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Walsh Most Corrupt Congressman?

26 Sep

Republican Tea Party (GOTP) Congressman Joe Walsh has received the coveted distinction of being named among Congress’s thirteen “most corrupt” representatives by the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

CREW alleges the freshman Congressman’s ethics issues “stem from his failure to pay child support and accurately disclose income and liabilities on his personal financial disclosure forms, and his campaign committee’s inaccurate reporting of interest payment on his loans to his campaigns.” These issues, according to the report, represent Walsh “acting in a manner that does not reflect creditably on the House.”

The seventh annual ranking, based on news reports, Federal Election Commission reports, court documents and financial disclosure forms, also included one senator – GOTP favorite David Vitter — and five additional House members who received “dishonorable mentions.” Altogether, the group includes seven Democrats and twelve Republicans.

Walsh spokesman Justin Roth responded to the ranking by describing CREW as having “a history of being a very left partisan group that tends to trash conservative leaders in Washington,” according to NBC Chicago.

“Joe Walsh has not done a single thing that’s corrupt and will continue to be a strong voice on conservative issues,” Roth continued.

Spit-take, clean off key board, excuse me? “Walsh has not done a single thing that’s corrupt”? Well, gee, how about Mr Family Values lying about his income, failing to pay child support and allowing his children to do without? A wise man once said, “No other success can compensate for failure in the home.” Walsh is clearly a failure in the home, and what makes it worse is he was dishonest about it. How about some good old conservative take care of your debts talk?

Walsh is accused of owing more than $100,000 in back child support to his ex-wife Laura — allegations he has dismissed as “wildly inaccurate,” even though a judge ordered Walsh to provide the court with proof that he is not a deadbeat dad.

In his ex-wife’s filing, last December, she claimed that Walsh said he could not afford to make the payments for their three children while, at the same time, he loaned his own campaign $35,000 and took vacations abroad.

“I’m sorry dear, I just don’t have any money to take care of family responsibilities, I’m too busy loaning my money to my election campaign,” his Brain Captain said.

Alas, back child support allegations aren’t the only questionable financial practice allegations against Walsh. He’s also been accused of stiffing his former campaign field director Richard Cape of $20,000 in pay. Two other staffers allegedly quit after they accused him of not properly disclosing a 2008 home disclosure and traffic citations to the public.

Walsh is just another “don’t do what I do, do what I say” Tea Party crack pot, who will likely only serve one term and then he’ll be a foot note in congressional history. If you’re party claims it stands for “family values”, “duty”, “country”, “honor”, “mom’s apple pie” etc., then you better make darned sure your candidates stand for those things, or is this just normal Republican Tea Party hypocrisy in action?

 

 
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Posted by on September 26, 2011 in Tea Party

 

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PVT Holmes Sentenced for Murder of Afghan Civilian Teen

23 Sep

According to Reuters, the youngest of five U.S. soldiers accused of murdering  unarmed Afghan civilians in cold blood has been sentenced to seven years in prison for gunning down a teenage boy whose corpse he posed with as if it were a trophy.

Andrew Holmes, who pled guilty to a single count of murder — reduced in a deal with prosecutors from the more serious charge of premeditated murder — admitted he made a “bad decision” when he shot the young villager at close range.

You made a bad decision Private? No, you committed cold blooded murder, and then posed with the body of your victim as though he were a deer you’d shot. You’ve done irreparable damage to your country’s image throughout the world and disgraced your uniform. You’re a punk and a thug.

Holmes still insists he had no prior intent to kill the boy but exercised poor judgment when he obeyed an order from a higher-ranking soldier in his unit to shoot the youth.

You got that right Private; what part of you don’t obey an unlawful order did you not understand? Shooting unarmed civilians is about as unlawful as it gets.

Reuters reported that the “higher-ranking soldier” is Specialist Jeremy Morlock, who was sentenced in March to 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of premeditated murder, including the January 2010 slaying of 15-year-old Gul Mudin near an Afghan village.

