The SoapBoxers

This last week, there were several politically charged gatherings.  The Occupy Wall Street group celebrated six months of continuous protests.  The Tea Party group started their now annual rallies leading up to tax day and anti-Tea Party groups protested the Tea Party.

Tea Party protesters fill the National Mall.

The Tea/Anti-Tea protests are very well-defined.  The Tea Party thinks that Americans are taxed enough already and do not like some of the programs that are being funded by the federal government, specifically the new health care legislation that is now two years old.  The Anti-Tea Party groups think that rich people are not taxed enough and that too much money is spent on the military.  They also specifically support the new health care legislation as a way to save money in the future by guaranteeing that everyone has affordable health care.  The arguments on each side are well articulated and, in general, are civil.

The Occupy Wall Street protest in New York.

The Occupy group is still rather nebulous in their message.  They have returned to the “forgive my student loans” issues.  Why the banks are evil on this issue is confusing.  The students chose to take the loans and knew the expectations of repayment.  It would be like charging for tickets to a Bruce Springsteen concert then expecting the credit card company to forgive that short term loan.  The argument could be made that a college education is different than a concert, but the basic premise is the same.  If you cannot afford the college costs, is it the bank’s fault or the college?  If you cannot afford the concert ticket, is it the credit card company’s fault or the entertainer’s?  Or in both cases, has the borrower made a bad financial decision and gotten into debt that they should not have taken?

We as a nation have bailed out car companies, financial institutions and certain people with bad mortgages.  The occupy group wants to add to this list people with student loans or apparently loans of any kind that they do not want to have to pay back.  Although most people would like a freebie every once in a while, there will be a cost if the occupy group is given what they want just has there has been a cost for the bail outs that have already occurred.

The previous bail outs have driven the national debt higher.  Unless the federal government pays off the loans that the occupy group wants forgiven (which will add even more to the debt), then the people who deposit in the banks will lose.  Even if they do not lose their actual deposits, the will get extra fees, reduced rates on their investments and many other costs.  The banks are not individuals, they are corporations.  Corporations sell products, in this case, interest to attract deposits and loans to make money.  If the money source does not make money, they will stop providing the product (meaning the next group of college attendees will have no loans available) or charge more for existing products to recover the lost revenue.  Getting the loans forgiven may seem like a good idea for the moment, but it will not get those people jobs, income or opportunities, in fact it will limit opportunities for a very large group of people who could include the protesters themselves.

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, besides many other things, is proving the need for education reform. At a Iowan for Tax Relief event this past Sunday showed a complete lack of basic knowledge of history by saying that slavery ended with the founding of the country. “The very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States….Men like John Quincy Adams, who would not rest until slavery was extinguished in the country” Bachman said to the crowd at the Iowa event. For one John Quincy Adams was not one of the founding fathers, and two, slavery ended with the 13th amendment in 1865 and John Quincy Adams died in 1848, so he was not even alive when it was abolished.

Then again it is not really a surprise that Bachmann or any of her Tea Party friends would think such a thing, because as much as they wrap themselves up in the Constitution and worship the founding fathers, they really don’t respect or believe fully in either. So why would they be bothered by knowing basic facts? After all, they have an issue with changing or abolishing almost every amendment to the Constitution to fit their needs. Must have made for some good discussions at the first Constitution Class that Bachmann led on Monday as well.

Bachmann is so far to the right now that she only looks to the right when talking. In one of her other newsmaking events of the past week she gave the official Tea Party response to the State of the Union address she looked off to the right of the camera the entire time. All kidding aside that is merely the most comical thing about her insane rant that night. One of the most hilarious pieces of crap hurled forth from her mouth was about the government telling you what light bulb you can buy. Actually this is the most true statement to come out of her mouth that night, but only because it is in reference to a 2007 legislation signed by President Bush and done further under President Obama in 2009 dealing with bringing efficiency to the manufacturing of lightbulbs. No where in either document does it actually talk about the Government telling you which lightbulbs you can and cannot buy. Then again there is no language of death panels in the healthcare legislation so why bother with actual facts when we can spread falsities until your idiotic masses believe them to be truths. In the words of New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, Michele Bachmann has clearly lost contact with the mothership.

The other response to the State of the Union was delivered by Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan.  Unlike most republicans in either chamber of Congress he actually does offer his own plans for things, only he was not allowed to speak of them during his response, probably because they would scare the living shit out of the electorate. Part of Ryan’s Roadmap to Americas Future calls for eliminating Social Security and Medicare for everyone currently under the age of 55.

As for the response itself it seemed to be just more of the same. As the President talked about the problems we face and possible ways to take care of them, the Republicans continued to basically say the only problem with the country is Obama himself and that they have no real solutions to anything. The whole time I was watching Ryan I thought to myself, “When did Joel Osteen lose the mullet”, as the whole thing sort of had this weird televangelist vibe going on where I didn’t know if I was watching a response to the President’s speech or being asked to call in and donate money.

Don’t all teenage dates end on top of satanic altars? I guess the new darling of the Tea Party and Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell would like everyone to believe that. The comment comes from a past clip of one of her many appearances on the show Politically Incorrect that was brought to light once again by its host Bill Maher on his new show Real Time (see the clip as part of her Greatest Hits on Youtube). The clip has her stating that she once dabbled in witchcraft and one of her first dates ended up on a satanic alter with blood dripping from it. I guess her new campaign slogan should be YES WICCAN!!!

Now while like most things O’Donnell says or has said, the clip is amusing but this one in particular won’t have much of a factor on her losing the Senate race in Delaware. That’s because her tea party crowd just loves them story of redemption. Of how she could overcome her ways of witchcraft and being at the altars of the evil Obama and come to a better life today of living of others campaign contributions.

