George Demos kicked off his Hail Mary campaign to win the Republican nomination to challenge Congressman Tim Bishop in New York’s first Congressional District. As he did the last time around he boasts that he is the only true conservative in the race. His claims, though, are devoid of any facts to base them upon other than him saying so. His kickoff ad is either downright dishonest, or just sloppy. Either one hardly qualifies him to represent anyone.

Demos uses campaign material from incumbent Tim Bishop, an odd source for a Republican, to attack Randy Altschuler who was the Republican nominee against Bishop in 2010. Demos also ran in the primary that year and lost to Altschuler by a wide margin. In the general election Altschuler lost by a whisker, in the closest Congressional race in the country that year.

The video that Demos chose to use was selectively edited. The issue that both Demos and Bishop are trying to run on is Mr. Altschuler’s founding of a business, Office Tiger, that provided back office services to other companies. Some of the work was done overseas, some in the U.S. The video shows Mr. Altschuler talking about some overseas locations, but where he speaks of talent in the U.S. that is edited from the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9A8v8RdMgA

Neither Bishop nor Demos mention that when Altschuler started Office Tiger in 1999, the unemployment rate in the U.S. was 4.2%. That is not an environment with a lot of idle workers standing around. Bishop and Demos want to plant the seed in the minds of voters, who are suffering through the longest period of 8%+ unemployment since the Great Depression, that it is not Obama’s and Bishop’s dismal performance ruining the economy but “outsourcers” who are causing the problem. When Altschuler later sold the company in 2005, the unemployment rate was 5.08%, still rather low. Altschuler then went on to found Cloud Blue, creating more jobs in the U.S., by recycling old technology gear.

So what is Demos’ claim to fame as “the only true conservative?” He has worked as a government lawyer at the SEC. The SEC you may recall could not bring down Bernie Madoff although for ten years an individual named Harry Markopolous practically delivered evidence wrapped up with a bow that Madoff was a fraud. The SEC was also noted for staff that was spending their days looking at pornography on government computers. It was also alleged that Demos had outed a whistleblower at JP Morgan, although the third Judicial District  found an “insufficient basis for a finding of professional misconduct.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

So where is all the evidence of Demos’ conservative credentials? Has he created any jobs? Worked for any period of time in the private sector? In these tough economic times what experience does Demos have that indicates he has solutions to our problems? The Republican Party, the Conservative Party, the Independence Party, and many Tea Party groups have endorsed Randy Altschuler.

Demos on the other hand takes a doctored video from a Democrat and uses it to attack a Republican, a direct violation of Ronald Reagan’s eleventh commandment, thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican. He calls himself a winner and Altschuler a loser. Replacing one government employee for another hardly sounds like bold thinking, when most of our issues are government created. However, replacing a government backbencher with someone who grew up in a household headed by a single mother, secured a good education, started a couple of companies, is the kind of breath of fresh air we need in Washington.

That’s my opinion; I’d like to know yours. Please comment below.

President Obama Speaking at Solyndra

Congressman Tim Bishop has not been able to keep from spending, no matter what. The Postal Service has an $8.5 billion deficit, and Tim Bishop is out there fighting to keep an unneeded post office open. We are trillions of dollars in debt and he comes out blasting the Tea Party, because they want Congress to not waste anymore money on green boondoggles like Solyndra.

At issue is a Continuing Resolution, that is, a bill to provide temporary funding to the government. At the heart of the issue is that the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) has run out of money, so there is an issue of whether to give them $3 billion more or $6 billion more. In addition the Republicans want to cut funding for such green projects like Solyndra, which just declared bankruptcy after getting a $500 million taxpayer-funded loan guarantee. How heartless can those Tea Party people be to not want to send good money after bad for progressive boondoggles? But of course we should listen to Tim Bishop. After all he has been such a trusted steward of our money so far, right?

