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My letter to the editor, available in the Concord Monitor, December 10, 2010, regarding Republican and Tea Party voter suppression tactics.
I believe hypocrisy should be broadcast for all to hear, but its hard to whittle down the pile right now...
http://www.concordmonitor.com/...
"Tea Party Nation President Judson Phillips recently stated that voting rights should be restricted to property owners, which would leave non-property-owning taxpayers without a voice in the representative democracy they help pay for and young service members without a voice in the country they help protect with their non-property-owning lives.
This is another example in a rich conservative tradition of voter suppression. Most notably, in this past election, Republicans ran ads in Nevada telling Hispanics "Don't vote." And in 2002, New Hampshire was home to a GOP-funded phone-jamming scandal. History reminds us of literacy tests and poll taxes. Current tactics include under-staffing polling places in poor areas to ensure long lines and enacting photo ID laws, which disproportionately affect minority and elderly voters who may not routinely keep such IDs.
This is a collective group of Americans who recently appear desperately attached to the founding fathers and personal liberty. I do not understand why these same conservatives think it's acceptable to engage in voter suppression in direct contradiction of the founders' belief in a government of the people."
Writing in Mother Jones, Stephanie Mencimer describes the latest target for Tea Party attacks: local zoning commissions.
First, they took on the political establishment in Congress. Now, tea partiers have trained their sights on a new and insidious target: local planning and zoning commissions, which activists believe are carrying out a global conspiracy to trample American liberties and force citizens into Orwellian "human habitation zones."
Right after the election, Frank Guinta told the Concord Monitor that he'd be joining a newly formed Tea Party Caucus in Congress.
Then Beth LaMontagne Hall reported that Guinta would be heading "to Washington on Nov. 14 for orientation."
Hmm... turns out that's when the Tea Party Patriots orientation for frosh members is. Which brings us to the fiasco (h/t TPM):
Tea Party Patriots, one of the largest coalitions of tea party advocates, released to supporters the personal cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses of freshman Republican Members who the group thinks are in danger of being "co-opted" by D.C. insiders.
In an e-mail to supporters that was also posted Thursday on IronMill.com, Tea Party Patriots leader Jenny Beth Martin accused the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank, of trying to lure the freshman lawmakers away from the tea party movement by hosting orientation programs that conflict with those scheduled by the tea party group.
A look at the letter (I'm not linking to it) urges the Tea Partiers to call Frank Guinta and Charlie Bass directly. The Bass connection is especially ironic, since, after telling the Tea Partiers their agenda was "exactly the same as mine," post-election he doesn't want to have anything to do with the TP caucus.
Our first district Congressman-Elect was lucky on the timing here. Imagine if the Tea People had been ordered to contact Guinta after learning he opposes cutting a form of government welfare.
Frank Guinta will be hanging out with Tea Partiers Sen. Jim DeMint, Rep. Michelle Bachman and Rep. Mike Pence tomorrow. He's joining the three as featured speaker at the Americans for Prosperity "November Speaks" rally in Washington.
The rally is an attempt to block Democrats' policy priorities in the upcoming lame-duck session, including a childhood nutrition bill, food safety legislation and preventing a 23% cut in Medicare payments to physicians.
Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is the right-wing political advocacy group funded by infamous oil billionaire David Koch of Koch Industries. AFP spent over $1.3 million during the midterm elections to elect Tea Party candidates including more than $74,000 attacking Rep. Carol Shea-Porter.
In a number of states the electorate chose the kind of people they said they didn't want running their government. Really makes you wonder, doesn't it?
If you listen to what a lot of voters say they want this year, especially in conservative states like Indiana where a huge chunk of the population identifies as Tea Partiers, it's candidates who are ready to break with the past, question long-held assumptions, relate to the concerns of regular people, and can bring a fresh perspective to the entrenched insiders in Congress.
And with that in mind, Hoosiers, by a 15-point margin, elected an old, wealthy Washington insider, who left Indiana more than a decade ago, and who's spent several years as a corporate lobbyist. Indeed, Coats intends to go to the Senate and vote on issues he handled as a lobbyist, and has no intention of recusing himself when his former clients will be affected by his votes.
It's the economy, stupid. Except, ironic as it is for the Republicans to return on the wings of the crisis they helped cause, the economy was just a necessary precondition.
Like it or not, the Tea Party was the wave. Maybe it's only 10% of the electorate, but that's pretty much the balance of power. Whether it is a grassroots movement, or a cleverly manipulated corporate movement, or both, it had the same effect this year that some of the progressive movements had 2 and 4 years ago. Aided, in a symbiotic frenzy, by the corporate money released by the Citizens United court decision.
I could wish the Dems were better at putting out their message, or had more volunteers, or whatever, but I'm not sure the Tea Party could have been countered even early on, and certainly not once it got rolling. And given the hidden, and overt, racism that winds through much of the TP rhetoric and thought, I don't think it could have been co-opted either, despite its occasional populist strains.
Unfortunately, I also don't think it will go away as long as Obama is in office. If the economy improves over the next 2 years, that may take some of the wind from TP/Republican sails. But mostly I hope Obama's personal popularity and inspirational skills, along with Republican obstructionism, are enough to bring out the Dem vote next time around, because the opposition is not starting from scratch anymore.
(The final head count on two year's worth of endless media attention. - promoted by Dean Barker)
We are so in trouble, a great crowd turned out for the Tea Party Express tour end in Concord!
On the eve of midterm elections, the Tea Party Express ended its fourth cross-country tour on the lawn of the State House, where over 200 supporters braved the cold last night to hear three hours of speeches, songs and stories from the tour's burgeoning celebrities.
