The Tea Party, Sarah Palin, And The Delaware GOP Senatorial Primary: Suicidal Tendencies Grow! :(
Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Movement seem out to prevent any moderate Republicans from being elected to the US Senate, thus giving the Republicans a more extremist image, which is likely to lead to defeat, but even if it does not, marginalizes the long term future of the party! 
Alaska's Senate primary saw moderate Lisa Murkowski defeated by Joe Miller, an extremist Tea Party favorite, which at least makes that state a more competitive one for Democrats! Sarah Palin used her influence to help defeat the Murkowski family again, as she had when she defeated the father who was Governor in 2006!
Now Delaware, a state sure to elect a moderate Republican with a 20 year record in the US House, Mike Castle, suddenly has the possibility, due to Sarah Palin and the Tea Party extremists, of electing a completely unqualified woman, Christine O'Donnell, who happens to be attractive as her only virtue, as the Senate nominee next Tuesday, September 14!
The odds of O'Donnell defeating Democrat Chris Coons are seen as unlikely, but the desire to move the GOP to the far right seems to outweigh the reality that the GOP cannot survive intact as an extremist right wing party long term!
We already have right wingers named Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, Joe Miller, Ken Buck and Mike Lee, who make a bad image for the party, and hopefully most will be defeated, an advantage to the Democrats!
But if they win, and Christine O'Donnell wins, the Republican party is killing its long term future, as to govern the country we require a mainstream centrist set of parties, and the GOP is fast losing any possibility of being perceived as such!
The Contradiction Of Joe Miller: The “Anti Ted Stevens” For Alaska!
Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska served longer in the upper chamber than any Republican Senator in history, and when he died last month in a plane accident, he was deeply mourned by most Alaskans as the man who had done more for Alaska than any other political figure in its half century history as a state!
Alaska was the beneficiary of more federal largesse (money and public works projects) than any other state, and Alaska then and now desperately needed such funding, as it is a state which even today has very few roads and bridges and other public projects, making travel and access through much of the state extremely difficult!
Juneau, the capital in southeast Alaska, cannot be reached by land, for instance, and much of the state is isolated and poor! So Stevens was good for Alaska, but so were Senator Frank Murkowski and his daughter, Senator Lisa Murkowski, who recently lost a close renomination contest to Joe Miller!
Of course, Sarah Palin was a critic of all of these political figures, but never did anything to deal with the realities of backwardness and poverty in much of Alaska in her BRIEF time in public office! She, however, has been very effective in improving her own economic conditions, while advocating the nomination of Joe Miller, a person who shares her vision of a "new" Alaska without federal intervention!
Joe Miller portrays himself as the opponent of federal largesse, of "earmarks", and therefore is the "anti Ted Stevens"! He was able to defeat Lisa Murkowski by a razor thin margin on this basis!
It is amazing how in one month, Alaskans can mourn "Uncle Ted", who brought his state so many benefits by doing what all members of Congress are expected to do, make life better for their constituents; and then have the dominant party in the state reject that approach and nominate a Tea Party favorite, who defies the history of the American political system!
If Alaska does indeed proceed to elect Joe Miller over Democratic opponent Scott McAdams, will they have "buyer's remorse", when they realize they are putting into a position of power an individual who has no interest in benefiting the state, modernizing it, bringing it into the future, but would rather quote the Founding Fathers in a narrow, restrictive manner, evoking the states rights argument of the Civil War Era of the 19th century in the 21st century?
Joe Miller, like most conservatives and Republicans, distorts the Founding Fathers and the Constitution, failing to understand that the document they created was purposely left vague and broad, as they could not possibly predict the long term future, and so left it open to modern interpretation by Congress and the courts!
The Founding Fathers did not intend a "strait jacket" Constitution, but if Joe Miller in office follows it in that manner, Alaska will suffer, and remain a backward state without a modern public works system and large levels of poverty! Somehow, the feeling arises that Joe Miller would end up contradicting himself once in office, and therefore would have to be seen as a hypocrite who exploited the general discontent that exists, with rhetoric that is false and manipulative!
Alaska GOP Goes Right Wing Tea Party Radical: Joe Miller, Sarah Palin’s Choice! :(
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin triumphed in her home state yesterday, successfully defeating Senator Lisa Murkowski's bid for renomination, just as she personally defeated Senator Murkowski's father, Governor Frank Murkowski when he ran for renomination in 2006!