The above chart shows how much debt limit has been increased by Congress to keep the government functioning, since 1940, when it was almost zero. Tim Bishop was sworn into Congress in January of 2003, from a point where it had leveled off, the line almost goes vertical. That is eight trillion dollars in additional borrowing in just ten years in office, and he has the utter gall to say the Tea Party’s calls for restraint are unwarranted? Somebody has to do it. If Tim Bishop and Nancy Pelosi had not spent trillions of dollars that the government didn’t have, maybe we wouldn’t be quibbling over $3 billion.

Waste and Fraud

It remains to be seen if Solyndra was a massive fraud or the Democrats thinking they are really investment bankers and venture capitalists rather than elected officials, but we could have used that $500 million rather than waste it. But Bishop objects:

“Even worse, the Republican bill calls for much of that sum to be funded by cutting federal loan programs that have encouraged new job creation by U.S. automakers and clean energy manufacturers.” — e-mail message from Tim Bishop to his constituents.

$39 billion in stimulus dollars have been earmarked for green energy jobs. So far, $19 billion has been spent and 3,500 jobs have been created. That’s $5.4 million per job, people, do you think we can do better than that in the private sector? But what is a “green job?” According to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, if you drive a hybrid bus, it’s a green job, if you drive a gas-powered bus it is not a green job.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1scrqqWpFlM

As one pundit put it, Washington is the only place where the circus never leaves town. This is what Congressman Bishop decries that Republicans are trying to cut. Do you think your hard-earned money is being well spent?

There is a report out today that the federal government paid about $600 million to federal workers who are DEAD! The Justice Department buys muffins for a meeting that cost $16 each! Medicare and Medicaid routinely have $60-$100 billion per stolen, and Tim Bishop has no suggestions how to cut, and even takes the time to write his constituents that, “I am sick and tired of this divisive posturing we have come to expect from the Republican Tea Party Caucus.”

I have a piece of news for you, Congressman, in case you have not been paying attention. The last Democrat who thought it would be a great idea to attack his opponent as beholden to the Tea Party was a guy named David Weprin in the 9th Congressional District of New York special election. In a district that was 3:1 Democrat registered voters, he lost big. Many Tea Party members from the heart of your district traveled on their own time and at their own expense into Brooklyn and Queens to get out the vote for Bob Turner. If you think it is a winning strategy to attack the Tea Party, I have three words for you. Bring it on.

That’s my opinion; I’d like to know yours. Please comment below.

Photo by Andrew Aliferis

A fundamental difference between conservatives and progressives is the belief in individual responsibility. Conservatives believe in individual responsibility. Progressives do not.

Conservatives believe individuals should generally be free to do what they want as long as they don’t harm anyone else. Make good choices and the individual should reap the reward of that choice. Make bad choices and the individual should accept the responsibility for those choices and deal with the consequences.

Progressives believe that if an individual makes bad choices, they should deal with the consequences as long as they are not too harsh. If the consequences are too harsh, then there should be a government program to soften the blow. The side effect of that is called moral hazard. If an individual is protected from the harsh realities of the downside, they will be more willing to roll the dice on bad choices. To wit, the real estate bubble and the mortgage crisis.

Progressives also believe that if an individual makes a good choice, the fruits of that choice do not belong exclusively to the individual. They believe the government has a claim, perhaps even a first claim, on those fruits. To wit, the language of the progressives that a tax cut has to “paid” for. In other words, all money belongs to the government and if a tax cut results in less money in the government’s hands it is a payment to the individual.

How are Liberties Lost?

Since progressives believe the government ultimately is the backstop for all maladies, at some point they realize that this is an expensive proposition. To address this expense, the progressives like to pass laws to curtail certain activities of everyone that they deem hazardous. For example:

• If you fall off your bicycle and hit your head, there is a chance that you can’t afford to pay for your medical treatment. If so, we are collectively responsible for your medical bills. Therefore, the government demands that you wear a helmet or you will be punished. Your liberty to choose to have the wind blow through your hair is taken away.
• If you crash your car and you are not wearing a seat belt, there is a chance you can’t afford to pay your medical bills. If so, we are collectively responsible for your medical bills. Therefore the government demands that you wear a seat belt or you will be punished. Your freedom to choose is taken away.
• If you want to take your child to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal, beware. If a toy is involved in the transaction, government must step in because that evil corporation is coercing your children to demand you take them to McDonald’s and we all know you are not capable of saying “No” to your child so, the government will play the heavy.
• Mayor Michael Bloomberg is concerned that there is too much salt in your diet. So he wants to tell restaurants to take the salt and pepper shakers off the table and keep them in a back room. Instead of putting salt on your food before eating it, you must summon your waiter and ask him to retrieve the salt shaker from the back room.