Morlock testified that after he tossed a hand grenade over a wall near Mudin to simulate an attack, he ordered Holmes to open fire.

In pictures taken after the murders, both Holmes and Morlock appeared in separate photos showing them crouched over the bloodied corpse of their victim, holding the boy’s head up for the camera by his hair.

Holmes also pled guilty to possessing a finger bone taken from the boy’s body.

These soldiers committed murder, took pictures standing over their victims, and took part of his finger as a trophy? These soldiers committed war crimes, and they are the monsters conservative bloggers and talk radio are proclaiming to be heroes who are being wrongfully prosecuted by the evil Obama administration.Under the UCMJ the maximum penalty for committing premeditated murder is death, and yet these animals get off with a mere prison sentence. Please spare me any outrage on how these so-called heroes have been treated.

Afghan families grieve just as American families do; Afghan mothers ache for the chance to hold a son one last time just as American mothers do; Afghan fathers weep for the promise snatched away of seeing a son achieve manhood just as American fathers do.

These murders are a result of demonizing people because of their religion, or their country, or their ethnicity. This is the result of nearly a decade of fear mongering and hate spewed daily on conservative talk radio and FOX PAC, dehumanizing part of the world’s population to the point that American soldiers torture prisoners and murder civilians. This is Bush and Cheney’s legacy; this is the America they created.

 
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Posted by on September 23, 2011 in Afghanistan

 

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Freeman Says Tea Party is Racist?

23 Sep

Morgan Freeman, Oscar-winning actor, film director and aviator has reportedly said exactly what he thinks of the Tea Party. During an interview with British TV he was asked about his opinion regarding the political movement in America, and specifically about his belief that the right wing movement’s anti-Obama stance is rooted in racism.

When asked whether Obama’s presidency has made racism in the United States better or worse, Freeman frankly answered that he believes the President’s time in office has made it worse, as he has become a target of the right’s aggression.

“Their stated policy, publicly stated, is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term,” the actor said. “What’s, what does that, what underlines that? ‘Screw the country. We’re going to whatever we do to get this black man, we can, we’re going to do whatever we can to get this black man outta here.'”

Freeman further said the group’s rise has shown the hate still lingering in America.

“Well, it just shows the weak, dark, underside of America,” he said. “We’re supposed to be better than that. We really are. That’s, that’s why all those people were in tears when Obama was elected president. “Ah, look at what we are. Look at how, this is America.” You know? And then it just sort of started turning because these people surfaced like stirring up muddy water.”

Now I know the conservative Tea Party members will claim the group’s not racist, but when people perceive a threat then they’re going to label you. Racist signs have been seen at Tea Party rallies, and racial epithets have been screamed at Black members of Congress; and let’s not forget that jocular moment at the convention earlier this summer with the Obama impersonator. If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.

Funny how during the GOTP debates you don’t see a lot of color in the audience, all you see is a sea of white faces; but that doesn’t mean the GOTP is racist – it just means that only white people feel comfortable there. When the only color to be seen is Hermann Cain then you’ve got a race issue.

 
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Posted by on September 23, 2011 in Racism

 

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Vengeful Angry Evangelical Co-Chair of Perry’s Florida Campaign?

22 Sep

Republican Tea Party (GOTP) contestant Reverend Ricky Perry’s evangelical petticoats are showing once again; he’s decided (according to Mother Jones) to appoint as his new Florida co-chair (drum roll please) Pam Olsen, founder of the Tallahassee House of Prayer (dubbed the “prayer lady” in her home state for reasons that should be self-evident) and a leading anti-abortion activist in the state. Olsen reportedly also believes that gay marriage, and its increasing acceptance among American Christians, is causing destructive natural disasters across the country.

“God is shaking. If anybody looks at the news and has just seen what’s been happening recently with the floods, the fires, the tornadoes, God is shaking,” she preached. “Yeah I think you have God shaking, sure you have the Enemy shaking, you have both and I don’t want to say oh that’s the judgment of God or that’s the Enemy. But the reality is God is judging us, and I think it’s going to get worse.”

