Camus Cafe Political Coffee House: We Had Better Have A Good Health Plan Because There Are Loose Screws And Nuts That Can’t Be Fixed With A Screw Driver And A Wrench.

We Had Better Have A Good Health Plan Because There Are Loose Screws And Nuts That Can’t Be Fixed With A Screw Driver And A Wrench.

How To Give Libertarians A Bad Name…Just Read It!

Wayne Root: ‘The Liberal Way: The Audacity of Intolerance and Arrogance’

April 14th, 2009

Posted by Wayne Root at RootForAmerica.com:

By Wayne Allyn Root, 2008 Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee

You’ve got to love Barack Obama. He’s willing to talk to any terrorist, murderer or socialist madman in the world. But not to a member of the opposition here in America. If you stand for freedom, patriotism, capitalism or entrepreneurship, he has no interest in talking with you.

President Obama is willing to negotiate or compromise with anyone in the world- no matter how heinous, vicious, or awful their past. But no compromise is allowed here in the good ‘ole USA on government spending, bailouts or taxes.

Obama’s Democratic friends in Congress have no problem flying to Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro. This man, a mass murderer who’s held his own people hostage for a half century.

But these same Congressmen won’t even cross the aisle to speak with fellow legislators who believe in patriotism, capitalism, free markets, or personal responsibility.

Those words are frightening and hateful to liberals.

Liberal Democrats (Obama supporters) aren’t even bothering to hide their extremist views anymore.

Democrats admit being Socialist in latest Rasmussen Poll. A new Rasmussen poll shows big majorities of virtually every group of Americans, namely Republicans, independents,
investors, middle age Americans, older Americans… are all supportive of Capitalism versus Socialism.

And not by some small difference, either. Most Americans support capitalism by margins as big as 11 to 1! On the other hand, Democrats are just about dead even in their support of Socialism versus Capitalism.

It seems the cat is out of the bag. Obama and his supporters are in fact Socialists. They want to socialize America.

You don’t have to believe me. Just ask them. Rasmussen did.

Say it out loud- all together now: Obama is a Socialist. Democrats are Socialists. There, doesn’t that feel better to get the truth out?

Liberals cheered the death of Ronald Reagan at Columbia University.

It was 1981 when a breathless student ran into my political science class screaming, ‘President Reagan has been shot!” “They’ve assassinated Reagan!” The reaction from my fellow classmates? CHEERING. Celebrating. High-fives all around. The intellectual elite of America were smiling , hugging and Screaming with glee, “Yes! Reagan is dead!”

How could this happen at this great Ivy League institution? Simple. Many (if not most) of my classmates were Socialists and Marxists. They weren’t shy about it, either. They openly defended and praised communist countries and their leaders. What is so frightening and disturbing is that today my classmates populate the highest levels of federal government. One of them sits in the White House. Yes, President Obama was my college classmate. And he’s filled his administration with our Columbia University classmates- people that despised capitalism and patriotism so much that they celebrated the death of Ronald Reagan as if it was New Years Eve.

Diversity at Columbia (and all other Ivy League colleges) ranges from liberal to Socialist to Marxist. INTOLERANCE defines their very being.

Patriot Glenn Beck of Fox News: Code Red . Now the same liberal Obama crowd is trying to smear an American patriot named Glenn Beck. Why am I not surprised?

Beck was never considered much of a threat by liberals when he hosted a show on CNN (some suspect those initials stand for “Communist News Network”). This all changed when Beck was hired by Fox News Channel, and his show became one of the highest-rated television shows in America.

Suddenly the Socialist Threat Rating rose to level red.

Now he’s joined Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and Bill O’Reilly at the top of MoveOn.org’s “Socialist Most Wanted” list.

I guess being a supporter of Ron Paul or a member of the Libertarian Party isn’t the worst thing you can be anymore. Remember, a Homeland Security affiliate agency recently Broadcast an alert to Law Enforcement that having a Libertarian or Ron Paul bumper sticker on your car was enough to consider someone a potential terrorist!

First the crime was “Driving while Libertarian.” According to MoveOn.org it’s now “Driving while listening to conservative talk radio.” That’s right, take the Glenn Beck and the Fox News bumper stickers off your car immediately. That is, if you don’t want to be labeled a militia member or “domestic terrorist” by government or law enforcement.

So, what does the small-minded, intolerant, intellectual leftist crowd have in their ‘Rules for Radicals’ bag of tricks for Glenn Beck?