The busybody nanny state government will not stop until it drains the life out of our society. We are over-regulated. Most of us may well be criminals without knowing it with all the new laws being passed every day. Little by little, bit by bit, our freedoms and liberties are taken away and some bureaucrat weighs in with instructions on the “correct” way to live. It is a subtle and incremental approach that we hardly realize is happening. It is like the story of the frog. If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will immediately jump out, but if you put the frog in a pot of cold water on the stove and turn the heat on it will sit there until it cooks. When will we decide to jump out or be cooked?

That is my opinion; I’d like to know yours.

What were three men with FDR emblazoned on their T-shirts doing at a FreedomWorks event? FreedomWorks is an activist organization that is partnered with tea party groups across the country. FDR is hardly an icon of the right.

Upon closer examination the T-shirts revealed that FDR didn’t stand for Franklin Delano Roosevelt but Frederick Douglas Republicans and the three African American men wearing them had a message for the group, they came to bring us the trump card to the race card.

One of the three, K. Carl Smith, said that you can’t be called a racist if you are wearing a Frederick Douglas T-shirt. That may be true, but what is behind the shirt? Frederick Douglas was a staunch Republican and most African Americans embrace many of the values of the tea party and he outlined how Douglas saw them.

RESPECT FOR THE CONSTITUTION
“What, then, is the Constitution?  I will tell you.  It is no vague, indefinite, floating, unsubstantial, ideal something; colored according to any man’s fancy, now a weasel, now a whale, and now nothing . . . The American Constitution is a written instrument full and complete in itself.  No Court in America, no Congress, no President, can add a single word thereto, or take a single word therefrom.  It is a great national enactment done by the people, and can only be altered, amended, or added to by the people.”—Frederick Douglass, March 26, 1860

RESPECT FOR LIFE
…I expose slavery in this country, because to expose it is to kill it.  Slavery is one of those monsters of darkness to whom the light of truth is death. —Frederick Douglass

BELIEF IN LIMITED GOVERNMENT
…What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. —Frederick Douglass

BELIEF IN INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY
…And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also.  All I ask is give him a chance to stand on his own legs!  Let him alone…your interference is doing him positive injury. … I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.  Man’s greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done. —Frederick Douglass

Smith then gave us a little side by side comparison of Frederick Douglas and Barack Obama.

• Frederick Douglas respected the constitution, Barack Obama wants to rewrite the constitution
• Frederick Douglas was pro-life, Barack Obama is pro-abortion
• Frederick Douglas was for limited government, Barack Obama is for massive government
• Frederick Douglas was for self reliance, Barack Obama is for reliance on government

So why do blacks not embrace conservatism? Smith explains it this way. In the 1950s it was conservative Democratics that fought against the civil rights movement. So when blacks hear “fiscal conservative”, “Reagan conservative”, “social conservative”, what they think is “fiscal racist”, “Reagan racist”, “social racist.” Mr. Smith’s prescription is to say Frederick Douglas Republican instead of conservative.

While I am not ready to stop calling myself conservative, Mr. Smith has a point. I will start weaving the term Frederick Douglas Republican into my lexicon and I will refer to myself as such where the situation warrents. Give Mr. Smith’s website a look at www.conservativemessenger.com.

That’s my opinion; I’d like to know yours. Please comment below.

Congressman Ron Paul, a perennial favorite of CPAC, the annual convention of the American Conservative Union, packed the house and then lit it up with his speech of liberty and libertarianism.

The themes he hit hardest were the fiscal situation, foreign policy, the Federal Reserve, and individual liberty and the crowd loved every minute of it. The full ballroom, the balconies, and several overflow rooms with video feeds waited for his remarks.

