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2010 Elections
Critics call the Oath Keepers a dangerous anti-government "patriot" group recruiting on the edges of the militia movement and taking advantage of the anger and fear-mongering in some tea party circles. The Southern Poverty Law Center is lumping the "particularly worrisome example of the Patriot revival" in with the hate groups it tracks. The group issued a report last year saying a new miliita movement is on the rise, and was concerned about the Oath Keepers making inroads into law enforcement. The Oath Keepers are similar to the tea party crowd in that they often disagree what their movement represents. While bred from the libertarian spirit that courses through the West, the Oath Keepers don't have a formal structure beyond the vague principles outlined in the 10 orders. They say the sheriff is at the top primarily because he is the highest elected law enforcement agent in the land, directly responsible to the voters, and argue the Tenth Amendment gives the voters all power not expressly given the federal government under the Constitution. The movement has gained traction, including in dozen or more sheriff's races around the West from Orange County, Calif., to the northern border. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/31/oath-keepers-want-to-rest_n_595374.html
Christians
The Libertarian enshrinement of individual choice is not the pre-eminent Christian virtue. Emphasizing individual rights at the expense of others violates the common good, a central Christian teaching and tradition. The Christian answer to the question "Are we our brother's keeper?" is decidedly "Yes." Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God and love our neighbor. Loving your neighbor is a better Christian response than telling your neighbor to leave you alone. Both compassion and social justice are fundamental Christian commitments, and while the Christian community is responsible for living out both, government is also held accountable to the requirements of justice and mercy. Both Christians on the Right and the Left have raised questions about Libertarian abandonment of the most vulnerable -- whether that means unborn lives or the poor. Just look at the biblical prophets in their condemnation of injustice to the poor, and how they frequently follow those statements by requiring the king (the government) to act justly (these requirements applied both to the kings of Israel and to foreign potentates). Jeremiah, speaking of King Josiah, said, "He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well."(Jeremiah 22:16). Amos instructs the courts (the government) to "Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts" (Amos 5:15). The prophets hold kings, rulers, judges, and employers accountable to the demands of justice and mercy. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-wallis/how-christian-is-tea-part_b_592170.html
Functionally speaking, then, our separation of church and state translates into a respect for individual opinions formed by a variety of religious consciences and an abhorrence of political agendas formulated by religious denominations out of their particular revelations or dogma. In other words, our public square includes a place for religious belief but excludes confessional politics. That's what makes the presence of what amounts to a religious slate on next week's primary ballot in San Diego such a disturbing prospect. There, four sitting judges are being challenged by candidates hand-picked by an organization called Better Courts Now and backed by a coalition of evangelical pastors, an El Cajon gun store and opponents of reproductive choice and marriage equality. The organization was established by the late Rev. Don Hamer, who until his death two months ago was pastor of San Diego's Zion Christian Fellowship. He took a particularly active role in the campaign for Proposition 8 and, during the presidential election, produced a series of videos purporting to prove that Barack Obama was a secret Muslim. Three of the four incumbent judges have been given the highest possible rating, "well qualified," by the local bar association. The fourth, a veteran judge, was given a lesser ranking, apparently because she's suing her colleagues in a dispute over probation policy. The bar found three of the four challengers unqualified; the fourth had too spotty a legal record to permit a rating. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-0602-rutten-20100602,0,7718272.column
ACORN
ACORN set up by vidiots: DA. The video that unleashed a firestorm of criticism on the activist group ACORN was a "heavily edited" splice job that only made it appear as though the organization's workers were advising a pimp and prostitute on how to get a mortgage, sources said yesterday. The findings by the Brooklyn DA, following a 5½-month probe into the video, secretly recorded by conservative provocateurs James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, means that no charges will be filed. Many of the seemingly crime-encouraging answers were taken out of context so as to appear more sinister, sources said. Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/acorn_set_up_by_vidiots_da_x16IroTf4AsXCI19nttFLL#ixzz0pwvMP9T0
Tea Baggers
News
Tea Party Confessional Runs In Playboy. Strategists deliberately try to stir up rage among average Americans, calculating that it's much easier to push a political movement if it's deeply frightened than if it's entirely hopeful. "We're playing to the reptilian brain rather than the logic centers, so we look for key words and images to leverage the intense rage and anxiety of white working-class conservatives," the consultant writes. "In other words, I talk to the same part of your brain that causes road rage." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/18/tea-party-confessional-ru_n_617418.html http://www.playboy.com/articles/rogues-of-k-street/index.html?page=1
Wurzelbacher said he considers principles of individual responsibility and accountability as most important when deciding which candidates get his vote. Continuing his theme of less-intrusive government, Wurzelbacher said he drove his pickup from Ohio to Missouri to stump for Icet and left his “carbon footprint all the way.” “I don’t want that green shoved down my throat,” he said. “That’s not the government’s responsibility; it’s the private individual.” He urged people to get involved and campaign, citing the empty seats in the banquet room. http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1174305387/-Joe-the-Plumber-stumps-for-state-auditor-candidate
'Tea party' candidates hurt by lack of organization in movement. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/11/AR2010061105726.html?hpid=topnews
Palin Jindal 2012
