Is the Tea Party the New Brownshirts?
You Need to know this! An ugly scene took place outside the Kentucky Senatorial debate Monday night. A man who appears to be supporter of Republican candidate Rand Paul was captured on TV by a local news affiliate literally stomping the head of a member of MoveOn.org into the pavement. The MoveOn volunteer, Lauren Valle, went to the hospital and was still there last night, according to another MoveOn member. According to a local TV station, Valle had attempted to approach Rand Paul before the debate took place, dressed in a blonde wig and with a "RepublicanCorp" sign seemingly to mock him. Attendees around Valle are heard screaming, "get the cops" as cameras captured her being dragged to the pavement by her sweater. Once on the ground a man wearing white sneakers stomped on her head. The police say they are reviewing news footage and they "are hoping someone can identify who the person is" who committed the assault. I know Glenn Beck irresponsibly throws around the word "Nazi" - he did it again yesterday - to describe liberals. But it's worth noting that Hitler's early supporters, during his beer-hall days when he was running for office, were famous for beating up supporters of his political opponents. If you read William Shirer's "Rise And Fall of the Third Reich," you'll find eerie parallels - from the authoritarian candidates like Paul and Miller, to the violent rhetoric of Palin and McCain, to the brutal supporters of these candidates - with Hitler's early unpaid volunteer supporters who proudly called themselves "the Brownshirts."
Comments
Plenty of excellent reasons to vote Nov 2; that said - it seems pretty clear that President Obama can already feel confident that he won't "go down in history as a do nothing President". Some examples borrowed from Media Matters (hardly a complete list):
01) signing the stimulus into law
02) eliminating the wasteful F-22 fighter jet program
03) confirmation of Sotomayor, the first Hispanic (and only the 3rd female)
Justice
04) signing into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (actually the first bill Obama
signed into law)
05) expansion of SCHIP
06) expansion of our designated public wilderness lands (by ~ 2 million acres)
07) credit card reform
08) revamping executive rules to allow greater transparency re lobbying
09) signed into law the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act,
which gave the FDA, for the first time, the power to regulate the
maufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco
10) expanded the scope of AmeriCorps
11) eased (by Executive Order) the restrictions on the use of Federal money
for stem cell research
My fingers are getting tired from all this typing - I'm sure some of the other smart folks around here can easily add to this list. Do nothing? I think not. Done enough? Not yet - but then, he's still just getting started, and can't do it all without our help...
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
Thom & Louise at a "private audience" with His Holiness Pope John Paul II at his summer palace, Castle Gandolfo, Italy
Mueller's favorite place to pray (written about in "Prophet's Way"), and the roof of the room where the Last Supper is reputed to have happened.
The Biggest Reason To Vote In 2010
The biggest reason to vote in 2010 is because we need to move in a more progressive direction. If the Republicans are in the majority in the House and Senate Our country will move even further to the right than it is now.
The main purpose for a President to be President is to get something done so they can look back on their legacy and history as getting something done. Unfortunately what they get done can be something harmful to Our country.
Bill Clinton as much as he was a centrist Democrat, a lot like President Obama, "We The People" did not give him a majority in the House and Senate. The President still didn't want to leave office as a do nothing President so he did some things that were very harmful to this country. Repeal of Glass Steagal, NAFTA etc. But he did get something done.
We can sit there on the sidelines and complain about President Clinton however we did not get out and vote when "Our President" needed us the most and give him a majority in both houses.
If you don't think the same thing will happen with President Obama you are kidding yourself. If The Republicans take over Congress or the Senate President Obama in order to work with these people, and not go down as a do nothing President will move further to the right because a President does not want to go down in history as not getting nothing done.
I believe Bill Clinton did not want to go further right but he also did not want to go down in history as a do nothing President. We all knows the errors he made but if we all don't get out and vote on November 2nd for the Democrats and keep Democrats in the majority we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Get out and vote today if you have early voting and vote up until November 2nd! and pass this on because we have been warned.