His opening salvo was on the fiscal situation. We have been spending far too much for far too long he told the crowd, surprising no one. He pointed to a common theme, which always seems to follow a progressive defeat at the polls, the call for bipartisanship. Congressman Paul tacked the opposite way saying he thought there has been too much bipartisanship. All of the social spending of the last fifty or sixty years could not have been accomplished without support from both parties, so Congressman Paul would like to see less bipartisanship. Unless, that is, there was support from the crony capitalists and the big government liberals to join in a bipartisan effort to cut the hell out of both.

His remarks on our foreign policy made a distinction between defense spending and military spending. Defense spending is what we need to defend ourselves. He called military spending what we spend to keep are troops around the world on a permanent deployment, citing Japan and Germany as places where we have had troops since the end of World War II. Congressman Paul is a strong advocate for staying out of the affairs of other countries. His definition of foreign aid is taking money from poor people in rich countries and giving it to rich people in poor countries. Most of the seventy billion dollars we have given to Egypt in foreign aid has ended in the bank accounts of the Mubarak family, he said.

Congressman Paul’s opposition to the Federal Reserve is well known. He is now in a position to effect some changes as he is now chairman of a subcommittee with Fed oversight. He wants to audit the Fed and make them accountable, and the crowd roared.

Regarding personal liberty, Congressman Paul has a simple rule: the government should not be able to do anything we cannot do. “If I can’t steal from my neighbor, I should not be able to tell the government to go and steal from him for me. No redistribution of wealth.” The listeners lapped it up. He offered a deal to the crowd. He asked if they would be willing to accept paying no more than 10% of their income if they agreed to take care of themselves and not ask the government for anything.

Congressman Paulwon the2010 Presidential straw poll at CPAC and he may win it again, if the “applause meter” is a gauge. Yesterday, Donald Trump said he liked Ron Paul but he is unelectable. With the number of young people in the crowd, their enthusiasm, and the progressive agenda crumbling, I am not so sure. He may be getting on in years, but he did open his remarks with a good point. Kentucky has a new senator, Senator Rand Paul.

CORRECTION: In the original post we had that Ron Paul  has repeatedly won the CPAC straw poll. He did not win it repeatedly, he won it in 2010 alone.

In an interview on Bloomberg radio yesterday, New York Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch talked about the perilous state of New York’s economy.  Mr. Ravitch was a key player in the rescue of New York City from the brink of financial collapse in the 1970s.  He talked about bankruptcy being an option and how New York City’s possible bankruptcy really brought banks to the negotiating table.  He also talked about how important the financial services industry is to New York as a source of tax revenue.  Then he let the cat out of the bag.

The interviewer asked him if he was in favor of a “billionaire’s tax.”  He said not at a local  level.  There you have it, not at a local level.  He explained that such taxes at a local level would be too easy to get around by the taxpayer moving to another locale.  Even worse, would be for the whole financial services industry to move elsewhere.

Another Shot Across the Bow of Federalism

Mr. Ravitch didn’t say a “billionaire’s tax” would be bad, just not applied at the local level.  Another news item yesterday concerned how newly reelected governor Rick Perry in Texas is pressing on with additional tort reform.  Texas is moving toward “loser pays” to bring an end to frivolous lawsuits where deep pocketed defendants find it cheaper to settle than to defend a suit and the lawyers walk away with boatloads of money.  This practice will soon end in Texas.  If the suit is deemed “groundless”, the plaintiff will have to pay the attorneys fees of the defendant. The result is that medical malpractice insurance rates have fallen 27.5% since 2003 and the number of applications for medical licenses for doctors has increased 60%.  But what has this to do with Mr. Ravitch’s position?

The Progressives hate the idea of state governments.  They want a centralized federal government to rule over us all.  It would eliminate the desire of unhappy taxpayers in New York to want to move to Texas, because the rules and taxes would be the same.  It also makes it much harder for the individual citizen to speak out against the government.  With about seven hundred thousand constituents per Representative in the House and four hundred thirty-five House members, the ability of an individual to be heard on any issue is miniscule.  All the better for the grandees in Washington who, like the Wizard of Oz, are all knowing and all powerful.  They will decide based on their sojourn in the hallowed halls of the Ivy League, what is best for you and you will have to take it and like it.

