Thursday, May 2, 2013

Congressional Republicans Undermine President Obama at Every Turn with Refusal to Compromise

“In the end it didn’t pass (background checks) because we’re so politicized. There were some on my side who did not want to be seen helping the president do something he wanted to get done, just because the president wanted to do it, Toomey said.

This is the confirmation that some members of the media have refused to acknowledge that there are a group of about 22 Republican Senators who will do anything they can to keep bills from passing that will help President Obama in any way.
Oath of Office 
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
"I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office" have gone MIA with some Senators whose sole purpose continues to wreck havoc with President Obama's term in office.  Somehow I missed that being part of their duties.

Since President Obama was elected hate groups who call themselves Patriot Groups along with militias have been on the rise.  White supremacist groups are alive and well while Republicans in Congress close their eyes and in some instances encourage these groups with their rhetoric.  Throw in conservative talk radio and Fox News with their lies and hate who have played to the lowest common denominator which has led to real problems.  Republican members of Congress are trying to bring the Government to a standstill with their obstructionism based on lies and rhetoric.  They along with GOP Governors and members of state legislatures have done nothing but bash President Obama from Day One spewing hate and lies which has hurt the Country but they don't seem to care as long as Obama doesn't win anything.  Senator Toomey may have tried to walk back his comments but they are still out in the open.

The rise of hate groups is frankly frightening.  The people behind this movement throwing dollars around like the Koch's are fostering more hate that could lead to more shootings and bombings in this Country.  Hate can make people do some pretty heinous acts.  Koch's IMHO will back any group that is against the Government regulations they abhor.  As they try to buy newspapers now, even people who were not paying attention are waking up to the Koch Bros being bad for America.  Koch's and other major GOP donors want what is best for their companies including the right to pollute our water and air.  They have bought politicians to do their bidding along with various groups like Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Works, aligned with ALEC who is wrecking havoc in our states, and Super PACs to buy more politicians.  The Koch's are not the American Dream but the American Nightmare along with their Republicans puppets.

From the Southern Poverty Law Center 2011 Report:
The Patriot movement first emerged in 1994, a response to what was seen as violent government repression of dissident groups at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and near Waco, Texas, in 1993, along with anger at gun control and the Democratic Clinton Administration in general. It peaked in 1996, a year after the Oklahoma City bombing, with 858 groups, then began to fade. By the turn of the millennium, the Patriot movement was reduced to fewer than 150 relatively inactive groups. 
But the movement came roaring back beginning in late 2008, just as the economy went south with the subprime collapse and, more importantly, as Barack Obama appeared on the political scene as the Democratic nominee and, ultimately, the president-elect. Even as most of the nation cheered the election of the first black president that November, an angry backlash developed that included several plots to murder Obama. Many Americans, infused with populist fury over bank and auto bailouts and a feeling that they had lost their country, joined Patriot groups. 
The swelling of the Patriot movement since that time has been astounding. From 149 groups in 2008, the number of Patriot organizations skyrocketed to 512 in 2009, shot up again in 2010 to 824, and then, last year, jumped to 1,274. That works out to a staggering 755% growth in the three years ending last Dec. 31. Last year’s total was more than 400 groups higher than the prior all-time high, in 1996.

Lot of people joining these groups today from the hard right were not active in politics before the Tea Party exploded on the scene.  Many of them stayed home and didn't vote if there were not hard right candidates on the ballot.  A lot of so-called 'Patriot' groups  have come out of the Tea Party movement which was financed by the Koch Bros and hatched as an idea by Fox News on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange which, in turn, has led to their growing numbers.  These groups were out in force to defeat President Obama but failed miserably as common sense American voters threw their conspiracy theories out the window.  Who would have thought that members of Congress would be espousing some of these same conspiracy theories.  Now the groups threatened current elected officials with primaries if they vote against what they want.  These groups are out of control as the leaders and others played on their willingness to believe conspiracy theories no matter how bizarre.  No one knows what is next for the Patriot Groups and militia if they don't get their way.

