Blog Running – ‘Is Democracy In Trouble’?

If you look up – you’ll see my ‘tag’ line as it were.

“Just because it always has been….doesn’t mean it always will be”.

In America, the Republican Party opened it’s arms wide for the tea part only to find that the teabaggers didn’t care about Government or Governing.

But the teabaggers did have a great media outlet – FOX.

So the teabaggers having taaken over a political party and assuring that victory by primarying anyone who disagrees with them and having the 24 hour a day access to the news cycle and millions of people who are too lazy or stupid to actually want facts….

We now face the very real possibility that Democrtacy is indeed in trouble…..

A great op ed by E.J. Dionne over at the National Memo.

WASHINGTON — ‘We know American politics are dysfunctional. But after a week of scandal obsession during which the nation’s capital and the media virtually ignored the problems most voters care about — jobs, incomes, growth, opportunity, education — it’s worth asking if there is something especially flawed about our democracy’.

‘Our circumstances certainly have their own particular disabilities: a radicalization of conservative politics, over-the-top mistrust of President Obama on the right, high-tech gerrymandering in the House, and a Senate snarled by non-constitutional super-majority requirements’.

‘Earlier this month, the Transatlantic Academy, a global partnership of think tanks led by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, issued “The Democratic Disconnect,” a sober report by a group of distinguished academics’.

“Democracy is in trouble,” the report begins. “The collective engagement of a concerned citizenry for the public good — the bedrock of a healthy democracy — is eroding. Democratic governments often seem crippled in their capacity to deliver what their people want and need. They are neither as responsive nor as accountable as they need to be in an era of hard choices and rising nondemocratic powers. There is widespread concern about apparent declining rates of voter participation and about the alienation or disaffection of citizens from the political process.”

‘Since World War II, bouts of economic growth have allowed the democracies to buy their way out of trouble. One can hope this will happen again — and soon. In the meantime, politicians might contemplate their obligations to stewardship of the democratic ideal. They could begin by pondering what an unemployed 28-year-old makes of a ruling elite that expends so much energy feuding over how bureaucrats rewrote a set of talking points’.

From : http://www.nationalmemo.com/is-democracy-in-trouble/

Why it’s called the ‘Stupid Party’ – ‘Rand Paul Struggles To Tie Obama To IRS Scandal’

Millions and millions of people will fall for a future Republican Presidential candidate that cites as evidence – a report he hasn’t seen and may not even exist.

That is how dumbed down America has become…..

‘Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) went on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday to use the IRS scandal to attack the Obama administraiton, but flubbed a key part of his case: he couldn’t defend the claim that IRS was targeting conservative groups as part of a political strategy to help the White House’.

CROWLEY: “They (IRS) say it’s a mistake. I think the question is whether it’s political.

PAUL: “Well, I think we’re going to have to see the memorandum. Apparently there is a policy, and I think we’re going to find there’s a written policy that says we were targeting people who were opposed to the President”.

“And when that comes forward, we need to know who wrote the policy and who approved the policy…now there’s rumors who wrote the policy is the person running Obamacare, which doesn’t give us a lot of confidence about Obamacare”.

CROWLEY: “Are you telling me you think there’s a memo somewhere in which someone said in the memo we’re targeting people going after the president? Is that what I heard you say”?

PAUL: “Well, we keep hearing the reports and we have several specifically worded items saying who was being targeted”.

“In fact, one of the bullet points says those who are critical of the President. So I don’t know if that comes from a policy, but that’s what’s being reported in the press”http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/05/19/2033441/rand-paul-obama-irs-scandal-cnn/.

Conservative Outrage over IRS – ‘Rep. Issa Aware Of IRS Investigation Since Last July’

 

 

 

It’s an OUTRAGE! If the people had only known!!!!

Oops.

‘The Treasury Department Inspector General for Tax Administration sent a letter to Congressman Darrell Issa and Congressman Jim Jordan on July 12, 2012 informing them they would be auditing the IRS in response to their concerns that certain groups might be receiving extra scrutiny’.

‘The letter came in response to a June 28th letter of that year (2012) from Congressman Issa and requests for an investigation’.
From : http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/rep-issa-aware-of-irs-investigation-since-last-july

Blog Running – ‘I.R.S. Approved Dozens of Tea Party Groups Following Congressional Scrutiny’

 

The facts before it all gets politically distorted.

