Bev Chicago:

They do seem to have a very odd definition of Patriotism. The Republican/Tea Party has consistently done everything they can to block the creation of jobs in this country. From the outright blocking of Jobs Bills to the support of Big Business farming jobs out to overseas. They have block the National Defense Bill basically leaving our troops blowing in the wind. They have blocked the Disclosure Bill that would let American know who is buying their votes and what their real agenda for this country is.

They want to cut, repeal or privitize Social Security, Medicare, and Veterans Benefits. They do not want anything to do with improving Education, or our crumbling infrastructure, science etc.

They want to re-write several constitutional amendments to develop a new class structure based on race, religion, gay or not gay etc.

They want to do away with unemployment benefits because it is a so called drag on the economy, which by the way it is not.

MSM selects only the information that defends these repugnant views and presents them as facts. They are lies of the worst kind and they do it everyday anyway. There is no responsibility for these people and they are going to keep doing it.

The only recourse that we the American people have is to vote these people out of office. If we do not get out and vote in November, we will get what we deserve.

Thanks Bev, very nice. I'm really offended by the extent to which Conservatives feel entitled to hide in the shadows during this campaign. They have nothing but platitudes and generalities to campaign on. They're hiding everything from their fundraising to their candidates from public view, and therefore making sure they aren't vetted properly before the election.

What's the agenda here, that it can't stand the light of day?

Get a clue there Shipmate, who's "They". You only look at one side of the issues, the Left Wing's side.

The funny part of YOUR crying issues is that the Democrats, at least here in Florida won't say they're Democrats!! They won't run on what nightmare they had passed in the last 22 months. Why is that Shipmate? Aren't you proud that the Democrats, by the way have been in power for the last 4 years in the House and Senate, passing regulation to give people loans that couldn't afford them.

Democrats have the majority in ALL of the Government and shoving garbage down our throats that the majority of the people don't want. Even Soros is backing off due to the slaughter that will happen on the 2nd of November.

Enjoy the BIGGEST tax rate since WWII for those who pay taxes, which by the way about 47% of the population DON'T!! For those of you that take home 60K, you're getting hit the hardest!!!

Don't whine about the other issues you cry about, that stimulus that was passed last year was suppose to cover all the projects that Obama is crying about now. Your Congress spent the money for those projects, why should I pay more? Oh, I know, just raise taxes on January 1st.

By the way shipmate, if you don't think 99 weeks is long enough and 41 MILLION people on food stamps isn't bad enough, keep supporting those that want this nightmare.

You're the "Party of Food Stamps" and "Hand Outs"

You're the "Party of Food Stamps" and "Hand Outs"

And you're the party of BIG business & lunatic tea baggers.... so what's your point?

Democrats help those less fortunate... Republicans HELP THEMSELVES!!

Bev - Great post. It made me go back a couple of months to something posted before about looking at what the ultra-right, including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' wife preaches, ultimately would accomplish:

A lot of the arguments from the right begin with the bitter claim that government should be run along the same principles as any good business, and that government has failed to observe basic business principles.

Part of the basic problem, of course, is that government is NOT a business, and cannot be run in most ways like a business. There are major fundamental differences that separate a government from a profit-driven business, first and foremost that governments operate programs businesses will not because they are not intended to earn revenues. In fact, the Tea Partiers who claim to love the Constitution so much forget that government is usually forbidden to compete with private industry.

The Republican Party's situation today is not unlike the aftermath of the massive Republican loss in 1976, when some pundits predicted the demise of the GOP. That time, Reagan spent the next 4 years cultivating the right wing's Libertarian and religious factions. This time, the Tea Party shows a theme fused of again, Libertarians, religious fundamentalists - and more than a trace of the ideology of the militia movements.