This demonstrates who Perry associates with and the type of people he’d be choosing for his cabinet running the country – it’s also a classic example of the uber-conservative evangelical Christian attitude of an angry vengeful God, and an angry vengeful evangelical Christian Tea Party.

 
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Posted by on September 22, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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Hey, I’m Just A Regular Middle Class Guy?

22 Sep

According to the Miami New Times, and ABC News, Mittens Romney appears to be having a senior moment. While campaigning prior to tonight’s debate, or as I was thinking this morning, the latest episode of “Eight is Enough”, the multimillionaire Romney has declared that he too is middle class.

After my spit take, and subsequent cleaning off the computer monitor, I looked into what I had just read, and sure enough Mittens is claiming to be middle class, “We ought to provide help to the people who have been hurt most by the Obama economy. And that’s the middle class,” Romney told the Miami crowd. “It’s not those at the very low end; it’s certainly not those at the very high end. It’s for the great middle class — the 80 to 90 percent of us in this country.

How does someone worth more than $250 million use the word “us” when describing the plight of America’s middle class?

Is this just some slip of the tongue, or does Mittens really just see himself as the average Joe, the guy coming home to his suburban home with wife and kids and dog? Has he forgotten that he’s expanding his west coast mansion – in fact quadrupling its size? Not the average thing to do for the rest of “us” in the middle class.

I suppose however this is a step up from earlier in the summer when Mittens tried claiming he was “unemployed” – (https://thelibertytree.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/romney-jokes-to-unemployed-about-being-out-of-work/).

 
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Posted by on September 22, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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Angry White Guy Claims President’s Birth Certificate Is A Fraud?

21 Sep


The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that aging Republican Tea Party (GOTP) crooner Pat Boone is insisting President Obama “originated in Africa” has shown the world “a photo-shopped fraud,” and that he’s not a Christian.

I guess Pat’s just one more of those uber-conservative racists who is having a difficult time adjusting to having a Black man in the White House.

Boone claims that during an alleged trip to Kenya, he (Boone) “interacted with Kenyans” who claim Obama was born there.

“I was in Kenya a year and a half ago and everybody said, ‘You know, he was born here,”’ Boone told Chronicle.

I’m just amazed that while Boone was on his “trip” to Kenya, he interacted with Kenyans. That’s as amazing as going to Germany and interacting with Germans; or going to Belgium and interacting with Belgians. Of course, I don’t think tipping the bell boy is really considered “interacting with” anyone, but hey, whatever you want to imagine Pat.

Like one of his songs, the argument is the same old tired refrain that the President of the United States is spending millions of dollars “hiding all of his records” and that esteemed “experts” have dubbed the certificate a fake.

Which experts would that be Pat, the 40s something conspiracy theorists blogging madly from the basements of their parent’s homes? Or is it anyone of the myriad of voices you hear daily from deep within your alcohol addled mind? Remember all those Hollywood drinking parties you attended while portraying yourself as that clean cut “family values” guy?

“Why else would he be hiding all of his records? He’s spending millions of dollars so that we do not have his records,” Boone said. “And experts have already looked at and been able to verify that this long-form document is a fraud… But the media ignores it… A total fraud. A photo-shopped fraud.”

Well Pat – or should we say Chuck? That is your real name isn’t it, Charles Eugene? – as a matter of fact, experts have authenticated that the long form birth certificate is legitimate (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/04/29/expert-says-obamas-birth-certificate-legit/).

Yes, the President’s birth certificate is legitimate, which is more than anyone can say about your singing career almost entirely based on “covering” Black artists’ songs during the segregated days of 1950s and 60s, or your advertising career for “Acne-Statin”; how much did you pay out for that fraud Pat?

Unfortunately, Boone appears to be part of the whole senior white guy’s club who just won’t accept their guy lost. They’ve lost touch with reality, and they’re grabbing at straws to try to illegitimize the President; as a popular bumper sticker says, “Get over it already, he’s the President”.