‘The inspector general’s report indicated that I.R.S. officials began targeting conservative groups in March 2010 by searching for groups with names containing “Tea Party,” “patriot” or “9/12.”

‘The report says officials then switched to more expansive, less partisan search criteria in July 2011 and in January 2012, before broadening the criteria a third time on May 17, two weeks after Mr. Camp’s letter’.

‘The public data provided by the I.R.S. does not include information on when groups submitted their applications for tax-exempt status, or how long they waited compared to the average application’.

‘During the entire two-year span — from March 2010, when the agency began singling out conservative groups, to April 2012, just before it received Mr. Camp’s letter and changed its search criteria for the last time — the I.R.S. approved the applications of just four groups with those conservative keywords in their names’.

‘After the I.R.S. altered its search criteria the final time, the agency approved more than 40 Tea Party applications’.

‘According to the I.R.S. records, 54 organizations were granted 501(c)(4) status since 2010 with “Tea Party,” “patriot” or “9/12? in their names’.

‘The Indiana Armstrong Patriots was the only Tea Party organization approved during all of 2011, and it was one of just four groups with “Tea Party,” “patriot” or “9/12? in their names that were approved from April 2010 through April 2012′.

‘The I.R.S. then approved 45 Tea Party groups in just 11 months, from May 2012 to March 2013. About half of those approvals — 23 — came in June, July and August, the first three full months after the final revision of the search criteria’.

‘As a point of comparison, we tried to identify liberal groups approved for 501(c)(4) status since 2010′.

‘A search for “progress,” “progressive,” “liberal” and “equality” finds 32 groups. (This might not be a representative sample — identifying left-leaning groups is more difficult, as there are is no clearly defined nomenclature on the left equivalent to the Tea Party.)’

‘The I.R.S. approved these groups at a fairly steady rate from 2010 through 2012. The I.R.S. approved 13 in 2010, nine in 2011 and 10 in 2012.
From : http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/16/i-r-s-approved-dozens-of-tea-party-groups-following-congressional-scrutiny/

 

Why it’s called the ‘Stupid Party’ – Bobby Jindal: IRS officials deserve prison time’

With the information we have, the testimony of AG Holder and the IRS IG, there is no suggestion of criminal wrong doing.

I repeat – criminal – wrong doing.

The IRS is charged with investigating all who file for tax exempt status.

There is absolutely no evidence that ANY Conservative organization had their claim denied.

But the very Governor that spoke about not saying ‘stupid things’ comes out and suggests prison time for as yet no known crimes.

‘Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will use a Saturday speech to Virginia Republicans to suggest the IRS officials who targeted conservative political organizations for scrutiny be sent to prison’.

“You cannot take the freedom of law-abiding Americans, whether you disagree with them or not, and keep your own freedom,” Jindal, a Republican, will tell delegates at the Virginia GOP convention, according to remarks shared with POLITICO. “When you do that, you go to jail.”
From : http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/bobby-jindal-irs-91577.html

 

Republican Fear and Loathing in Virginia – ‘Republican Virginia Lt. Governor Nominee: Obama Sees World “From A Muslim Perspective”

The Republican Party in Virginia :

‘Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli Worried about the Government Tracking His Son – Told Crowd He Might Not Get Social Security #’
@ : http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/video-virginia-ag-ken-cuccinelli-worried-about-government-tracking-his-son-%E2%80%93-told-crowd-he-m

‘The Virginia Republican Party picked conservative minister E.W. Jackson as their nominee for lieutenant governor Saturday night. Jackson will run along side Ken Cuccinelli and is the first black candidate the party has nominated for statewide office since 1988 according to the Associated Press’.

‘Jackson also maintained a now defunct blog on his site, where he argued in one post that President Obama saw the world “from a Muslim perspective.”

“Obama clearly has Muslim sensibilities. He sees the world and Israel from a Muslim perspective”.

“His construct of “The Muslim World” is unique in modern diplomacy”.

“It is said that only The Muslim Brotherhood and other radical elements of the religion use that concept”.