The Tea Party is dropping the pretense of being a grassroots movement on November 1st. The shadowy corporate group AFP is sponsoring a whole day of propagandizing in Concord all day Monday Nov. 1st, celebrating the Tea Party's coming out as a openly fascist corporate front group.
Kelly Ayotte has chosen sides in the civil war for the soul of the Republican party. She's going with the Tea Party.
Ayotte, Judd Gregg's hand-picked successor, has been eyed by the Senate GOP leadership as a "political asset," a moderate who could broaden Republicans' appeal to women and independents. Apparently, it's a suit that doesn't fit.
Monday, Ayotte won an endorsement from FreedomWorks, the Wall Street front group led by Dick Armey that helped launch the Tea Party movement. It was an endorsement she aggressively pursued.
"We only get into races when we are asked,” said FreedomWorks spokesman Adam Brandon, indicating that Ayotte sought out the group's support. Brandon said FreedomWorks made the endorsement only after gaining "consensus from our guys on the ground -- we can’t endorse if our activists’ membership is spilt."
So now we know. But before she remakes the Republican party, there's that small matter of an election next Tuesday. New Hampshire voters have a habit of rebelling when our vote is taken for granted.
When the candidates had a chance to ask each other questions, Annie Kuster zeroed in on Charlie Bass' full-throated suppport of the Tea Party. You know the famous line: "Their agenda is exactly is exactly the same as mine."
This was a smart move by Annie, since this is by far the highest profile media event of the season for them, with the potential to reach broad swaths of the general electorate, including the key third of independent voters.
Charlie's response was a surprise to me: he wholly and enthusiastically owned up to his march to the hard right. Compare that, e.g., to his series of "I'm a independent - really!" general election ads from 2006.
When you take the biggest, last opportunity you have to reach out to everyone, and use it instead to stoke the voters who should already be in your pocket, this is a huge tell.
Charlie Bass has a significant GOP base problem.
His response to which only aggravates his other problem - former supporters going over to Annie, which will be the highlight of today's Team Kuster day.
The Tea Party is coming to town. Yesterday, Sarah Palin--Kelly Ayotte's biggest supporter--kicked off the Tea Party Express' national tour.
The Tea Party's final stop on their tour will be on the steps of our state house in Concord the night before the election.
Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, Glenn Beck and their friends on the Tea Party Express are working hard on Kelly Ayotte's behalf. Ayotte proudly accepted Palin's endorsement and groups like Karl Rove's American Crossroads and the Glenn Beck-backed Chamber of Commerce have spent millions of dollars to boost her campaign
Some say Rove and and his bad seeds left the GOP but I am here to tell you do not accept the GOP lies-He and his friends never left!
http://beforeitsnews.com/story...
Text removed for copyright violation. Please restrict use of copyrighted pieces to short excerpts. - Laura
The issue of choice is rising to the top of the 2010 political debate as tea party conservatives test the limits of Granite State voters' broad support for keeping abortion safe and legal. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England is taking action to amplify the voices of New Hampshire's pro-choice community in the critical weeks leading up to November's election - and they need your help.
If you believe that women's health and women's lives matter, it's time to speak up. PPNNE's 2010 Put a Bow On It! campaign makes it easy to take a stand against anti-choice fanatics who want to turn back the clock on women's rights. Send a message that efforts to criminalize abortion and limit women's power to prevent unintended pregnancies are out of touch with the attitudes of mainstream voters - and out of step with New Hampshire values.
Members of the pro-choice, pro-Planned Parenthood community are invited to submit a brief statement (200 characters or less) about why you support every woman's right to reproductive autonomy. Your personal messages will be attached to big, shockingly pink bows; the bows will join a powerful public display at a PPNNE health center that's been targeted for an escalation of anti-choice protest activity. Your shout-out of support will be seen by patients, health center staff, and members of the local community.
Ready to Put a Bow On It? Use this handy web form to submit your personal message. (You have an option to post your message anonymously, or include your name and town.) You can also sign up to receive more information about PPNNE's NH political action program (sign up is not required to participate in the Put a Bow On It! action).
Questions? Contact Judy Stadtman at judy.stadtman (at) gmail.com.
The slogan in my first state senate campaign was I see Opportunities. It was during that earlier recession, when economic times were tough.we got to work together and things did get better.
The swallowing up of the Republican Party by the Jesse Helms Strom Thurmond extremist wing of the part now called Tea Party is another opportunity Democrats have an obligation to take on.
We must not fail to use the public's fear of their truly radical agenda in our fall efforts. There is very much the American public should fear of the Palin power team.we should tell them about it.
In being laser focused on winning, there's no choice for us but to stand up to these very real threats to traditional American principles. We will win if we show we have a backbone.Voters can tell who's for real, and this matters a lot.
Democrats cowering in fear of the big bad corporate right and all their money do not present a winnable ticket. Being Repubican-lite get's us nowhere. Being who we proudly are, does.
We know who we are: strong dedicated genuinely serving the common good.
Our opponents have much to hit on: the power of Wall St, the power of the insurance industry, shipping jobs overseas, wasting hundreds of billions in non-useful military adventures.
Helping elderly, kids and education, safer foods, a new energy future, jobs and more jobs...This rise of the Tea Party is a fabulous opportunity to spell out the contrast and in telling the truth, we end up with great big victories November 2nd,
The challenge has been issued, now it's up to us to stand up straight, and have the courage to lead.
Just two years ago, Sarah Palin was the obscure and rather mediocre governor of a remote state with a tiny population. But then, less than two years ago,
John McCain thrust greatness upon her by making her his running mate. She did not became Vice President, but she did become a political ikon second only to Obama.
And now she is tantalizing us with the prospect of a 2012 Presidential run.
But the heck with her: we do not need her. She has nothing to offer us here in New Hampshire which we can't find right here at home, or at least in a neighboring state.