Now, Rush Limbaugh doesn’t make public appearances, so the best the liberal radicals could do was talk nasty about him and try to boycott Florida Orange Juice, one of his sponsors. (They failed, sales went up!)

But Beck is the new target. Right now, the radical left is blaming Beck for gun violence in America. Somehow, when he advocates sound fiscal policy, balanced budgets and lower taxes, Glenn is inspiring hatred and violence?

With the Tea Party protests coming up April 15th, it has been disclosed that the radical left was planning on infiltrating tax protests across the country- in particular the event in San Antonio that Beck was slated to speak at. These radical leftists had plans to try to embarrass Beck and brand him with some kind of extremist, pro-violence, revolutionary image. To avoid controversy, Beck has decided not to speak in San Antonio, in front of the Alamo, a great symbol of freedom in America. Sad to hear, but certainly not surprising. Intolerance, smearing and silencing of dissent is what the radical left does best.

They insist on free speech for themselves, but shout down, or exclude differing opinions. They claim to be “open-minded,”but cheer for the assassination of patriots and freedom fighters like Ronald Reagan. I’m sure they’d cheer for the death of Glenn Beck, Sean
Hannity or Michael Savage too.

Interesting that Obama’s ideological buddies in Congress love Castro, but hate Reagan. Castro imprisoned, tortured and murdered Cubans he disagreed with. He stole or closed businesses of his political opponents. By destroying capitalism, Castro turned back the clock, leaving Cuba in the dark ages.

Reagan would have died to protect the free speech of his political opponents. Reagan fought to get thousands of Jewish political prisoners released from the Soviet Union. Reagan was a hero. Yet Obama’s ideological friends in Congress celebrate Castro. The very same people, who today complain Glenn Beck and the rest of talk radio aren’t giving President Obama a chance, want to silence conservative talk radio. They only believe in free speech for their leftist and Marxist buddies.

It’s that infamous liberal double standard. The reason Libertarians and fiscal conservatives are holding Tea Parties is because we actually pay our taxes. Isn’t it telling that so many of Obama’s picks are tax cheats? It’s easy to raise taxes when you don’t pay them yourself.

Fiscal conservatives are mad as hell and protesting because our tax burden is already far too high. We understand the burden of taxes, simply because we pay most of them. We understand that to create jobs, government must allow us to keep more of our own money. Higher taxeswill kill jobs, force small businesses to close, and destroy any chance of a quick economic recovery.

FACTS SCARE LIBERALS

How dare a fiscal conservative, a hero like Glenn Beck, speak at a pro-freedom, anti-tax rally. Liberals feel the need to mobilize, infiltrate the tax rallies, and smear him. After all, they can’t allow anyone a national stage to point out:

* Obama’s budgets will triple the national debt.
* Obama has quadrupled the highest deficit under Bush.
* Obama’s first budget is larger than all other budgets in the history of America combined- from George Washington to George W. Bush.
* The tax burden for the top income earners in America is already crushing- the top 1% in this country already pay over 30% of the taxes; the top 20% more than 70% of the taxes.

The folks at MoveOn.org can’t afford to let these facts out. Free speech must be stifled. What’s next? Will Obama audit your taxes if you say the Pledge of Allegiance in public?

I’ll be speaking April 15th at the Las Vegas Tax Day Tea Party.

I predict massive turnouts at Tea Parties across the nation. It’s time to take America back. Back from the intolerant Socialist thugs that cheered for the death of my hero Ronald Reagan.

To patriot heroes like Glenn Beck I say, “Keep doing what you’re doing.” The Socialist Threat Rating level has been raised to red because what you’re doing is working.
Let’s keep the pressure up.

America’s anti-tax political revolution has only just begun.See you at the Tax Day Tea Party rallies.

Wayne Allyn Root was the 2008 Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate. His new book will be released by John Wiley & Sons this July 4th entitled, “The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gambling & Tax Cuts.” The book is available for pre-sale at Amazon.com. For more of Wayne’s views, commentaries, or to watch his many media interviews, please visit his web site at:

www.ROOTforAmerica.com

Filed Under: Libertarian Party

Rush Limbaugh Says Report On "Right-Wing Radicals" Timed For Tea Parties (Video)

American Legion Wants Apology

From Barry's loony chief of Homeland Security, the Napolitano creature whose latest warning report says we must watch out for returning veterans going postal. She must be a graduate of Penn State.