So Mr. Ravitch likes the concept of a billionaire’s tax just fine, just make sure the billionaire can’t squirm off the hook and scamper off to Texas or Florida.  He knows of which he speaks.  They tried a millionaire’s tax in Maryland and that is exactly what happened.  Bummer.

It’s Really Not Your Money Anyway

If you listen to the progressives when they talk about taxes they really don’t believe it is your money that you give to the government it is the government that benevolently allows you to keep some to live on.  That is why extending the current tax structure is something government can’t “afford.”  That sounds like all of what we earn belongs to the government and then the government cuts checks to us to live on.  Otherwise, how can you not afford what you are not going to get?  So the government gives tax cuts when in reality nothing is changing.  The tax rates are staying right where they are except, that is, for the death tax.

Since we all know that conservatives are heartless and progressives are compassionate, I thought this was an interesting exchange between Megyn Kelly of Fox News interviewing Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York.  Ms. Kelly was describing a hypothetical about wanting to leave her estate, already taxed heavily throughout her working life, to her children.  Ms. Kelly asked, “Why should I pay another tax when I die?”  Mr. Weiner, ever the compassionate progressive responded, “You aren’t paying anything. You’re dead.”  Nice touch, and a happy holiday to you and your family too, Mr. Weiner.

Progressives on the March

The progressives have been on a forced march the past two years trying to install as much of their agenda as they could before the American people could scramble back to the polls.  The Republicans in the Senate were hanging on by their fingernails waiting for reinforcements.  Election Day came and the results were a resounding refutation of the progressive agenda.  But the incumbents, rather than seeing the light doubled down trying to pass in four weeks what they couldn’t pass in four years.

It is time to send the Congress home.  Let’s start anew in January and start rolling back the progressive tide.  If we do not make significant progress in restoring federalism, it will only take another change in power for the progressives to further push toward one government.  Roll back and defend freedom are the order of the day.  Republicans cannot be the just a lighter version of the Democrats to retain the right to govern.  But it should be pretty clear where each side stands.  Let’s get to work.

That’s my opinion; I’d like to know yours.  Please comment below.

On October 17, 2010 members of TeaParty365 and Media Matters gathered in front of the New York Times headquarters and later in the day at the headquarters of NBC to protest the liberal distortions of those and other main stream media outlets.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fCL_o-WhFo&hd=1

It is interesting to note the tea party members who can be seen (Chinese, black, young white female) are not what the main stream media keep telling us make up the tea parties, while the liberal who stops to curse at the protest is an old white guy.  The mainstream media did come to see what was going on and interviewed the organizers of the event as well as this correspondent, but seemed bored and disappointed that some self fulfillling controversy didn’t break out.  Attempts to find any footage of their filming after the fact were fruitless.

First it was that Bush spent all eight years of his presidency (and was reelected after four of those years) destroying the economy and so we need to give Obama, what, eight years to fix it?  Then it was blame Boehner.  That didn’t work, because not many people know who John Boehner is.  Then it was “the Republicans want to go back to the same old ways that got us into this mess.”  Tell that to Arlen Specter, Lisa Murkowski, Mike Castle, Bob Bennett, Charlie Crist, Trey Grayson.  Same old, same old?  I don’t think so.

Now it is time to go negative.  No, I don’t mean campaign ads.  That was to be expected as the Democrats do not, repeat, do not want to run on their record, lest it get as ugly on November 2 as a town hall meeting.  No, they are going negative on their base.  The Democrat heavies are coming out and mocking their base to shame them into coming out and voting for them.  Consider some of these gems.

“We have an electorate that doesn’t always pay that much attention to what’s going on so people are influenced by a simple slogan rather than the facts or the truth or what’s happening.” – John Kerry

“Stop whining” and “buck up,” – Vice President Joe Biden

“If people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren’t serious in the first place.” – President Obama

The President demanded that his supporters “shake off this lethargy,” warning that it would be “inexcusable” for liberals to stay home on Election Day.

