Big money could bring the end of life as we know it

• Jesse "no-social-security" Kelly (Arizona)
• Rand "who-needs-civil-rights?" Paul (Kentucky)
• Joe "no-minimum-wage" Miller (Alaska)
• Sharon "pay-your-doctor-with-a-chicken" Angle (Nevada)
• Christine "don't-masturbate" O'Donnell (Delaware)
• John "repeal-healthcare-reform-but-save-welfare-for-the-rich" Boehner (Ohio)
• Sarah "anti-feminist-pro-opportunist" Palin (Alaska)
• John "which-way-should-I-flip-flop-today?" McCain (Arizona)
• Jan "beheadings!" Brewer (Arizona)
• Russel "yikes-brown-people" Pearce (Arizona)
• John "who-needs-public-education" Huppenthal (Arizona)
• Greg "privatize-this" Krino (Arizona)

Are you scared yet? Should I go on?

These right-wing puppets (and-- thanks to the Roberts' court-- the corporatists and secretly-funded big-money groups behind them) want to end life as we know it in the United States of America. They don't want to take us back to the Bush era policies or the Contract for America.

With no Social Security, no healthcare safety net, no minimum wage, and, of course, no unions-- they want to take us back to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, when people of all ages, including small children, slaved -- literally-- in factories and sweat shops for meager wages. If you were sick, old, or poor, it was your family's responsibility to take care of you. No family? Tough luck, you're on your own.

How could these ideas have gained so much popularity? Is it the sheer power of the moneyed forces behind the Tea Party-- like the John Birch Society Koch brothers or secretly-finded groups like Karl Rove's American Crossroads, which spent $3.5 million last week? All of this money + 24/7 yellow journalism courtesy of FOX News is trying to squash the progressive advances of the Obama Administration.

Here's some background on the origins of these ideas from The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party by Frank Rich or the New York Times.

When David Koch ran to the right of Reagan as vice president on the 1980 Libertarian ticket (it polled 1 percent), his campaign called for the abolition not just of Social Security, federal regulatory agencies and welfare but also of the F.B.I., the C.I.A., and public schools — in other words, any government enterprise that would either inhibit his business profits or increase his taxes. He hasn’t changed. As Mayer details, Koch-supported lobbyists, foundations and political operatives are at the center of climate-science denial — a cause that forestalls threats to Koch Industries’ vast fossil fuel business. While Koch foundations donate to cancer hospitals like Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York, Koch Industries has been lobbying to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from classifying another product important to its bottom line, formaldehyde, as a “known carcinogen” in humans (which it is).

Tea Partiers may share the Kochs’ detestation of taxes, big government and Obama. But there’s a difference between mainstream conservatism and a fringe agenda that tilts completely toward big business, whether on Wall Street or in the Gulf of Mexico, while dismantling fundamental government safety nets designed to protect the unemployed, public health, workplace safety and the subsistence of the elderly.

Yet inexorably the Koch agenda is morphing into the G.O.P. agenda, as articulated by current Republican members of Congress, including the putative next speaker of the House, John Boehner, and Tea Party Senate candidates like Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, and the new kid on the block, Alaska’s anti-Medicaid, anti-unemployment insurance Palin protégé, Joe Miller. Their program opposes a federal deficit, but has no objection to running up trillions in red ink in tax cuts to corporations and the superrich; apologizes to corporate malefactors like BP and derides money put in escrow for oil spill victims as a “slush fund”; opposes the extension of unemployment benefits; and calls for a freeze on federal regulations in an era when abuses in the oil, financial, mining, pharmaceutical and even egg industries (among others) have been outrageous.

The Koch brothers must be laughing all the way to the bank knowing that working Americans are aiding and abetting their selfish interests.

Has the country gone mad? Do the small guv'ment Tea Partiers think their Social Security and Medicare will be funded, while everyone under 65 will be thrown to the wolves? Fat chance. Tea Partiers, after they have used you, they'll go after your Medicare-funded scooters next.

For a look at our future, check out this book from the past-- How the Other Half Lives-- or watch Walmart: the High Cost of Low Prices.

UPDATE, October 8: Diane Rehm's Friday News Roundup covers this story. (Diane, honey, mention my blog next time, OK?)

Republicans and 'illegal' immigrants: Since when has breaking the law been a problem for Republicans?

Migrants from Mexico and Central America have become political footballs this election season (1, 2) -- thanks for the most part to Governor Jan Brewer, Russel "Racial Purity" Pearce, Pearce's baby SB1070, John and Jon (Arizona's Senatorial Do-Nothing Duo), and a herd of Democrats who are trying desperately not to look like progressive cream puffs.