Not to mention her other warning about Americans who dare to prefer state and local power to federal. She must not have read the Constitution. Or met our Texas governor, who is a diehard Aggie and Sarah Palin supporter, although it is true that he likes federal money as much as the next governor. Yep, the Leftist lunatics have certainly taken over the federal asylum. Watch yourself out there.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200904150006

On the April 15 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough distorted an April 7 intelligence assessment by the Department of Homeland Security to allege that the Obama administration is "specifically warning that veterans returning home from war, are to be feared -- that they could be right-wing extremists that want to launch terror attacks on America." In fact, the document, issued to law enforcement officials, warned of a possible resurgence among extremist groups that "will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat." The assessment further stated: "The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned, or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today." DHS cited a 2008 FBI report -- authored during the Bush administration -- as evidence that "some returning military veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have joined extremist groups."

On Morning Joe, Scarborough also said, "I just ask this question to my Democratic friends out there -- and I'm serious about this -- what would you have said if George Bush, [former Bush adviser] Karl Rove, and the head of Homeland Security had issued a report warning about left-wing radicals wanting to blow up America? ... [I]t is frightening." In fact, DHS did issue an assessment on January 26, concluding that "a number of emerging trends point to leftwing extremists maturing and expanding their cyber attack capabilities over the next decade with the aim of attacking targets in the United States." Indeed, in response to a similar claim by conservative radio host Roger Hedgecock, CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve reported during the April 14 edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight: "In fact, in January, there was a warning about left-wing extremists. It was issued by the Obama administration but both reports were begun under President Bush."

In its April 7 assessment, DHS stated, "Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists. DHS/I&A is concerned that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities." As Media Matters for America has noted, in the July 2008 FBI report, titled "White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel since 9/11," the FBI's Counterterrorism Divisiondetermined with "[h]igh confidence" that "[m]ilitary experience is found throughout the white supremacist extremist movement as the result of recruitment campaigns by extremist groups and self-recruitment by veterans sympathetic to white supremacist causes." The 2008 report further stated that a "review of FBI white supremacist extremist cases from October 2001 to May 2008 identified 203 individuals with confirmed or claimed military service active in the extremist movement at some time during the reporting period," and that "[a]ccording to FBI information, an estimated 19 veterans (approximately 9 percent of the 203) have verified or unverified service in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

From the April 7 DHS report, titled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment":

(U//FOUO) Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists. DHS/I&A is concerned that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities.

(U) Disgruntled Military Veterans

(U//FOUO) DHS/I&A assesses that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. These skills and knowledge have the potential to boost the capabilities of extremists -- including lone wolves or small terrorist cells -- to carry out violence. The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned, or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today.

-- (U) After Operation Desert Shield/Storm in 1990-1991, some returning military veterans -- including Timothy McVeigh -- joined or associated with rightwing extremist groups.

-- (U) A prominent civil rights organization reported in 2006 that "large numbers of potentially violent neo-Nazis, skinheads, and other white supremacists are now learning the art of warfare in the [U.S.] armed forces."

-- (U//LES) The FBI noted in a 2008 report on the white supremacist movement that some returning military veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have joined extremist groups.

From the April 15 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:

SCARBOROUGH: This is scary.

BRZEZINSKI: This is --

SCARBOROUGH: This is scary.

BRZEZINSKI: -- spooky. While the report did not cite any impeding attack or name specific groups, it suggested military veterans could be particularly vulnerable to recruitment.

SCARBOROUGH: So -- so, let me --

BARNICLE: Dude, what the --

BRZEZINSKI: What?

SCARBOROUGH: So -- so, they have -- Janet Napolitano and her department have put out a report in the Obama administration, specifically warning that veterans returning home from war, are to be feared -- that they could be right-wing extremists that want to launch terror attacks on America. This, of course, coming at a time when we have a war on our southern border, when we have wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and threats of terrorism.

And Janet Napolitano, the Department of Homeland Security, and Barack Obama are concerned about veterans coming home from war --

BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.

SCARBOROUGH: -- and becoming right-wing extremists.

BRZEZINSKI: I want more --

SCARBOROUGH: This, of course, is the same administration, Mike Barnicle -- and I'm just stunned the media didn't say more about this. And I heard about this up at West Point, from the kids up there that were talking about it.

They were stunned that the Obama administration told veterans coming back from war, who had injuries, "You're going to have to take care of that yourself. Take it up with a third-party insurer."

BARNICLE: I've not heard that.