Their mish-mash of concepts is all anti-government. Little of what they say is new. Their concept of "governing" is to STOP governing:

* close down a major portion of the Federal apparatus,
* wipe out a vast segment of regulatory oversight,
* close down the IRS and impose either a nationwide ad valorum tax (basically a sales tax), or set in place a flat tax,
* eliminate inheritance and capital gains taxes entirely,
* relinquish most Federal authority to the states (a resurrection of the issue once settled by the Civil War),
* if not halt all immigration then make immigration legally nearly impossible,
* displace millions of undocumented immigrants through mass roundups and deportations,
* impose an "official English" regime and eliminate as far as possible the use of other languages in at least any government operations (including public schools, while they still exist)
* cut off all foreign aid,
* force the U.N. to relocate abroad and drop out of the U.N.,
* privatize almost all public functions, from schools to highways, including the Public health Service,
* and of course cut off all public social programs including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, WIC, Aid for Families with Dependent Children, Head Start, all public housing programs, and all government subsidies including those for agriculture

Not EVERY Tea Party person agrees with each point just listed, of course. This is a compilation of the different positions taken by various candidates - Rand Paul is one of the more extreme, while Sharron Angle has backed away from prior support of just about everything on the list. Dan Quayle's son is right in there, however, and Michelle Bachmann is nearly a 100 per cent supporter.

Naturally, the agenda just listed takes as a given that virtually everything done during the Obama Administration would be wholly unrolled. It also, ironically, unrolls a great many important programs and reforms created by the Republican Party between 1880 and 1912. These include creating the Civil Service system to replace a very corrupt structure of Federal appointments (not that vary many Federal appointments would still exist). And, of course, the Tea Party agenda would essentially wipe out labor laws, union rights, and such niggling matters as minimum wage laws.

Ultimately, the Tea Party agenda could lead to the complete dissolution of the United States. It will lead to massive unemployment, collapse of the middle class, a near-feudal class structure, poverty on a scale not seen since Jacob Riis documented it in the early 1900's, the end of any concept of Civil Rights and equality, starvation and death and homelessness greater than that of the Great Depression, and violent civil disorder.

The kind of America the Tea Party desires to "take back" is a largely rural and agrarian America of the 1840's - which of course today cannot realistically ever be re-created.

It is vital that candidates opposing the various Tea Party nominees explain these things to their constituents. It is understandable that the nation is frustrated and fed up - the years of collapse and conflict since Bush brought on a global crisis have been filled with fear and suffering. They are NOTHING like the disaster that awaits if even a portion of the Tea Party agenda is ever instituted.

Answering questions is the way the electorate gets to know their candidate. My opinion is that if a candidate refuses to talk with reporters or any one else, then I refuse to give them my vote. Many of the candidates are "odd" enough this time around. We need the brightest in Congress not the crazzziest.

And yes, the Democrats have their own crazies....can we say Alvin Greene? Who voted him in? Was he first on the ballot? This shows that the uninformed voters are getting what they deserve apparently.

Can this country afford to have 2 years of NOTHING being done except repeal, investigate and no? Will our countries woes be solved by repeal, investigate and NO? We need solutions for the immediate and the future. HARD decisions will have to be made and we need to have intelligent, diverse people making these decisions.

Explore what your candidate is saying and VOTE appropriately.

You mean the way the democrats refused to even listen to their constituents, bowing, instead, to the will of Obama, which is why they are in such bad shape?

The founders foresaw this type of congress, which is why we have mid- terms. When you impose legislation without the consent of the governed, you pay with your seat.

Obama told them he was above that. He told them that his great popularity made him invulnerable.

The democrats, upon hearing him state that,"the difference between 1994 and now is that, this time, you've got me", should have run screaming from the room.

They did not, so now the voters are running screaming from the democrats.

Gingerbread -

See my comment below.

Tom

Good morning Gingerbread Mamma

What is it with these TP candidates who shy away from the Press, are they such empty headed loons that they cant trust themselves to speak in the open? Who in their right mind would vote for a candidate who refuses to answer questions?

It should make one think what will they do if elected, run from their constituents?

Your point is so salient; voters posting here today should really pay attention your thoughts. US will not have a true representation of American values if these types of candidates go to Washington D.C.

Some of them are thrill seekers with very few qualifications while others are a sample of the very issues Americans reject. However, no matter what their qualifications, or lack there of, are they all represent themselves as nothing more than "corporate shrills". They all want to repeal everything a progressive President has done. That is why it is even more important today to look at the influence of the floodgates of money coming from outside our borders. It is the foreigners best interest for their profits. I know many will say well, look at the unions; so what?