"She's playing her cards, and trying to set herself up" for making a push, should she run, said Dante Scala, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire who is watching to see who, or whether, Palin endorses in his state. Palin also backed former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina in last Tuesday's California Senate primary, and got a backlash on Facebook, a preferred way for Palin to communicate with supporters. To critics who said Fiorina was a Republican in name only, Palin countered: "Most importantly, Carly is the only conservative in the race who can beat Barbara Boxer. That's no RINO. That's a winner." For some conservatives, that's also a problem. Shelby Blakely, executive director of the Tea Party Patriots' online publication, New Patriot Journal, said Palin's endorsement has become "so undependable, it's marginalized itself." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/13/sarah-palin-endorsements-2012_n_610454.html
With [environmentalists'] nonsensical efforts to lock up safer drilling areas, all you're doing is outsourcing energy development, which makes us more controlled by foreign countries, less safe, and less prosperous on a dirtier planet. Your hypocrisy is showing. You're not preventing environmental hazards; you're outsourcing them and making drilling more dangerous. Extreme deep water drilling is not the preferred choice to meet our country's energy needs, but your protests and lawsuits and lies about onshore and shallow water drilling have locked up safer areas. It's catching up with you. The tragic, unprecedented deep water Gulf oil spill proves it. Spill Baby Spill! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/03/sarah-palin-blames-enviro_n_598977.html
Maybe we’re out of step here, but the unanimous consensus of the newsroom is that we don’t really care if the Palins want some privacy from what they worry might be prying eyes. Fences have been known to make good neighbors and everybody knows we could use a lot more of those around here. So if the fence keeps McGinnis on one side and the Palins content, why would the “Today” show or ABC care? Finally, those who are fond of Joe McGinnis might remind him (if he doesn’t already know) that Alaska has a law that allows the use of deadly force in protection of life and property. Editor's Note: While you don’t see my name at the bottom of our editorials, I routinely write them, and I wrote the one that ran Saturday – the one about Joe McGinnis and the Palins’ new fence. In an effort to find a catchy ending, I was a bit too creative with the last paragraph. If I had it to do over again, I would have left off the last sentence of the editorial. It doesn’t add to my point, which was that there is nothing particularly newsworthy about someone moving in next door nor about a new fence going up to protect the privacy of neighbors. I certainly did not mean to suggest that McGinnis would or should be the victim of violence. For that matter, I didn’t mean to suggest the Palins would do such a thing. All of which points to the power of words. I misused them on Saturday. I’ll try to have more respect for that power next time around. http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2010/06/01/opinion/editorials/doc4c01d2ece4e8e697201491.txt
Randal Paul
Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Cry Baby Rand Paul continued his media tour Monday, talking to Fox News' Neil Cavuto about the fracas created by his recent statements on the Civil Rights Act and Obama's handling of the BP oil spill. Paul said he was "vilified" by the liberal media, which he maintained had mischaracterized his views on a variety of issues, most notably the Civil Rights Act, in order to try to destroy the Tea Party. "It's been really a concerted effort by people who want to damage the tea party, people who want to make the tea party something it's not, people who want to characterize me as someone who I'm not," Paul said. "I take great pride in presenting myself as someone who is thoughtful, someone who is respectful and I see more of an intolerance on the left in the sense that they won't discuss the ideas in a sane way, other than to call me names and call me hateful things that really doesn't further the discussions of any of these problems in our country." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/08/rand-paul-complains-of-in_n_604185.html
The Kentucky Senate, reacting to a divisive comment by Republican Rand Paul, has adopted a resolution declaring any form of discrimination to be inconsistent with American values. Louisville Democratic Sen. Gerald Neal introduced the resolution Friday during a special session on the state budget. It was adopted without objection in the predominantly Republican chamber. Neal, Kentucky's only black state senator, said he took personal offense at the comment made last week by Paul, a U.S. Senate candidate, who was criticizing the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Paul said in an MSNBC interview that the federal government shouldn't have the power to force restaurants to serve minorities if business owners don't want to. Neal said Paul's "extreme belief" has made Kentucky "a laughingstock." http://www.kentucky.com/2010/05/28/1284255/ky-senate-adopts-civil-rights.html
Hate Obama
Eastman: Obama is causing an environmental disaster. http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-06-03/blog/a-more-perfect-union/eastman-obama-is-causing-an-environmental-disaster
Fiorina
Fiorina, a marketing and sales expert, took over HP in 1999, as the tech boom was ending. Her solution to the company's many problems at the time was engineering a $19 billion acquisition of Compaq—a move opposed by many HP stockholders and that ultimately was not widely regarded as a slam-dunk. On her watch, HP downsized and canned almost 18,000 employees—as Fiorina joined with other corporate execs to defend outsourcing and oppose measures that would limit this practice. After six years in the job, she was pushed out, but her departure was eased by a $21 million severance package. On the day she was dumped, the company's stock price went up 7 percent. CBS News technology analyst Larry Magin noted, There is plenty to criticize about Fiorina's tenure at HP. At this point, the changes that Fiorina made didn't turn out so well for the thousands of Hewlett-Packard and Compaq employees that were laid off and the millions of HP stockholders who lost equity since she took over. HP stock is worth less today than it was in 1999. Dell and IBM stock has increased in value. Fiorina ended up symbolizing not one but three excesses of the corporate elite: mergers-and-acquisition mania, outsourcing, and golden parachutes. Yet during the Republican Senate campaign, this former corporate insider re-marketed herself as an anti-establishment Tea Partier, even though one of her foes in the primary contest, Assemblyman Chuck Devore, had a stronger claim on the Tea Party label. (Fiorina was helped in the who’s-the-Tea-Partiest-of-them-all competition when Palin endorsed her.) http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/06/fiorina-wins-will-she-remain-far-right-tea-party-corporate-insider