Well if that doesn’t work, there is always that Tea Party gang to demonize.  Now, if only the statists could find the leader of the Tea Party and destroy them, the movement would collapse.  Sorry, there is no such person.  There are numerous Tea Party groups with numerous leaders.

[T]he tea party movement is financed and directed by “powerful, special-interest lobbies.” – President Obama

“There are probably some aspects of the Tea Party that are a little darker, that have to do with anti-immigrant sentiment or are troubled by what I represent as the President.” – President Obama

Thomas Friedman wrote a piece in the New York Times today, “The Tea Kettle Movement,” as in just blowing off steam.  In it he makes several points that prove how ignorant the statists are regarding the Tea Party movement and will continue to be so as long as they get all their information from the main stream media, like the Times.

Democratic Pollster Stan Greenberg told me that when he does focus groups today this is what he hears: “People think the country is in trouble and that countries like China have a strategy for success and we don’t. They will follow someone who convinces them that they have a plan to make America great again. That is what they want to hear. It cuts across Republicans and Democrats.”

Yes China has a strategy, but don’t be fooled because it is a communist country into thinking that the answer is centralized control over all economic activity.  China’s success is because they realize that communism doesn’t work and they are moving more and more toward capitalism.  For example, China’s corporate tax rate is 16% while the U.S. rate is 35%.  Obama wants to move America to be more like the old, failed, socialist regimes but because he is smarter than everyone else, he will get it right.

To me [Friedman], that is a plan that starts by asking: what is America’s core competency and strategic advantage, and how do we nurture it? Answer: It is our ability to attract, develop and unleash creative talent. That means men and women who invent, build and sell more goods and services that make people’s lives more productive, healthy, comfortable, secure and entertained than any other country.

He seems to get the answer right but then progressives support policies that do just the opposite.  You don’t nurture the ability to attract, develop and unleash creative talent through bigger government, oppressive taxes, and burdensome regulation.  The progressives, in the midst of a feeble recovery, want to slam these very people with $700 billion in additional taxes.

Friedman, to his credit is not as out of touch as President Obama.  He suggests:

Actually raise some taxes — on, say, gasoline — and cut others — like payroll taxes and corporate taxes. It would require us to overhaul our immigration laws so we can better control our borders, let in more knowledge workers and retain those skilled foreigners going to college here. And it would require us to reduce some services — like Social Security — while expanding others, like education and research for a 21st-century economy.

Increasing the cost of energy through gasoline taxes is not the solution.  Perhaps that is a way to fund fixing the highways and bridges, but not unleash our productivity.  His immigration suggestion is not unlike the Tea Party movement and as he doesn’t mention illegals there might be a difference there, maybe not.  As far as reducing some service like Social Security, that is a result of a bad idea (ponzi scheme) put in place at the start.  If the same amount of money that is put into Social Security was put into private savings, there would be no need for a discussion.  The reason this is a big problem is the age old nanny state mentality, that people are too stupid to take care of themselves (put away for retirement) and that if the government doesn’t step in and take care of them now (payroll taxes), it will have to step in later to fix the lives they have screwed up.

No matter how you cut it, it is hardly a motivating message for either the base or anyone else to vote for the Democrats.  With little over thirty days left until the election, the Democrats are still throwing stuff against the wall to see if anything will stick.  This could be a bigger rout than we thought.

The old bull Republicans continue to get rocked.  Add Carl Paladino and Christine O’Donnell to the list that includes Rand Paul, Sharon Angle, Joe Miller and others. It drives home the point that was exposed in a Rasmussen poll that 72% of GOP voters say Republicans in Congress are out of touch with their base.  On the Democrat side it is just the opposite where 61% of Democrat voters say the Dems in Congress fairly represent them.  While the Democrats are standing pat, rank and file Republicans are asking for a new set of cards.

