Republican Adam Kokesh Calls for Armed Overthrow of America

A 2010 Republican candidate for New Mexico's 3rd Congressional Seat, Adam Kokesh, is calling for a 50-state armed rebellion against the federal government.

Kokesh is a familiar face amongst the Ron Paul Republicans.  He claims to be anti-war and yet calls for an armed rebellion against the federal government.  Of course, as with all Republicans, he's just mad his Party isn't in power anymore. And since they can't win at the ballot box, they must turn to violent means to ensure the rule of the GOP.

Late update:

Kokesh has called off his march on DC.  He is instead insisting his followers march on their respective state capitols to force them to nullify the Union. Sounds like a cop-out to me.

Tea Baggers Want Name Change

Some in the tea bagger movement are wanting to launch a "re-branding" movement to coincide with their extreme unpopularity.

"We felt for branding reasons that we wanted to differentiate ourselves from certain organizations that have the name 'tea party' and we can't control," said Everett Wilkinson, leader of the organization that will now be called the National Liberty Federation.

I bet you could have never guessed it was going to have the name Liberty in it.

Tea Baggers Keep Making Me Look Like a Genius

April 2, 2009, I said:

The answer is simple. Tea Baggers aren't against spending. They aren't even against big government. There is no proof that Republicans are opposed to large government spending programs whatsoever.

June 28, 2010, I said:

Tea Baggers aren't against Big Government. They aren't against deficit spending. They aren't against social programs. They are merely Republicans who are mad they lost the election.

June 14, 2010, I said:

In reality the summation of this would mean Rand Paul is not against the federal government issuing bailouts to private business.  He's not against any of it.  He just likes to say he is so he can continue to enjoy the label of Washington Outsider that is rolling up his sleeves to go Freedom Fight against Big Government.  All the while Rand Paul is vastly enjoying the comforts of government bailouts.  Normally a person that did this would be called delusional.  Nowadays they're called Republican.

Bloomberg, April 30, 2012:

Yet the anti-bailout fervor that drove the messaging of Republican candidates during the campaign cycle of 2009 and 2010 has dissipated, and those same lawmakers are now collecting money from the firms bailed out by President George W. Bush’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. [...]

The political action committees of those institutions have distributed $169,499 through March 31 to the campaign coffers of the 10 freshman Tea Party-backed lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee, according to an analysis of campaign finance disclosure records.

I'll say it again, just for the smell of it.  Tea Baggers are not against spending.  They aren't against Big Government.  They aren't against TARP.  They aren't against bailouts.  They aren't against social programs and they aren't opposed whatsoever to deficits.  They simply like talking about all that stuff and pretending it all came from Democrats.

Allen West is mentally ill

The Palm Beach Post reports Republican representative Allen West went all McCarthy-ite to pander fear into the America people.

The conservative tea party icon also got in shots at Democrats and President Obama, who spoke Tuesday at Florida Atlantic University. West said Obama was "scared" to have a discussion with him. He later said "he's heard" up to 80 U.S. House Democrats are Communist Party members, but wouldn't name names.

Up to 80 House Democrats are members of the Communist Party but he's not naming names, yet.  Haven't we already been through this before America?  Time for Congressional Hearings and huge horse and pony shows to find out who are the truest patriots.  Republicans, your whole operation is an embarrassment.

Self Delusion's Hidden Government

Just in time for today's budget talk, the Times did a bang up job with a very informative story over the weekend.  It hits upon a constant theme, not only on this blog, but in public conversation about government.  What is government's role to the citizenry?

Sure, as you all know, I love to poke fun at the tea baggers.  They are crazy, no doubt.  They are no more against Big Government than they are against oxygen.  They're simply against other people besides themselves benefiting from government (especially when Democrats are in charge).  Yet, for all the fun I poke at them, their delusion is actually common among the public as a whole and not just their fringe GOP group.

Here's the overall theme facing government as viewed by the opposition to the current administration and why it boggles any rational thinking:

"LINDSTROM, Minn. — Ki Gulbranson owns a logo apparel shop, deals in jewelry on the side and referees youth soccer games. He makes about $39,000 a year and wants you to know that he does not need any help from the federal government.