Well, that is where low information voters (no offense) we all are ignorant until we search out the truth. Unions are not bound into secrecy like the foreigners in the Chamber of Commerce. Furthermore, individual union members donate to campaigns; which is a traceable fact. Union are a Political Action Committee, or PAC for the purpose of influencing a federal election.

PACs must report all of the financial activities, including direct donations and other expenses, to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which makes the reports available to the public.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_action_committee

Therein lies the difference between unions and foreign contributions which Karl Rove has of late made this fallacy. Karl Rove's argument is demonstrably wrong, because its first premise is false.
Besides who can anyone trust what Karl Rove says since he was instrumental in helping steal both of George Bush's elections?

Gingerbread:

How true. We keep here the republicans claim that they do not listen to their people. What BS from the right.

Over 60% favored DADT being repealed and over 60% favored the Dream Act - The Republican blocked this Bill

Keeping jobs in America was the #2 most important issue on the Republican Web site - The republicans blocked the American Jobs Bill

Everybody wants jobs and the Republicans have opposed every Job creation bill

The vast majority of Americans want better education - the republican solution, do away with the department of education.

We want to reverse the crumbling infrastructure in this country - the republicans vow to block that bill

And the list just goes on and on. Over 400 Bills sit in the Senate being held hostage by the republicans.

Who is not listening? Sorry not buying it. Just look at he last 20 months and compare the republican rhetoric with their deeds. Not only are they the ones not listening, they are also being hypocrites by spinning it around. What else is new from these people. Same old, same old.

Morning Ladies

As my Dear old Redneck Daddy said” If you don’t believe and aren’t willing to live it you best not say it”

Seems like to me that most of these folks have already let their Alligator mouths overload their Hummingbird behinds and now they aren’t willing to live with it so they just want to keep it quiet in the hopes that everybody will forget they ever said it. Most of the time been my experience that you can run from the truth but it’s awful hard to successfully hide from it. What goes around generally comes back around to bite you in the posterior at the most inopportune times when you do that.

Thanks for the old Redneck Wisdom this morning IR - I NEEDED THAT! lol

Isn't it a wee bit early for your fangs to be dripping the usual disdain?

If you're this upset now... I'm not sure I want to be around on the 3rd when your predictions don't work out quite the way your fixated on...

Can any other resident of NJ tell me if the sky is perpetually falling in that state?

I'll take a 'plaid' sky in Obamaland over the doom & gloom anyday!

PS: Speaking of 'phony' town hall meetings - why no mention of the staged freak show by Agent Orange last week? You know the one... where it was by invitation only a couple of hundred supporters and then he bussed in them to the event?

I believe that many of the tea party candidates are "screening" their audiences.

In addition, watching many of them running from a reporter is crazy funny. I have not see President Obama run from a question asked of him by any of his supporters. I have seen him not answer a question from a reporter that he had already answered previously, but why repeat yourself over and over.

Feisty,

She gets worst every day. Spin baby spin. The republicans are destroying the middle class and she is having a tea party. Funny how as the time winds down, they are even more shrill about claiming we are doing something that the record shows they are 100% guilty of doing. Right out of Rove's plan. When you get caught with you hand in the till, deny it and then say they did it.

People better wake up and stop this crap or we will be a Banana Republic. That is the path (vision) that the Republicans are trying to put us on.

And somehow she missed that the Fox story cited is a blatant hate piece by the so-called "news network", a sarcastic slap that shows the hatefulness of Conservatives as well as the disdain they have for the duly elected President of the United States.

NOJO, me sees you as the narcissist with blinders on, how dark your world must be never to see a light shining, never to see the good in people, always whining and moaning, you seem so friendless and bitter. You need to get out more with your eyes and your mind wide open.

As I ponder the issues that are present today. I wonder what will the world look like in just a few more years.

If we can believe the Republicans for office this year...they want to repeal the healthcare reform bill...even though they want to put back into place many of the provisions that are in that bill. They want to cut taxes, espically to business, and get rid of the regulations that are just starting to be placed on corporations. Yes I kn0w... bad to raise taxes in a recession, but if you listen closely many make is sound like all taxes are bad. Well, if all taxes are bad, then they should be abolised for everyone! Of course then who get services?