 
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Posted by on September 21, 2011 in Lunatics

 

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But I Only Have $400,000 Per Year to Live On?

21 Sep

Who has two thumbs and is whining about only having $400,000 to spend for his very own? It’s Republican Tea Party (GOTP) Congressman John Fleming.

While appearing on MSNBC to try to explain why he opposes President Obama’s tax increase on those earning more than $1 million per year, Fleming became defensive to the point of stupidity when host Chris Jansing commented on the fact Fleming has an income of more than $6 million annually.

“The amount that I have to reinvest in my business and feed my family is more like $600,000 of that $6.3 million,” Fleming explained. “So by the time I feed my family I have, maybe, $400,000 left over to invest in new locations, upgrade my locations, buy more equipment.”

So, let me see if I understand this correctly congressman; you spend $200,000 per year feeding your family? How many kids do you have? Are you a polygamist? What the deuce are you feeding your family gold plated hot dogs?

According to the Wall Street Journal, Fleming owns a string of Subway sandwich shops and UPS store franchises through which he earned about $6.3 million last year.

Jansing tried to point out to the congressman that he was sounding more than a little petulant, “You do understand, congressman, that the average person out there who’s making maybe 40, 50, $60,000 out there, when they hear you only have $400,000 left over, it’s not exactly a sympathetic position,” she said. “You understand that?”

“Class warfare’s never created a job,” Fleming responded. “And that’s people that will not get jobs. This is all about creating jobs, Chris, this is not about attacking people who make certain incomes. You know in this country, most people feel that being successful in their business is a virtue, not a vice, and once we begin to identify it as a vice, this country is going down.”

Yes, of course congressman, it’s all class warfare – so, how is it class warfare when the President suggests the wealthy pay more taxes, but it’s not class warfare when you – clearly part of the wealthy class – want to slash programs that benefit the poorest among us, and when you want to allow tax cuts benefitting the middle class to expire?

Well let me point something out to you dip stick, we’ve had the Bush Tax cuts for more than a decade and we’ve seen almost zero job creation from all of you good old American “job creators”; you’re chance is up, you and your country club set of business owners now has to foot the bill for the Bush/Cheney ear of adventurism. If you approve/support two wars and you didn’t pay for them, well, the bill is now due; congratulations.

 
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Posted by on September 21, 2011 in Taxes

 

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Krazy says Food Industry Over Regulated?

20 Sep

In the typical conservative bait and switch move, Republican Tea Party (GOTP) pugilist Michele “Krazy” Bachmann is claiming regulations are overburdening American food producers, while at the same time offering zero specific rules she’d repeal either as a congresswoman or as the president. Her statement comes little more than a week after the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it was going to implement wider testing for potentially deadly E. coli in meat.

“We want to have safety,” she said. “But we also want to have common sense.”

According to the Associated Press (AP) Bachmann says a lightened regulatory load would allow employers to spend money on expansion rather than federal compliance.

And her Brain Captain was screaming, “Because the biggest thing Government should ever do is to make sure businesses can make more money!”

“That’s part of the problem, the overkill,” Krazy told reporters. “And when they make it complicated, they make it expensive and so then you can no longer stay in business.”

“So, they should just make everything really simple, and then it would cost less, and people could make more money, and the size of government would shrink, and we could get back to making sausages the way we used to with pieces of children who get caught in the grindy-upper machines after working long hours for next to no pay, and the businesses will make lots more money and we will have more delicious sausage,” her inner voice said.

The Agriculture Department said expanding testing of E. coli in meat from one strain to seven would hasten recalls of tainted products and help officials identify more food borne illnesses.

But, surprise, surprise, the meat industry opposed the move as too expensive without enough benefit.

Wow, “too expensive without enough benefit.” Really, how much is a single life worth compared to the meat industry’s profits? Well, one is priceless and one is not.