He says that too many Americans lean on taxpayers rather than living within their means. He supports politicians who promise to cut government spending. In 2010, he printed T-shirts for the Tea Party campaign of a neighbor, Chip Cravaack, who ousted this region’s long-serving Democratic congressman.

Yet this year, as in each of the past three years, Mr. Gulbranson, 57, is counting on a payment of several thousand dollars from the federal government, a subsidy for working families called the earned-income tax credit. He has signed up his three school-age children to eat free breakfast and lunch at federal expense. And Medicare paid for his mother, 88, to have hip surgery twice."

Huh?

Anyone decades from now wanting to look back and see the unimaginative and very unrealistic view of the role of government and how this Congress is the most unpopular and most unproductive in history, this story should suffice.  It's really a wonder we've survived as a people this long.

Quickies

• Ron Paul's former secretary says Paul indeed read and signed-off on every single newsletter.  Anyone who believes Ron Paul didn't know the contents of newsletters printed under his name and signature until many years after they were written are only kidding themselves.  In other words, you're delusional.

• If you ask me this Duke Cunningham prison endorsement of Newt Gingrich is a setup by the GOP establishment.  There's no way the national party wants Gingrich to be the nominee, so what's better than leaking a personal endorsement from one of his former colleagues that is currently serving prison time for the largest congressional bribery scandal in American history?

• Fox News blames President Obama for job losses that happened when George Bush was still president.  Fair & Balanced all the way.

• Republicans are now claiming Gingrich, the former highest ranking Republican in the land, is not a conservative.  Good luck with that.  In a way, though, they are right.  Gingrich probably isn't all that conservative.  He's just Republican.  In that sense, Bush and Reagan weren't conservative either.  They were Republican.

• Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said he’ll introduce a form of the Buffett Rule – which would require that those earning more than $1 million will pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes – trying to capitalize on momentum stirred by President Barack Obama’s State of the Union last week.  The new tax rule has wide public support, which only means one thing.  The GOP will oppose it at all costs and Fox News will portray it as socialism and a redistribution of wealth.

• Dave Weigel discovers what a Tea Bagger rally looks like without heavy promotion from Fox News.

The Libertarian Intelligentsia Is Not Freaking Out

I find it hard to comprehend "Libertarians in Washington are not happy about how the Republican primary is shaping up."  That's what Pema Levy at TPM 2012 is telling me, however.

Levy goes on to state, "[s]ince the advent of the Tea Party in 2009, libertarians finally began to feel more at home with the right. The Republican Party, at least its rhetoric, was taking on a libertarian tone. They talked about lower taxes, shrinking the size of government, and constitutional originalism, which in theory would eliminate a lot of government regulations libertarians feel interfere with the free market."

None of this makes any sense especially if you have been paying attention these last two years.  Or for that matter, these last 4 decades.

Libertarians don't care about the GOP.  They have their own Party.  It's called the Libertarian Party.  People who care about the GOP are called Republicans.  It's certainly true people with libertarian leanings care about the GOP primary.  But they are not Libertarians.  They are Republicans with libertarian leanings, Ron Paul being Example A.

The whole thing makes about as much sense as saying "Democrats in Washington are not happy with how the Republican Primary is going."  Who cares?  Democrats have nothing to do with the GOP and their thoughts are irrelevant.  People who care about the GOP primary are Republicans.  Libertarians are not Republicans.

Furthermore, the advent of the tea baggers in 2009 has nothing to do with libertarians feeling more at home with the right.  For over 40 years, the GOP's rhetoric has been nothing but talk "about lower taxes, shrinking the size of government, and constitutional originalism."  To mesh libertarian views into this now ignores decades of Republicanism, and decades of never once governing with their so-called core principles.  When hasn't Republican rhetoric been about small government, fiscal conservatism???

This is a very sloppy piece by TPM 2012.  If you vote Republican, you're Republican.  You're not libertarian or Libertarian.  And there's absolutely no proof to suggest the Republican Party, thanks to the tea baggers in 2009, took on a more "shrink government, return to the framer's intent" tone than they have since 1948.  

GOP Tries to Remove President from NH Primary Ballot

Republican birthers and tea baggers are going to be alive and well throughout the next year. And in New Hampshire, the GOP actually tried to remove President Obama from that state's primary on completely false charges that he has a fake birth certificate.