SCARBOROUGH: Oh, they did. They did.

BRZEZINSKI: I'm going to get a full writethru and --

SCARBOROUGH: Thank God, Paul Rikoff, who went over to the White House and asked the president what was going through his mind.

BARNICLE: But on this report, where you just read that news brief about it, I mean, off the top of it -- and I've not seen anything about this today --

BRZEZINSKI: Yeah, I haven't --

BARNICLE: -- in the newspapers -- off the top of it, it seems as if they're issuing a report basically warning us about returning Iraqi --

SCARBOROUGH: Veterans.

BARNICLE: -- and Afghan war veterans who might come back and do what? Say they don't agree with the war? What?

SCARBOROUGH: Blow up the -- blow it up. Blow up America. Kill people because they might --

BRZEZINSKI: Exploiting fears about the economy and the election of the first black president.

SCAROBOROUGH: Because the economy is bad and we have a black president, veterans may kill --

BRZEZINSKI: We'll talk more. I'm going to get a full writethru and print it out over here.

SCARBOROUGH: -- come back and kill people. It is stunning. Then I just ask this question to my Democratic friends out there -- and I'm serious about this -- what would you have said if George Bush, Karl Rove, and the head of Homeland Security had issued a report warning about left-wing radicals wanting to blow up America? Are -- you know, it's -- it is frightening.

SCARBOROUGH: You didn't put in there the part about how Janet Napolitano is going to follow --

BRZEZINSKI: I know. We haven't -- the top of the hour.

SCARBOROUGH: -- the Obama administration's orders --

BRZEZINSKI: 'Cause that's an amazing story.

SCARBOROUGH: -- to invade Utah. That's coming next.

BRZEZINSKI: That's not part of the story, but it's an amazing story.

SCARBOROUGH: But they're -- they're going to -- they're going after conservatives first. They're targeting soldiers for surveillance, according to this document, when they come home from war. I suspect an invasion of Salt Lake City is not far behind.

BRZEZINSKI: OK, that might be pushing it a little far, but it is an amazing story.

SCARBOROUGH: The second -- is the second, friends, you see the salt flats rumbling, OK, it's time to run to Vegas. They'll leave Vegas alone.

Tax Day Becomes Protest Day---

Written by Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Wednesday, 15 April 2009 13:46

From the WSJ:

Today American taxpayers in more than 300 locations in all 50 states will hold rallies -- dubbed "tea parties" -- to protest higher taxes and out-of-control government spending. There is no political party behind these rallies, no grand right-wing conspiracy, not even a 501(c) group like MoveOn.org.

So who's behind the Tax Day tea parties? Or

Ordinary folks who are using the power of the Internet to organize. For a number of years, techno-geeks have been organizing "flash crowds" -- groups of people, coordinated by text or cellphone, who converge on a particular location and then do something silly, like the pillow fights that popped up in 50 cities earlier this month. This is part of a general phenomenon dubbed "Smart Mobs" by Howard Rheingold, author of a book by the same title, in which modern communications and social-networking technologies allow quick coordination among large numbers of people who don't know each other.

In the old days, organizing large groups of people required, well, an organization: a political party, a labor union, a church or some other sort of structure. Now people can coordinate themselves.

We saw a bit of this in the 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns, with things like Howard Dean's use of Meetup, and Barack Obama's use of Facebook. But this was still social-networking in support of an existing organization or campaign. The tea-party protest movement is organizing itself, on its own behalf. Some existing organizations, like Newt Gingrich's American Solutions and FreedomWorks, have gotten involved. But they're involved as followers and facilitators, not leaders. The leaders are appearing on their own, and reaching out to others through blogs, Facebook, chat boards and alternative media.

The protests began with bloggers in Seattle, Wash., who organized a demonstration on Feb. 16. As word of this spread, rallies in Denver and Mesa, Ariz., were quickly organized for the next day. Then came CNBC talker Rick Santelli's Feb. 19 "rant heard round the world" in which he called for a "Chicago tea party" on July Fourth. The tea-party moniker stuck, but angry taxpayers weren't willing to wait until July. Soon, tea-party protests were appearing in one city after another, drawing at first hundreds, and then thousands, to marches in cities from Orlando to Kansas City to Cincinnati.

As word spread, people got interested in picking a common date for nationwide protests, and decided on today, Tax Day, as the date. As I write this, various Web sites tracking tea parties are predicting anywhere between 300 and 500 protests at cities around the world. A Google Map tracking planned events, maintained at the FreedomWorks.org Web site, shows the United States covered by red circles, with new events being added every day.