“It is a call to unify Muslims around the world. It is rather odd to hear an American President use it”.
From : http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/republican-virginia-lt-governor-nominee-obama-sees-world-fro

Why it’s called the ‘Stupid Party’ – ‘MNGOP Rep. Gruenhagen on climate change: “It’s just a complete United Nations fraud”

‘Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe, is anti-gay and gets his “facts” from materials distributed at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Other than that, we’re sure he’s exactly the sort of elected leader Minnesota needs’.

‘During a recent rant on the House floor, Gruenhagen characterized climate change as “just a complete United Nations fraud and lie” and “utter nonsense.” He went on to suggest there isn’t any environmental problem the free hand of the unfettered capitalist marketplace isn’t capable of solving on its own’.

‘Here’s a transcript of part of Gruenhagen’s speech :

“And the fact is, members, there’s more and more evidence coming in that it’s just a complete United Nations fraud and lie, okay? The latest facts from CPAC show that in the last 16 years, there’s been no global warming. The last 16 years, members…”
From : http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2013/05/mngop_rep_gruenhagen_on_climate_change_its_just_a_complete_united_nations_fraud_video.phphttp://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2013/05/mngop_rep_gruenhagen_on_climate_change_its_just_a_complete_united_nations_fraud_video.php

 

"Worsening Jobs Crisis": America’s Middle Class Is Burning To The Ground, While Washington Fiddles With Scandal Nonsense

Reblogged from mykeystrokes.com:

At last, some excellent economic news for folks long-mired in the stagnant labor market!

At least, those were the headlines recently trumpeted across the country. “Jobs Spring Back,” exclaimed a typical headline or report that companies added a better than expected 165,000 private-sector jobs in April. Wow — the thunderous, three-year boom of prosperity that has rained riches on Wall Street is finally beginning to shower on our streets, right?

Read more… 556 more words

We know where Republicans think the scandals are......now Republicans..........where are the JOBS......THAT YOU PROMISED!!!

‘IRS Sent Same Letter to Democrats That Fed Tea Party Row’ – ‘Senate Republicans Filibuster DISCLOSE Act’

 

2 Points.

Context is everything….and….can we really NOT remember 10 months ago?

We will never get the money out of politics but if someone is ‘paying the bill’ AND getting tax exemption – shouldn’t that be public knowledge?

‘But while the politics is heating up, some important context is emerging, like the fact that liberal groups were targeted as well, and in fact the only group to have its application denied was a liberal group’.

“One of those groups, Emerge America, saw its tax-exempt status denied, forcing it to disclose its donors and pay some taxes”.

“None of the Republican groups have said their applications were rejected”.
@ : http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/15/1209257/-Liberal-groups-received-same-IRS-letter-that-ignited-Tea-Party-nbsp-outrage#
‘The Internal Revenue Service, under pressure after admitting it targeted anti-tax Tea Party groups for scrutiny in recent years, also had its eye on at least three Democratic-leaning organizations seeking nonprofit status’.

‘Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who sits on the Senate Finance Committee, which is conducting its own IRS investigation, has introduced legislation with Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski to require all groups spending money on politics to disclose their donors’.
From : http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-15/irs-sent-same-letter-to-democrats-that-fed-tea-party-row.html?alcmpid=politics

July 16, 2012 -

‘Senate Republicans Filibuster DISCLOSE Act’

‘Two years after filibustering the DISCLOSE Act of 2010 to death and blocking any disclosure for who is funding the the independent expenditures enabled by the Supreme Court’s 5-4 Citizens United ruling, Republicans have again blocked transparency’.

‘While the 2010 version included other campaign finance reforms, the DISCLOSE Act of 2012 was pared down to only require disclosure of the funders of $10,000-and-larger independent political expenditures’.

‘But Republicans, led by former disclosure advocate Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY) still blocked the measure, incredibly calling it “nothing less than an effort by the government itself to expose its critics to harassment and intimidation.”

‘The Senate vote failed on a party-lines 51-44, falling 9 votes short of the needed 60, though Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) voted “no” for procedural reasons’.
From : http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/07/16/527291/senate-republicans-filibuster-disclose-act/

 

One Man’s Trash – ‘Sarah Palin’

Please, please, please run for Senate Sarah. It’s a joy to have you open your mouth and have stupid come out again…….and again……and again…..

’3,548,295 like this’

‘Thursday at 5:26pm’

‘Mr. President, when it rains it pours, but most Americans hold their own umbrellas’.
From : https://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin/posts/10151616666133588