In so doing, Palin presented us with the most extreme right wing radical candidate yet in Senate races this year--more so, imagine this, than Sharron Angle of Nevada and Rand Paul of Kentucky!
Joe Miller came out of "nowhere", but with Palin's backing, gained the nomination in a close contest, winning by fewer than 1,700 votes over a Senator who could be regarded as somewhat of a moderate!
But what does Joe Miller represent? He represents a belief that we should return to "basic principles", meaning a LITERAL view of the Constitution, meaning no federal government other than defense and security, and a return to states rights, even though that was supposedly settled by the Civil War 150 years ago!
Miller is the most extreme Tea Party candidate of all running this year! Realize what Miller is promoting specifically!
He advocates no unemployment compensation, complete privatization of Social Security, the end of Medicare and Medicaid, and closing down many federal government agencies!
However, the government MUST have the right to force a woman who has been raped to bear the child of her rapist!
The Democrats have nominated Sitka Mayor Scott McAdam, who normally as a Democrat, would have had no chance for election against a comparative moderate such as Lisa Murkowski!
But now there is a fighting chance that McAdam, if he is given sufficient financial support in a state with such a small population as Alaska, might have a shot at defeating Miller!
Hopefully this will happen, because Miller is the nuttiest and whackiest of all GOP candidates for the Senate this year, bar none!
It would also be a way to slap Sarah Palin down, as backing such a candidate makes one wonder about her own sanity and fitness for political office!
“Obama Derangement Syndome” And The Republican Party
The Republican party has a disease which is spreading widely, and making them look totally ridiculous to anyone who has any brains or common sense!
That disease is "Obama Derangement Syndrome", which is a condition that blames President Obama for EVERYTHING that goes wrong, even when the President has NOTHING to do with what went wrong!
So it is Obama's fault that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie failed to win $400 billion in federal aid for the state education system in the competition for federal funds, because the state failed to provide necessary information! It apparently is Obama's job to make sure every state competing for the grants has filled out the forms correctly!
It is Obama's fault that we entered into the Afghanistan War in 2001, according to Republican National Chairman Michael Steele, even though Obama was a state senator in Illinois at the time and George W. Bush was President!
It is Obama's fault that a mosque will be built at Ground Zero despite the fact the New York City Planning Commission approved the project, and another mosque is already there for many years, two blocks from the site of the new project!
It is Obama's fault that British Petroleum failed to follow basic rules and regulations, resulting in the oil spill, even though the government reacted quickly to start dealing with the crisis, which BP could not figure out rapidly to resolve satisfactorily!
It is Obama's fault that his father was born in Kenya and was a Muslim, even though his dad left early and his mother's white family was Christian!
It is Obama's fault that the economy has not turned around "on a dime", rapidly overcoming the mistakes of eight years of the Bush Administration!
We could go on and on and on, but the point is that Obama is being blamed for everything, including original sin, by the opposition--more than any President has been blamed after only 19 months in office, and really even in a complete term of office!
The fact that the Republican party has not come up with one original idea on any government policy, and expects the American people to put them back in control, simply by employing "Obama Derangement Syndrome", shows exactly why they SHOULD NOT be given back power, as they drove our country "into the ditch", and now want the keys to take over the country again, a description Obama gave himself as a joke at several public appearances!
The real disease of America is not "Obama Derangement Syndrome", but instead "Republican Derangement Syndrome", as they are themselves dividing and fighting in an internal civil war between right wing and far right wing within their party!
Witness the refusal of the losers in Nevada, Arizona, Florida, and Alaska to endorse their opponents, and the loony people such as Michele Bachmann who raved after the Washington Mall rally of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin that there had been one million people there, while CBS News estimated the crowd at about 87,000!
The Republican party is bitterly divided on the far right, and delusional about who should take responsibility for mistakes or failures, and even on basic facts such as size of crowds!
Is this the group that the American people want to take us into the future? Certainly, we can hope that they have more common sense than that, but we shall see in two months!
Two Years Of Sarah Palin: Where Will She Be Two Years From Today?
Two years ago today, Republican Presidential nominee Senator John McCain surprised many when he selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate for the Presidential Election of 2008!