At 2 p.m. in Room 307 of the legislative office building, the state's Ballot Law Commission is set to hear a complaint filed by Orly Taitz, a California lawyer who has continued to question the validity of Obama's birth certificate and Social Security number since his 2008 election.

Backing her complaint, Taitz said, are four Republican members of the New Hampshire House: Harry Accornero of Laconia, Larry Rappaport of Colebrook, and Lucien and Carol Vita of Middleton.

"There's sufficient controversy that I want it investigated," Rappaport, a Ron Paul supporter, said yesterday. "Every time this is brought up . . . we get a lot of flak, but we've never gotten an answer."

Obama released his birth certificate in response to media inquiries in 2008, but the document did little to quiet skepticism from the so-called "birther" movement. In April, in response to continued interest in the president's nationality - fueled by statements by real estate mogul Donald Trump as he toyed with a presidential run - Obama also released a copy of his long-form birth certificate.

This is just your normal everyday Republican Party at work.  Notice, too, Rappaport claims to be a Ron Paul supporter.  Of course he is.  Paultards are the kings of wingnut conspiracy theories.  Paul is a Republican through and through.  These are the same people that voted twice for George W. Bush, who think Iraq had something to do with 9/11 and calls anybody who doesn't agree with everything they say "traitors" and anti-Americans.

Yeah they actually did just that when the committee dismissed Taitz's claims.

The action came after the decision was made by the state's Ballot Law Commission to keep President Obama on the presidential ballot. Sitting across the room from most of the people, I grabbed my cameras and changed locations in anticipation of a reaction. I overheard some people earlier suggesting they should yell "Treason" or "Traitors" following the decision. People were heated. And sure enough, like many events I cover, people yelled "Treason." And "Traitors."

I would be so proud to be a Republican.

Republican Christian Right Group Praises Deadbeat Dad Joe Walsh for Unwavering Support of the Family

All things in the Republican Fantasy World eventually come full circle.  Just like Republicans get to label themselves as being fiscal conservatives and worried about the deficit, even though they have no track record of ever doing any of that, they too get to pat themselves on the back for being moral crusaders-- even when it comes to abandoning your kids.

Everybody's favorite deadbeat tea bagger, Joe Walsh (R-IL) who owes over $117,000 in back child support, was honored by Republican Tony Perkins' Family Research Council for his outstanding commitment to families.

Via Sun Times:

“Cong. Walsh and other ‘True Blue Members’ have voted to repeal Obamacare, de-fund Planned Parenthood, end government funding for abortion within the health care law, uphold the Defense of Marriage Act, and continue support for school choice. I applaud their commitment to uphold the institutions of marriage and family.”

Poll: In Illinois Tea Baggers Keep Going Limp

A recent statewide poll conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute found 42.2% of the public disapproved or strongly disapproved of the fringe Republican group.  That number is up almost 8 points from the same time last year.  Twenty-eight percent said they had no opinion.

The poll also found that almost 80% of the Illinois public understands compromise is a necessary function of government. Astonishingly, 71.5% of tea bagger supporters said they prefer candidates that are willing to compromise.  Even though that number is down almost 10% from the whole, it's still wildly high for a group of people who believe people who don't agree with them are enemies.

Other things that are more popular in Illinois than tea baggers:

• The war in Iraq
• George W. Bush
• Legalizing drugs
• Oprah
• Social Security
• Medicare
• Public Option

Dems Finally Decide to Relate Tea Baggers With GOP

Sen. Chuck Schumer pens a brilliant idea: link tea baggers and their fringe ideas to Republicans and call it Tea Party Economics.

Tea Party Economics

Of course The Fold Blog has been doing this for almost two years.  The DNC could have saved itself a ton of heartache and alka seltzer had it listened us.  A long, long time ago, like 2009-ish, you know when it was semi-rationale to believe austerity was a fool's errand, we were the lone beacon in the night telling the world that there was never any reason to ever differentiate tea baggers from Republicans.

Tea Baggers Call Wall St. Protesters Criminals

Only people who protest Democrats are Super Patriots.  All others are criminals.