The movement grew so fast that some bloggers at the Playboy Web site -- apparently unaware that we've entered the 21st century -- suggested that some secret organization must be behind all of this. But, in fact, today's technology means you don't need an organization, secret or otherwise, to get organized. After considerable ridicule, the claim was withdrawn, but that hasn't stopped other media outlets from echoing it.

There's good news and bad news in this phenomenon for establishment politicians. The good news for Republicans is that, while the Republican Party flounders in its response to the Obama presidency and its programs, millions of Americans are getting organized on their own. The bad news is that those Americans, despite their opposition to President Obama's policies, aren't especially friendly to the GOP. When Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele asked to speak at the Chicago tea party, his request was politely refused by the organizers: "With regards to stage time, we respectfully must inform Chairman Steele that RNC officials are welcome to participate in the rally itself, but we prefer to limit stage time to those who are not elected officials, both in Government as well as political parties. This is an opportunity for Americans to speak, and elected officials to listen, not the other way around."

Likewise, I spoke to an organizer for the Knoxville tea party who said that no "professional politicians" were going to be allowed to speak, and he made a big point of saying that the protest wasn't an anti-Obama protest, it was an anti-establishment protest. I've heard similar things from tea-party organizers in other cities, too. Though critics will probably try to write the tea parties off as partisan publicity stunts, they're really a post-partisan expression of outrage.

Of course, it won't be the same everywhere. There are no national rules, and organizers of each protest are doing things the way they want. And that's the good news and the bad news for Democrats. It's not a big Republican effort. It's a big popular effort. But a mass movement of ordinary people who don't feel that their voices are being heard doesn't bode well for the party that positioned itself as the organ of hope and change.

Will these flash crowds be a flash in the pan? It's possible that people who demonstrate today will find that experience cathartic enough -- or exhausting enough -- that that will be it. But it's more likely that the tea-party movement will have an impact on the 2010 and 2012 elections, and perhaps beyond.

What's most striking about the tea-party movement is that most of the organizers haven't ever organized, or even participated, in a protest rally before. General disgust has drawn a lot of people off the sidelines and into the political arena, and they are already planning for political action after today.

Cincinnati organizer Mike Wilson, a novice organizer who drew 5,000 people to a rally on March 15, is now planning to create a political action committee and a permanent political organization to press for lower taxes and reduced spending.

Tucson tea party organizer Robert Mayer told me that his organization will focus on city council elections in the fall as its next priority. And there's lots of Internet chatter about ways of taking things further after today's protests.

This influx of new energy and new talent is likely to inject new life into small-government politics around the nation. The mainstream Republican Party still seems limp and disorganized. This grassroots effort may revitalize it. Or the tea-party movement may lead to a new third party that may replace the GOP, just as the GOP replaced the fractured and hapless Whigs.

Mr. Reynolds is the author of "An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths" (Thomas Nelson, 2006). He will be covering the tea party protests today at PJTV.com.

A Quick Post for Those Not in the Know: Teabagging ... a Definition

Posted by Isaac Fitzgerald, AlterNet at 4:12 AM on April 15, 2009.

Alright. I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but here we are.

Bottom of Form

Jason Linkins Huffington Post

Alright. I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but here we are.

After a post in which I highlighted Rachel Maddow's brilliant mocking of the right-wing's teabagging movement (as well as an anti-gay-rights group's embrace of online dude cruising) I received a couple of emails. Some were funny, some were spiteful, but a couple were straight up inquisitive: "What's teabagging?"

The readers are right to ask. For those in the know Maddow's segment is hilarious, but if you didn't understand the sexual double entendre in play the video may have left you a little confused. Of course Maddow, being on national television, couldn't really clarify the graphic definition of teabagging.

Luckily I, being on the interwebs, can.

So in a post that would make my 14-year-old self proud (ok, my adult self is kind of enjoying this too), I bring you a couple of definitions of 'teabagging,' via the Urban Dictionary (Grandma, if you're reading this, know that I love you, but now's the time to stop):

1. Teabagging: To have a man insert his scrotum into another person's mouth in the fashion of a teabag into a mug with an up/down (in/out) motion.

Well if ya didn't sleep with your mouth open I wouldn't have tea bagged ya dude

2. Tea bagging: The act of lowering one's balls onto someone's face, [...] while they are laying down.