SPLC has taken a look at some of these conspiracy theories - to most people they are unbelievable but when you have members of Congress like Bachmann (MN), Gohmert (TX) or Broun (GA) along with others espousing these theories,  concern begins to grow.  Since President Obama was re-elected by large numbers many of the hard right have gotten much worse which I didn't think possible.  The hard right cannot stand the fact that a man they believe is unfit to be President was re-elected.  These people are not facing reality including some who ran for President as a Republican when you read their conspiracy theories and listen to their hate rhetoric:
Generally, Patriot groups define themselves as opposed to the “New World Order,” engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing, or advocate or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines. Antigovernment groups do not necessarily advocate or engage in violence or other criminal activities, though some have. Many warn of impending government violence or the need to prepare for a coming revolution. Many antigovernment groups are not racist. 
A particularly prominent conspiracy in the antigovernment movement is that the United Nations, which is usually seen as spearheading the “New World Order,” is imposing a global plan, called Agenda 21, to take away citizens’ property rights. There is a UN program with that name to develop sustainable communities across the globe. Agenda 21 was agreed to by political leaders from dozens of countries, including the first President Bush. But in typical fashion, these antigovernment activists have twisted it into a global conspiracy. 
Other notable conspiracies found in the antigovernment movement include the idea that the government is secretly planning to round up citizens and place them in concentration camps run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. Another conspiracy alleges that there are plans to merge the United States, Canada and Mexico into a single country. Fears of impending gun control or weapons confiscations, either by the government or international agencies, also run rampant in antigovernment circles. As a result, many antigovernment activists believe that being well armed is a must. The militia movement engages in paramilitary training aimed at protecting citizens from this feared impending government crackdown. 
The antigovernment movement hit its previous high of 858 groups in 1996, the year after the Oklahoma City bombing. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, was motivated by extreme antigovernment beliefs then circulating in the militia movement. He was also inspired by the racist novel, The Turner Diaries, modeling his attack on a scene from the book. 
The antigovernment movement of the 1990s, typified by the proliferation of militias, was fueled by a string of incidents, including the 1993 government assault on the Branch Davidian compound, that were seen as evidence of an out-of-control government willing to attack citizens. Other factors included the struggling economy in the early 1990s, particularly in Western states, and the election of President Clinton, who was perceived by these activists as a liberal intent on seizing their weapons.
Since we had conspiracy theories with President Carter, President Clinton, and now President Obama there is one continuing theme - they are Democrats.  Is this what drives these groups?  Are the hard right so convinced that Republican candidates for President are bought and paid for by the NRA so they don't have to worry about gun control?  Seems they missed the part that President Reagan didn't believe in the general public having assault rifles and supported an Assault Weapons Ban.

Used to laugh when the media talked about the mind numbed robots that listened to Limbaugh but they have a good point.  He used to have parodies which were funny.  I still remember the one about Ross Perot, "They are coming to take me away, away" which was funny.

Today Limbaugh is filled with hate against the President or anyone who dares to disagree with him (Limbaugh).  His rants are so far over the top he is hemorrhaging sponsors who refuse to be associated with such a mean and nasty person.  Yet the hard right follows his orders like lemmings as he touts himself as the only person who could be right.  He is part of the GOP War on Women. Wonder what Bain Capital thinks today of their investment in Clear Channel prior to the 2008 primaries who gave Limbaugh a huge contract worth $400 million in July 2008.  Would say it was a very bad investment with little to no return since Romney lost the primary in 2008 and the Presidential campaign in 2012.

How much violence especially against individuals are we seeing today that goes back to the hate we are hearing and seeing from Republican members of Congress, Governors, state legislatures, conservative talk radio, televangelist who seem to preach more hate then love today, along with hard right candidates for office like we witnessed in 2012?  Those Presidential debates with some of the dumb comments sent me over to Republicans for Obama where the people were sane with common sense realizing that the Republican Party we are knew had gone hard, hard, hard right.

Joe Scarborough, the former conservative Congressman, elected in 1994 thanks to the Contract with America that had no social issues is having the same problems with today's Republican Party that a lot of us are facing.  Those members like Scarborough who pledged to serve only three terms were replaced by more hard right social conservatives whose numbers are growing each election in Congress. Even then it is nothing compared to today's Senate where people like Tea Party Ted Cruz (TX) were elected in 2012 and Tea Party Rand Paul (KY) and Mike Lee (UT) elected in 2010 are turning out to be a total disaster for Republican rebranding.

Speaking of Joe Scarborough, yesterday's show with a video of Ted Cruz attacking the Senate including Republicans as squishes is a must view.   Tea Party backed Cruz is now thinking of running for President as a 'man of the people.'  One problem with 'man of the people' - he is a graduate of Harvard Law, clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist, was Solicitor General of Texas appointed by Texas Attorney General Abbot, and received his undergrad degree from Princeton.  How can the Tea Party members swallow that Cruz is a 'man of the people?'  Shows how gullible they are if they swallow his rhetoric.  He has over 50% rating of lies when he talks.  As you will see in this video he added to those lies with his comments about the Republican Conference coming after him.  He went way overboard as a 4-month Senator, but he has done one thing both sides agree:
The Washington Post‘s Jonathon Capehart said Cruz has firmly established his reputation in his four short months on Capitol Hill. “If there’s bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill it’s that Sen. Cruz is a bit of a jerk, well, maybe he’s not a bit of a jerk, he is a jerk. Democrats don’t like him, but Republicans really can’t stand him.”
Tea Party elected officials across the board in Congress are pretty classless but I think Cruz takes the prize for being the most classless, arrogant, "my way or no way" total jerk in the Senate.  It is obvious Cruz is lying at his Town Hall about what happened in the Conference but it doesn't bother him at all as he tries to score points with his hard right base.  He found a gullible bunch of people who will believe anything he says which is shocking that anyone could swallow Cruz's koolaid:

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Some day when the history of the Obama Presidency is written, he will be wearing a white hat and the Republican Congressional obstructionists the black hats as the people who tried to destroy the County as we know it for their own and wealthy donors gains. History will not portray the Republican Party well starting at the beginning of this century as they have gone farther to the right with each passing year and social issues are now number 1 in a lot of their minds. Are Cruz, Paul, Lee, Gohmert, Broun, Bachmann, Palin, and others the beginning of the end of the Republican Party?

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