Despite all of the right-wing rhetoric about border violence, the statistics show that the border situation is improving (crime down, crossings down). Yes, gang violence in Mexico-- due to the drug trade and poverty-- is up, but migrant workers aren't the cause of that violence. They are victims-- even more than we are.

Arizona's right-wingers pontificate about migrants breaking our laws! by crossing the border illegally! Given the bevy of crooks and liars-- literally-- that the Arizona Republican Party has put forth as candidates this election season, I'm surprised that breaking the law is a problem.

Check out these links for Andrew Thomas, Tom Horne, Jan Brewer, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and Steve May for current examples of Republican corruption and Ev Mecham and J. Fife Symington III for historical reference.)

Some people shrug this off as the wild west, but personally, I'm shocked by this widespread corruption in Arizona's Republican Party. I'm also shocked that the Arizona electorate is duped into voting for these crooks and liars.

I was going to write this, but Arianna Huffington beat me to it

Remember all of the right-wing blather about the Constitution last winter when President Obama was trying to push health care reform through the Congress?

Blah, blah, blah, we have to stick to the Constitution! The Constitution doesn't say the federal government should provide universal health care, so we shouldn't do it!

"It's not in the Constitution!" was used repeatedly as an excuse to do nothing to solve the country's multiple problems. Republicans proudly wore the badge of "Constitutional Conservative"-- until Arizona's chief wing nut Russel "Father-of-SB1070" Pearce came up with another popular white supremacist idea-- anchor babies.

What's a Constitutional Conservative-- a defender of the Constitution's purity-- to do?

The Constitution clearly says that any baby born in the US is a US citizen. There are no qualifications to that statement-- no stipulations about race, ethnicity, religion, parental citizenship-- or exclusion for mixed race Hawaiians born in the early 1960s. For a humorous look at the Congressional debate that took place when the 14th Amendment was passed originally, check out this Daily Show link..."I know it's hard to be tough on babies, but..."

Now that prominent national whities like US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have picked up Pearce's anti-anchor baby idea, things are getting progressively scarier, and right-wingers are coming out of the woodwork to speak out against the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

To put all of this Constitutional rhetoric into perspective, the Huffington Post published Republicans Hot, Cold on Constitution last week. The article is full of interesting factoids about politicians using the Constitution-- when it suits them-- and offering changes when it doesn't. According to Huff Post, Republicans have offered 42 amendments to the Constitution in this session, and the Democrats have offered 27.

Both numbers are shockingly large in my opinion, and all of these amendments-- and the anchor baby rhetoric, in particular-- smack of political grandstanding and just plain hogwash.

Our forefathers-- in their infinite wisdom-- made it really difficult to amend the Constitution-- thank God (or our elected officials would have thrown the country into the abyss in the name of ideology long ago.)



Does anyone remember the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)? (I do, and here is a photo of my ERA bracelet-- none of those plastic things for us feminists. We knew we were going to be wearing these ERA bracelets for a long time as we fought for equality for women.) The ERA was an amendment to the Constitution that would have guaranteed equal rights under any federal, state, or local law and would have prohibited discrimination based upon sex. It received the required 2/3 vote of each house of Congress-- a feat that seems miraculous now-- but failed to be ratified by 3/4 of the state legislatures by the 1982 deadline (10 years after it was originally proposed).

The whities who are blabbing about an anchor baby amendment aren't serious. They're using this issue as another wedge to pit races and ethnicities against each other... divide and conquer, and by the way, don't forget to vote for the wise whitie who can save you from the Hottentots and the Mongol hoards. (Sarcasm here, check out the link.)

All I can say is that it is a sad day in America when anyone outside of Mesa listens to Russel Pearce's ideas.

Why SB1070? Because Brewer and Pearce Are Beholdin' to Private Prisons

There are a myriad of reasons why people either support or denounce SB1070, Arizona's harsh anti-illegal immigration bill.

Pro: "America's under attack! The brown people are coming to take our jobs! Stop the border-crossing terrorists and drug dealers."

Con: "This is a racist policy-- and an unfunded mandate-- that could foster racial profiling, discrimination and wrongful imprisonment."

On a recent Rachel Maddow Show, she offers some interesting facts regarding Governor Jan Brewer's and Arizona State Senator Russel Pearce's steadfast support for anti-illegal immigration legislation.

Both Brewer and Pearce have strong ties to the private prison industry-- particularly Corrections Corporation of America, the corporation that holds the contract to hold federal prisoners (including suspected illegal aliens.)

Although Brewer has 2 close aids who have worked with and/or lobbied for the private prison industry, Pearce has even closer ties. Private prison corporations have donated the maximum amount to his campaigns, according to Maddow's research. To repay them, he sponsored legislation to transfer Arizona's entire prison system to private corporations and was the father of SB1070, which would increase prison populations dramatically.

Frankly, they're both opportunistic sleezeballs.