There is, as expected, a larger point here.  The whole thing revolves around the accepted and established Republican view that Democrats are enemies of the state who want to destroy America.  Notice when Hank Jr. gave his hate-filled speech on Fox News the other day that he called them enemies that must be stopped.

In an interview Monday morning on Fox News' "Fox & Friends," Williams, unprompted, said of Obama's outing on the links with House Speaker John Boehner: "It'd be like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu."

Asked to clarify, Williams said, "They're the enemy," adding that by "they" he meant Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Naturally the enemy, when they do speak up and march in the streets, is partaking in a criminal activity.  This is where our political discourse is at in America.  It's not that you disagree with someone.  It's that the other person is a socialist enemy that hates America.

In the entirety of Bush's 8 years, I disagreed with him many times.  But never did I call him an enemy.  Or someone that hates America.  Never did I think the people who supported him where enemies that hated America.  The same doesn't apply for Republicans who now find themselves in the minority. They view everyone-- yes everyone-- that doesn't believe everything they do and watch Fox News as enemies that must be stopped at all costs.  There's a sort of cultish mix of fanaticism involved with such a mindset.  Whatever it is, it's alive and well and has hijacked the GOP.  There's no reason to think it's going to change any time soon either.  It's a disgrace.

Deep Thought

How long before tea bagging Republicans take credit for the Wall St. protests?

*editor's note:

I suppose I could also phrase this to include Libertarians since they have been talking for decades about Revolution! and disturbing the status quo of elitist power.  However, after some thought, the term "Republicans" is still correct since a Libertarian is simply someone who votes Republican.

FL Tea Baggers Support Sissy ACLU

Maybe a sign of the times, or proof hell is freezing over, the Tea Baggers of Florida are siding with the ACLU to get rid of Republican-passed legislation that prohibits third party members from running as Republicans or Democrats in the next election.

Quickies

• Karl Rove practically gets pulled from a Fox News interview for dissing Fox News employee and probable presidential candidate Sarah Palin. During his tirade about Palin having thin skin, Fox abruptly switches to Breaking News Alert that Steve Jobs was stepping down as Apple CEO. Too bad the Jobs story broke hours prior and had already been reported by Fox News.

• Tea Baggers newest Freedom Fighting venture?  Banning books!  More specifically, books that don't adhere to Biblical principles.  How's that for Freedom!

• Excellent read in the Times from David Cambell and Robert Putnam highlighting data from 2006 showing Tea Baggers were present then just under another name: Republicans.  Their study also casts doubts on Tea Bagger movement being something of a grassroots phenomena by demonstrating people who identify themselves as Tea Baggers have always been highly active Republicans and did not magically appear on the scene in 2009.  They've always been political participants, just with a new name.

• As regular readers will recall, I've been saying the very same things Cambell and Putnam are now quantitatively measuring.  Tea Baggers are not independents.  They are not a movement of people just now entering the political fray.  They are Republicans.  They have always been present but were quiet during the 8 years of George Bush, not because they loved his policies, but simply because he was a Republican-- and seemingly that is all they care about.  You can search The Fold Blog's archives all day long and see since day one I have been on a mission to get the media to quit treating Tea Baggers as an outside group when they are in every way, shape and form Republicans.

• Former VP Big Dick Cheney urged President Bush to bomb Syria in 2007.   He also kept a resignation letter handy just in case. 

Telling Us What We Already Know

An academic study coming out of North Carolina and Tennessee concludes people who associate themselves as Tea Baggers (aka, people who vote Republican) are mainly driven by fear, nativism, authoritarianism and libertarianism.

...That TPM [tea party movement] supporters simultaneously want to honor the founders' Constitution and alter that same document highlights the political flexibility of the cultural symbols they draw on.

The TPM supporters' inconsistent views of the Constitution suggests that their nostalgic embrace of the document is animated more by a network of cultural associations than a thorough commitment to the original text. In fact, such inconsistencies around policy, whether on the right or left, highlight what many sociologists see as the growing importance of culture in political life. The Constitution - and Tea Party more generally - take on heightened symbolic value and come to represent a 'way of life' or a "world view" rather than a specific set of laws or policy positions.

In other words, they're idiots. They claim to want to honor the Founder's intentions while simultaneously wanting to amend it to fit their political desires. Idiots.