This is the real thing about the Tea Party’s new love interest. It is truly amazing to me how a crowd so hell-bent on how government should be not allowed to waste their money, yet they have no qualms about letting their political prostitute O’Donnell use their money any way she desires. Yes I called O’Donnell a political prostitute, that is what she is. She does not have a job and lives off money given to her for running for political office. So I hope the tea party loves their position as the political Johns right now.

This past Sunday O’Donnell was to appear on a couple of the Sunday news shows, but quickly cancelled those appearances after Maher released his clip adn promise that he hd many more to release. Granted she said that she was overworked and needed to relax and get away for the weekend. We have to believe her right? After all, she did once say that she would not have even lied to Hitler to save Anne Frank. Unfortunately teabaggers she isn’t that honest either. She lies as much as Sister Sarah, just she is not as crafty about it. She quickly went into redirections of her motive throughout the weekend ending up with she overbooked events and Delaware events and voters should be the focus. Good for her, if that was the actual motive, but it was not as Delaware voters are her main concern.

I think the last stat I saw on the issue was that over 80% of O’Donnell’s contributions this cycle were from outside of Delaware. So if Delaware needs to be the focus maybe she should return some of that money she was so adamantly trying to get at just last week. On Hannity last night O’Donnell professed she will do no more national interviews because Delaware needed to be the focus. However while it would be the good reason, it is not her real reason, she just doesn’t want to have any more missteps on her way to losing the Senate race than she will have anyways from her own past comments.

I say on her way to losing the race because that IS going to be the endgame of this race in my opinion. A seat that was once thought to go to the dark side is now a pretty safe seat to hold. Even polls so right biased seem to think so. The Fox News battleground poll had the Democrat Chris Coons up 54% to 39% over O’Donnell. On an amusing note though in the same polling if Mike Castle would be the nominee he would be trouncing Coons 48% to 33%. Now since I usually don’t believe anything that comes from Faux News alone, another usually right biased poll Rasmussen has Coons up 53% to 42%. So way to stick it to the establishment teabaggers, by making an obvious pickup into a safe seat for the opposition instead.

Now the only poll that matters is the one on election day, but the result will be no different than the pst two times she has run before, especially now that everyone is vividly aware o how much of a nut she is. So I sit here waiting with bated breath at the next piece news to come out from O’Donnell whether a current misstep or a past one. The are all amusing to me. Until that time though I will protect myself from the invasion of mice-human hybrids and continue to be master of my own domain.

The summer is getting into full force of triple digit temps and the political landscape is soon to start to boil over once again as elections start to near. However, this month I really couldn’t find a topic that has not been rehashed over and over by now to draw my interest to encompass a whole article so instead this month is kind of a hodge podge of different things.

Over the past few weeks on Facebook I had noticed one of the little ads that op up for something called the Coffee Party. At first I thought it was just some parody, but in fact it is an actual movement trying to get underway to counter the Tea Party movement. They can be found at http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/.

Heck they even have their own pseudo-political party thing already going on with their own convention to be held in September. I wish them all the luck as I fully support their mission, but I think it will never pick up the steam of the Tea party as hate is always an easier message to draw the masses to than cooperation. Be a “real” American, choose coffee over tea.

Speaking of the Tea Party, the congresswoman from my district and Tea Party caucus member Lynn Jenkins (R-KS 2nd) faces a “challenge” from her right in State Senator Dennis Pyle. Pyle’s main assertion is that Jenkins is a moderate and that element of the Republican Party is at fault for their demise.

The assertion that Jenkins is a moderate would have been true prior to her election in 2008, but there is nothing moderate about the tea party movement and those who have to follow their political game. Jenkins is one of only three women in the newly minted House Tea Party Caucus. So I don’t see much of a threat to her in the primary, but it is funny how the Tea Party always feels the need to prove they are more nuts than the other. Sadly the primary challenge will be the only real challenge for Jenkins in what usually is a competitive district, allowing Jenkins to continue her search for “a great white hope” to beat Obama in 2012 from inside the beltway and not send her packing home.

More amusing is that her reelection will make her the senior house member from Kansas as the two other Republicans are in the state’s most heated political show in another “I am more Tea Party than you!” battle between Congressmen Todd Tihart and Jim Moran. The lone Democrat from Kansas, Dennis Moore, a house member since 1990, is not seeking reelection and his wife is running instead.

An amusing side note is that tea partier Tihart’s 4th disrict seat has a decent chance of going to the Democrat this year and probably to the chagrin of the tea partiers it is the minority candidate Raj Goyle that has the best shot.

Shifting just to the west of Kansas, Colorado is getting ready once again to have a “personhood” amendment on the ballot this year. That is not the interesting thing though, it’s been something they have been doing on the ballot for a while now. However this time they have brought in Alan Keyes to do ads portraying a slave and correlating the relationship of fetuses and abortion in this country to slavery and seeking to be free.

It’s another laughable thing from the right, although it is better to take note these days as the nutjob right is more the mainstream right than the fringe. However the question I pose to them is if you are going to start declaring personhood begins at conception then that is where citizenship would also begin, right? So I guess we’ll have to start determining exactly where conception took place and if you don’t have proper documentation you are not a citizen?

And to conclude this month’s post it appears that U.S. District Court judge Susan Bolton will be the next in line of “activist judges” to be slammed by the right for going against the right’s political choice in her blocking of the provisions of Arizona SB1070 from going into effect for now. Too bad activism from the bench only counts when it is going against the grain of “conservative” thought and not to everything in general – for example the Citizens United ruling in the Supreme Court. Anyways that is all I have for this month. That’s all I have for this month on the 100th day of the gulf oil spill and until next time keep looking for those bad nuts out there. [Editor’s note: today is the 101st day of the oil spill, but The Angry Squirrel submitted the article yesterday.]