily rode the movement’s notoriety and YouTube targeted antics to ratings glory, troubling evidence suggested more at work than a populist uprising. Such as the report in Playboy (that was subsequently pulled under mysterious circumstances from the Playboy site) suggesting Santelli’s rant was not off the cuff “but rather it was a carefully planned trigger for the anti-Obama campaign.” In other words, a carefully organized and sophisticated campaign, one in which Santelli served as a frontman, using the CNBC airwaves for publicity, for a cabal of right-wing interests including the infamous Koch family, multibillionaire owners of the largest private corporation in America, and funders of right-wing think-tanks and advocacy groups. The scion of the Koch family, Fred Koch, was also a co-founder of the notoriously extreme, right-wing John Birch Society.” And that “Big Business was pouring tens of millions of dollars into their media machines in order to destroy just about every economic campaign promise Obama has made,” and that what is at stake “isn’t the little guy’s fight against big government, as Santelli and his supporters claim, but rather the “upper 2 percent”’s war to protect their wealth from the Obama Adminstration’s economic plans.”

So yeah, it was pretty clear then, and is even more clear now that the whole Tea Party thing was not a wave of outrage from the proletariat standing up against oppressive government and injustice. Nope, it was the rich and powerful basically doubling down to make sure they would continue becoming richer and more powerful on the backs of the average Joe and Jane. And guess what, with the help of the mainstream media, Fox News, and the almost pathological avoidance of the American voter to even question what they’re being told, let alone take the time to actually investigate the facts, the Tea Party plan worked beautifully….UNTIL NOW!

What the masterminds from Wall St. and in America’s corporate boardrooms didn’t count on was how ugly and dangerous the movement would become. One only had to look at Tea Party signs and the rhetoric displayed at the well funded rallies that sprang up to know the movement was getting pretty ugly. Or the town hall meetings where the movement came equipped with scripts and talking points provided by insurance companies and lobbyists, which they used to stifle discussion and shout down elected officials as they set the standard for thuggish behavior and mob mentality intended to intimidate and threaten. Or the spectacle of Tea Party enforcers, some wearing Americans for Prosperity logos on their hats and shirts, attacking a man with Parkinsons at a healthcare reform rally, or three male supporters of Tea Party darling Rand Paul stomping on the head of a woman who was protesting at one of his rallies.

This ugly and hateful foundation then spawned a class of GOP Tea Party candidates, many of whom were unfit to hold a job at McDonalds let alone hold elected office, like deadbeat dad Joe Walsh of Illinois and Witchy Woman Christine O’Donnell of Delaware. With a remarkable number of them combining the Tea Party rage with the limited attention span of the American voter and getting elected, the country found itself once again teetering on the edge of economic Armageddon due to the Tea Party fueled phony Debt Ceiling crisis. Only this time the creators of the Tea Party movement, the Wall St. elite, found themselves also facing disaster as a result.

But perhaps the biggest miscalculation the wealthy Wall St. and corporate Tea Party founders made was underestimating the awareness, intelligence and resolve of the American people. They seemed to believe that if they controlled the message by securing a stranglehold on the largest and most powerful media outlets, distracted us with an endless array of mindless entertainment, and continued to play on our most intimate and deepest fears, nothing could touch them.

Well Wall St., that is no longer working.

Starting with a small group of Americans who knew the truth and could see what was going on, the Occupy Wall Street Movement began to take shape, and launched September 17 2011, it has slowly begun to grow in size and in strength. Of course, the corporate controlled media, at first tried to ignore it. But as it has grown, and as more Americans join on a daily basis, it can no longer be ignored. Now, the empty suits and talking heads in the media and in the press are trying to demonize it, calling the organizers and participants thugs, anarchists, revolutionary zealots, crackpots, druggies, hippies and socialists. But the movement has continued to grow, and more and more mainstream Americans are joining, including labor unions who have seen their rights stripped by Republican legsilators at the behest of their corporate overlords, teachers who struggle to educate as budgets for schools and education are slashed in favor of tax breaks for the wealthy corporations that still withould jobs, students who face a lifetime burden of financial debt in pursuit of higher education as governments choose to underwrite big business instead of higher education, and Americans of all stripes who have watched the wealth of our nation continue to flow to those who nearly brought the country to ruin through malfeasance and deceit, yet who have never been held to account at any level.

As more and more Americans become aware and realize how they have been duped by the Tea Party Movement and the lies being told by politicians in the pockets of corporate lobbyists and by corporate leaders on Wall Street and in Big Business, the anger will continue to grow, and the movement will continue to swell. And yes, those same Wall St. and corporate shills on Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN and across all of the media, who sang the praises of the false Tea Party movement as being an example of American exceptionalism and the common man standing tall, will show just how dishonest and duplicitous they are as they rail against what is a real movement to fight against the real threat to America and our Democracy; the insatiable greed and lust for power that resides on Wall Street and in the boardrooms of America.