Fox News Admits Tea Baggers Don't Really Care for Facts

Greta Van Susteren on Fox News:

So it’s, like, even within the Tea Party movement, there is, you know, there’s a disregard for the facts.”

You can come at this one a couple ways. Van Susteren, if you'll recall, has been labeled by her boss as the liberal host for Fox News. Yes she's the resident Liberal. Whatever, just go with it. Since she's the Liberal of the bunch, she's supposed to say such things, right?

Or you could just wonder where in the world the Tea Baggers could possibly be getting all these inaccurate things from. Hummm, let's see.

Just this week...

• Sean Hannity had a complete disregard for the facts when he said George W. Bush turned over to President Obama an economy with 5.6% unemployment.
• Laura Ingraham called birth control abortion.
• Ran a fake video numerous times that had been doctored on YouTube to make Sen. Frank Lautenberg appear as if he's saying "we got to eliminate the rich."
• Ran with a misleading WSJ story claiming the list of millionaires has shrunk in America due to President Obama and his desire to tax them.

Yeah I have no clue how Tea Baggers could be so misinformed.

Tea Bagger Rhodes Would Have Been Arrested for Doing the Same to Bush

Following up from the post below, it's apparent that Republican tea baggers are going to try and disrupt any and all public appearances by President Obama from here on out. What happened in Iowa yesterday with tea bagger leader Ryan Rhodes and the president was minor and only the beginning.  The events will get rowdier and maybe violent, mark my word.

As a believer in democracy, I'm all for it-- not the violent part. Let people who disagree with President Obama question him. Let them show up at his events with their rattle snake shirts and their crazy signs lamenting government. That's a healthy practice of democracy, and I hope the president and his campaign do not try and cut down on such behavior either.

Now why would someone who supports President Obama, who plans on voting for him again, encourage such disruptions and rude behavior? Because the alternative is what George Bush and the Republicans did when he tried to squash disobedience.

• 2004- husband and wife in WV were arrested for attending a "public" George Bush event. Their crime: disrupting the event by yelling and screaming? Nope. They were simply wearing anti-Bush t-shirts (to a public event mind you).
• 2005- three people were forcibly removed from a so-called George Bush public town hall meeting. Did they disrupt? Yep. But remember these people are un-patriotic for opposing the most unpopular president in American history.
• 2004- two 55 year old school teachers were arrested in Iowa for attending a Bush campaign rally while wearing John Kerry shirts and buttons. Did they yell, shout, scream and disrupt? Nope. Their crime was not supporting the President of the United States.
• 2008- a 61 year old librarian forcefully removed and arrested at a John McCain rally in Denver for holding a sign that read McCain=Bush. Did she yell, scream, shout and disrupt? Nope. Her crime was she didn't support another four years of George W. Bush.

So remember, what this nut job in Iowa did yesterday it would have landed him in jail had he done it to George Bush or a Republican.  When people cry about Obama not changing things, it's better to remember just how much things have really changed.

Head Tea Bagger Heckles President

In Iowa yesterday, leader of one of the many tea bagger factions, Ryan Rhodes, went head to head [no pun intended] with President Obama concerning the current mode of political discourse.

Rhodes shouted out that the president's calls for more civility in politics had little chance of coming to pass after "your vice president is calling people like me, a Tea Party member, a 'terrorist.'"

"I absolutely agree that everybody needs to try to tone down the rhetoric," President Obama said, before going on to detail some of the more explosive charges that conservatives have laid against him.

"In fairness, since I have been called a socialist who wasn't born in this country, who is destroying America and taking away its freedoms because I passed a health care bill, I am all for lowering the rhetoric."

Obama and Rhodes later engaged in an animated conversation as he greeted supporters on a rope line after the event, and the activist later told reporters that he believed that Obama was indeed a socialist.

When you hold the entire country hostage over some make-believe budget cuts to supposedly cut the national debt of which $11 trillion came from your party, that's terrorism.  There's no other word or phrase for it.  But I love how it's okay for the tea bagger to call the president a socialist but he yells, screams and cries like a little baby over being called a name himself.  Get ready for more of this.  This is only the beginning.  President Obama will get heckled many, many more times by people even crazier than this idiot.

And Now We Know Why She's a Tea Bagger