Do we need to get all those unemployed people to form their own government or militia or maybe fire force? If there are no taxes, then no government. Imagine a country with no functioning government. Does that country continue to exist or will it fade into a lawless state like Somalia or should it be taken over by another country? We need taxes to provide the services that an individual cannot pay for by themselves.

We currently are functioning on the lowest tax rates since early in the last century. If low taxes stimulate the economy, why are there no jobs? What actually will happen to those who are on unemployment? If their lifeline is cut off, what will actually happen? No money, no spending, no spending, no jobs, no jobs, no money, no spending, no buying, no need for jobs. This goes around in circles and will not end. Is the aim to get rid of the people who have lost jobs through no fault of their own? Does not their depressed condition also bring down my condition? The attitude I have mine, get your own will eventually result in yours also going down or going away.

Think and vote appropriately in 3 weeks.

Calif Tom, we are on the same wave length this morning. There are an awful lot of citizens who dont pay attention and if they vote, it is sometime done out of familiarity with a name or a party.

I work the elections, for the few serious voters, there are far more who just vote as usual and skip over races or amendments they are unfamiliar with. The voters who come in with their sample ballots all filled out are a rare breed. But those that DON'T take it seriously will be the biggest whiners when they find out a law has changed that doesn't suit them or a candidate votes on a bill they dont agree with. Elections do have consequences.

Get out and vote, early voting has started in some states, more will be available next week or request absentee ballot. There is no excuse to not vote.....if you care about your country. VOTE DEMOCRAT.

How true. They are hiding a lot. Why did they block the Disclosure Bill? Why did they block the American Jobs Bill? It is all part of the "Road Map for the Destruction of the Middle Class".

They will not debate because they have no new ideas and the ones they have we already know did not work. So they say nothing. You cannot make any logical choice if you do not know what they stand for.

This country has a for sale sign on it, and we are just waiting to see who owns us.

California Tom:

You make the mistake of assuming that ALL voters are aware of the issues and the candidates. Dangerfield has it right. It's the economy. It's always the economy. It's what has the government done for me lately. Those voters - and it's the vast majority of them are either voting their wallet or their identity - D or R. They don't know Angle from O'Donnell.

For all the claptrap and BS coming from the hard-right Republicans and the Teabaggers, their real concern is that they are allowed to reap the benefits that were sown for the past 50 years WITH DEBT. That is the reason we are now wallowing in debt. Now, THEY snivel and whimper about their children and grandchildren and THEY are the ones who actually created this culture of debt. That is an indisputable fact.

This isn't Obama's debt. It just looks that way because Americans are so poorly educated and have memories that are about as long as a Bulldog's nose. That half-century of debt threatens the Teabaggers' welfare payments - bought with DEBT.

The left wing. Well, hell, they never got it. Everything's free.

In the meantime, BIG MONEY - with a recent big assist from the delusional God Squad activists on the Supreme Court - has tightened its stranglehold on America.

Trot out the truth and you can bet some idiot who has a corporate boot on his neck and the other boot kicking his back side is going to start screaming, "Class warfare." But that's the truth. This isn't about liberals vs. conservatives. It truly is rich vs. poor. That is the history of mankind. Sorry George, we just can't seem to learn.

John B, thanks for posting this. We will really find out how smart the voters are, I can only hope they are paying attention. It is troubling that not more is made of this lack of openess and transparency by the media and bloggers.

Now that a GOP candidate has revealed his fondness for dressing up as a Nazi,

And then trying to pass it off as 'father & son' bonding makes it even MORE despicable!

From all appearances teaching to hate can't start early enough for the Reich wingers!

The tea party will not speak out because then they would have to defend the crap that is on record that they said, like doing away with civil rights, repealling Social Security, Medicare etc. They would have to defend why they want only their religous beliefs and noboby elses, why they want to re-write the Frist Amendment and the list goes on.

That is why people like Sarah Palin tell the Tea Party to only speak with FOX News.

What a bunch of BS.