This has been a very busy two years for Sarah Palin, including being controversial from Day One as to her qualifications to be a "heartbeat away" from the Presidency; her campaign performance; her resignation from the Alaska Governorship; her publication of her best selling memoir; her becoming a Fox News commentator; her campaigning for and endorsing of "Mama Grizzlies" and "Tea Party" candidates; her Twitter and Facebook commentaries; her lucrative speech tours; controversial family issues centered around Levi Johnson; and the rumors that she might seek the White House in 2012!
As she has become a heroine of the Tea Party Movement and the conservative right wing of the Republican Party, she has emerged as the major flashpoint for liberals and progressives and much of the news media!
The speculation is rampant that she will announce for President sometime next year, and that she will be hard to defeat or oppose, on the part of the male Republican politicians who seek the Presidency!
This is so despite the fact that her public opinion ratings are in the low 30s or high 20s, and she tends to have a majority of Americans skeptical of her abilities and intelligence!
The author finds it hard to believe that Sarah Palin will give up the lucrative financial life she has gained, thanks to John McCain, as she would have to forgo it if she announces for President!
And she would have to finally really answer detailed questions and show her deep knowledge of foreign and domestic issues, which she has so far failed to reveal! She comes across as ignorant and intellectually lazy on just about everything going on in this country and the world, and survives on slogans and patriotic rhetoric, as at the Glenn Beck rally yesterday in Washington, DC!
But if she were to run, could she really become the GOP nominee for President, or even run on a third party, right wing in nature, which might hurt the Republican nominee? Again, it is hard to imagine such occurring!
And were she the GOP nominee, could she REALLY rally the country and defeat President Obama? And could she actually deal with the myriad of domestic and foreign policy issues she would be confronted with, even with advisers to assist her?
Again, the whole scenario seems impossible, but imagine the following: Were she to win the Republican nomination for President, she would be receiving the nomination at the Tampa, Florida convention on--get this--Wednesday, August 29, 2012--exactly two years from today, and four years after being chosen to be the VP nominee!
If that were to happen, the reaction would have to be--UNBELIEVABLE!
The Love-Hate Affair With The Federal Government: Alaska As An Example Of Contradictions!
The fact that Joe Miller, the Sarah Palin backed challenger to Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, leads by about 1,700 votes as the absentee and mail votes are being counted, is a stunning development to many political observers!
This surprising development comes just a short couple of weeks after the tragic death of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who served almost 40 years, and became famous for the "earmarks" and "pork" he could bring back to Alaska!
There was deep mourning for Stevens, and Lisa Murkowski had his backing, and she and her father, Frank Murkowski, who was a long term Senator before she replaced him, have also been acknowledged for gaining political favors, to such an extent that Alaska received more economic support from the federal government than any other state over the past few decades, as compared to taxes paid to the government!
Alaska benefited from both Stevens and the two Murkowskis in office, but Joe Miller campaigned AGAINST federal largesse, as if it was an evil, and Sarah Palln, after promtoting it as a short term Governor of the state, suddenly has switched sides, even though she well knows that her state has gained greatly from past funding coming out of the hides of other states, which did not gain such an advantage as Stevens and the Murkowskis were able to accomplish!
What an hypocrisy by both Palin and Miller, and does Miller really believe that if he is elected to the Senate, and does not pursue "earmarks" and "pork", that he will be reelected in 2016?
The demagoguery of Sarah Palin and Joe Miller is obvious, and it makes one wonder how Alaskans think! Does lack of sunlight cause a deadening of the brain and common sense?
The Glenn Beck “Restoring Honor” Rally In Washington, DC: A “New” Glenn Beck?
Fox News Channel and radio talk show host Glenn Beck, who has been on a rampage to divide America through his right wing extremist rhetoric, including his accusations of racism against President Obama, his stirring up of emotions over "illegal immigration" and the Muslim faith, and his distortion of American history and American leadership, held a rally today at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on the 47th anniversary of the Civil Rights March and the "I Have A Dream" speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The rally was organized to "restore honor", to promote respect and honor for America's military, and to promote the importance of God in everyone's life! It included a niece of Dr. King, and St. Louis Cardinal star Albert Pujols and his manager, Tony LaRussa, as well as former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin!
The rally lasted a little more than three hours, and on the surface, seemed to do no harm, and had no obvious political intention, and the crowd, estimated at maybe up to a few hundred thousand, was orderly and avoided political signs or ugly manifestations as at less organized and attended "Tea Party" rallies in the past! It also included speakers and an audience of all races and nationalities, a refreshing sight!
What stood out though was the fact that no political leaders of Congress, no talk show hosts, no people of any prominence, other than the few mentioned above, showed up and were evident in the crowd!