Liberty’s Life Line endorsed Mr. Lazio, because New York state government is such a dysfunctional mess it was felt more political experience and a detailed plan would make more headway than an outsider.  However, the fire in the belly that Mr. Paladino demonstrated, we wish Mr. Lazio had.  But Lazio ran another lackluster campaign as he did against Hillary Clinton for Senate, missing the key issue for voters by focusing on the Ground Zero mosque instead of the broken government.  Oddly, he had a 24 page plan on how he would change things, but you had to hunt to find it.  I have two suggestions for Mr. Lazio: drop out of the race on the Conservative line and free that up for Mr. Paladino, and give a copy of your plan to Mr. Paladino.

For the Republican party’s old pulls, it’s time to clean out your desks.  Enough of the lamenting that we need moderates to win in the general election.  When the going gets tough moderate Republicans vote with the Democrats.  When do moderate Democrats vote with Republicans?  Never, because there are no moderate Democrats. We don’t need any more Arlen Specters, Susan Collins, or Olympia Snowes. It is time to get polarized, energized, and laser focused on the issues that affect Americans.  If that means we have two extremes, left and right, so be it.  It also means Americans will have clear choices.

So let’s get behind the nominees and also put the old bulls out to pasture.

I guess that getting a tingle running up his leg only lasted so long before he had to give himself another fix.  Since talking about all the successes of the current administration seemed like a hard sell, Mr. Matthews put together a hit piece on the Tea Parties and the right, or as he calls it, the “New Right.”

On his Hardball  program, Matthews “documentary” was titled “The Rise of the New Right.”  In it he tries to paint the Tea Party movement as a fringe group of racists, gun nuts, and generally a group waiting for a reason to break into violence. 

You would be hard pressed to find a more over the top cheerleader for Barack Obama than Chris Matthews.  Matthews took advantage of his position in the media to actively work to get Obama elected, and now he is crestfallen that General Electric, CBS, and Disney/ABC do not control the news like in the good old days.  He openly attacks Fox News and blames the Internet for allowing the Tea Party to do an end run around the main stream media and get their information out.  Matthews, like big government, is smarter than you.  He knows what “news” you need to hear, and will diligently work to keep what you don’t need to know from reaching your eyes and ears.

 The Tea Party that I know has some very basic principles:

1. Fiscal responsibility
2. Accountability
3. Transparency
4. Free market solutions

 Pretty radical stuff, eh?  In a Rasmussen poll taken earlier this month, 46% of voters say the Tea Party is good for America, while 31% disagree.  Matthews doesn’t tell you this and he makes sure his “documentary” doesn’t provide the information that would let you draw that conclusion.

He reports on the militia movement and specifically mentions the Hutaree militia that plotted to kill a policeman and then those who would attend his funeral.  While constantly tying the Tea Party, and the militia to the Republicans he doesn’t mention that the one person in the Hutaree militia whose political affiliation is known was a Democrat and he voted as such.  Not that there is any linkage between what party one belongs to and being a nut-case, but a fair reporter might mention that to give an honest representation of the story.

Matthews also makes several references to violence against Democrats after the health care vote.  He neglects to say that only one case of violence resulted in an arrest.  That was for an attack against Republican Eric Cantor’s office.  Any one can get a brick and write a note on it quoting one of the Founding Fathers, but until to catch who did it and find out who they really are, you don’t know if it is an extremist on the right, or a Saul Alinsky disciple on the left who wants to discredit the Tea Party people.

Matthews liberally, no pun intended, sprinkles through his story extremists on the right, going back to the 1930s, such as Father Coughlin, but nowhere does he mention extremists on the left.  There is no profile of Louis Farrakhan, Reverend Wright, the Democrats who fought against the Civil Rights Act, while a majority of Republicans supported it.  There is no mention of our government internment of thousands of American citizens of Japanese descent during World War II.

It’s getting closer to the mid-term elections and Matthews doesn’t like seeing everything he has bet his reputation on going down in flames.  So he takes out this “hail Mary” pass to try to turn the tide against the Tea Party and scare people into staying safe with the Democrats.  But this time, the main stream media is not in control.  They can’t craft the message and force feed it to the American public.  Broadcast news and many major newspapers are losing viewers and readership daily, because Toto has pulled the curtain back on the Great and Powerful Oz that was the main stream media and exposed it for what it is, a shill for the Progressive left.