It also stood out that Beck himself, while loving all the attention he was gaining, the praise that was visited on him by other speakers, and the reality that he is likely to gain financially from this through sale of more books and more listeners and viewers of his talk shows, actually sounded and seemed quite different than what we have heard in the past couple of years from him!
Beck seemed to be going out of his way to reconstitute himself as a changed man, a man who wants to promote unity and patriotism, a total change from what he has been doing, creating division and hate in his wake!
The wonderment is whether this is a true conversion, and an admission of his sins, or just a facade, and skeptics will await how he conducts himself in the weeks and months to follow to see if he is genuine, or the phony many people think he is!
We will keep track and see whether the "leopard" can change its spots! Don't bet on it!
The Danger Of The Right Wing Attack On Hispanics, Muslims, And African Americans! :(
The United States is facing an alarming scenario! The country is being split wide open by right wing assaults on Hispanics, Muslims, and African Americans, and this is a great danger for the future security and safety of the nation!
The Arizona immigration law, which antagonizes Hispanics; the emotional attacks on the issue of the so called "Ground Zero Mosque" and mosques being built anywhere in the nation, which enrages moderate Muslims; and the Tea Party paranoia about African Americans as expressed in their rallies, and in their guide to Tea Party people attending the Glenn Beck-Sarah Palin rally at the Washington Mall on the anniversary of the Civil Rights March of August 28, 1963, to avoid African American areas of the District of Columbia; --these are all alarm bells ringing in the night!
These right wing forces in the Republican party and the Tea Party Movement fail to understand that this is not a nation of just white upper class and upper middle class Christians! We are a diverse nation, and rapidly becoming less white and less Christian, whether one likes it or not!
To antagonize, victimize, and scapegoat Hispanics, Muslims, and African Americans is an exercise in futility, and can turn law abiding, moderate citizens of these backgrounds into radicals and extremists to our detriment!
These right wingers are spewing hatred and poison, and if they do not watch their rhetoric and action, could provoke a race war, a civil war in this country--an absolutely terrifying concept! All this does is help promote an image in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, that the United States is a nation of bigotry, racism, discrimination, and prejudice!
It actually helps fuel the terrorism we are trying to prevent and neutralize! If young men and women in this country, of these various backgrounds, feel threatened, they could become the enemy from within and undermine the future of this country!
The American people must not allow themselves to be exploited and divided in this fashion by the right wing propagandists on talk radio, Fox News, and in government, as all this does is embolden these whackos to further incite hate and paranoia!
The way to overcome this is to have the people in November repudiate the right wing hate mongers in government; and boycott these propagandists on radio and cable, by demanding that corporations stop advertising on these hate shows, or begin a boycott by consumers, as has started with Target Corporation over the promotion of a right wing politician in Minnesota, Tom Emmer, who is spewing hate and division in his race for Governor!
This is a country for ALL Americans, not just white, upper class Christians who fail to understand that the future is not in their hands! Reality requires that we all learn to live together in peace, and with tolerance for each other, if we are to keep this nation stable, secure and safe for the long term future!
Time For George W. Bush And Other Principled Republicans To Speak Out On Mosque Controversy!
The Washington Post today has come out with an editorial calling upon former President George W. Bush to speak out against the demagoguery going on within his party, with many Republicans remaining silent as Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, and others make the "Ground Zero Mosque" a political football, and in the process, are promoting anti Islamic hatred, a tremendous danger to the nation and its future!
One can criticize and find fault with Bush on a multitude of issues during his eight years as President, but one cannot fault him for always trying to make clear that our war was against Al Qaeda, not the Islamic world, a belief that President Barack Obama has continued to promote!
Bush should condemn those who use the mosque issue as a way to divide America, and promote fear and hate! If he was to do so, it would improve his image, and maybe get timid Republicans such as Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Richard Lugar, and others to come out in support of his stand!
So far, only New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and commentator Pat Buchanan, indeed a strange duo, have had the courage to speak out against the hysterical tide!
We have so many important issues to deal with, and we should not be fighting and splitting over the building of a house of worship! American ideals and principles require the end of this outrageous fear mongering being promoted by its original creator, the loony blogger Pamela Geller, in league with talk radio hosts and Fox News Channel, and endorsed by potential Presidential candidates Gingrich and Palin, who should be roundly condemned for their divisive tactics!