“Why do we need to expand the rules to allow for more testing,” Krazy no doubt wanted to ask? “E. coli is a natural occurring bacteria and is one of God’s ways of thinning the herd and we shouldn’t be forcing businesses to spend more money while we’re interfering with God’s plans of how to run things. If people had more faith when they blessed their food they wouldn’t get sick, like duh.”

Or maybe she could’ve said, “E. coli outbreaks are God’s ways of sending messages to Washington that they need to start listening to the people more; the government is the meat and we – the Tea Party – is like the bacteria telling it to listen to us!”

Congress passed a sweeping food safety bill at the end of last year – before the GOTP took over the House – with strong support from the Obama administration. Bachmann was – of course – among those who voted against it.

Krazy takes all these uber-conservative positions the Tea Party wraps itself around and with each one shows herself to be more fanatical and more ignorant of facts; Ron Paul says we should end FEMA, and Bachmann pushes for the curtailing of USDA and the EPA; while these agencies makes our lives better, two make them cleaner and safer and another helps us recover when the world gets turned upside down. Bachmann and Paul are not only out of touch with reality, they’re wrong.

 
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Posted by on September 20, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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Yee Haw, Let’s Take That There Holy Land!

20 Sep

Original Photo – Tom Pennington, Getty Images

According to the New York Times, Reverend Ricky Perry has come down firmly – in all his Evangelical splendor – on the side of uber-conservative supporters of Israel, denouncing what he called an Obama administration policy of “appeasement” that had gravely weakened Israel and forcefully declaring that Jerusalem should be fully under the control of the Israeli government.

And who exactly has the President been appeasing? Since taking office he’s approved $2.775 billion in military aid, part of an ongoing commitment that will eventually top out at approximately $30 billion within the next ten years, and all this at a time when our economy is ailing, and our national debt and deficit are on the increase, the U.S. continues to provide $3.148 billion in loan guarantees aimed at keeping Israel’s debt manageable. Yep, there’s a lot of appeasement going on there alright you putz.

Ricky also reportedly “suggested” if he were king of the forest, he’d move the American embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, telling reporters, during a news conference in New York, “If you want to work for the State Department, you will be working in Jerusalem.”

In short he’s saying, “Y’all better get ready because when I’m runnin things we’re goin to be movin up to Jerusalem whether them A-rabs like it or not.”

He’d be putting U.S. Personnel smack in the middle of a conflicted zone, and daring the Arabs to strike, what’s next, pledging U.S. aid to reclaim the Temple Mount?

“I am for Jerusalem being united under Israeli rule,” he said in response to a question at a news conference. Jewish leaders who had been invited to the event by his campaign and were standing behind him loudly applauded the comment.

You know, in the back of his mind he was saying, “Of course I’m also for secession and national corn dogger day too.”

Basically sheriff Ricky done tossed his lasso at the feet of the Arab world and said he’d be soon leadin a posse to “the Holy Land”! Yee Haw! It’s a good thing he didn’t have no six shooters or he’d have brung em out and shot em into the air.

Perry said the President’s Middle East policy was “naive, arrogant, misguided and dangerous.”

Hold the phone? That sounds like he’s describing his own Middle East policy; let’s get this straight; he’s a career politician from Texas for crying out loud, who earned a degree in animal science while cheer leading, who thinks he’s on a mission from God, believes in state’s rights to the point of secession, and who’s entire background on Israel probably stems from an illustrated copy of the Child’s Bible, and is reinforced once a year when the family sets out the light up plastic Nativity scene in their front yard at Christmas.

While Ricky claims he supports a “two-state solution” in the region, he showed absolutely no tact, pledging “unwavering” support for Israel” and adding with typical Bush-style Texas bluster: “Tell the people of Israel — help is on the way.”

He further “suggested” if the Palestinians obtained statehood recognition at the United Nations, and if he were in charge, he’d put an end to, or very sharply curtail, any further economic aid to the Palestinians.

I think it’s pretty much a certainty if, by some fluke of nature, he becomes the president, the aid to Palestine will be cut off anyhow.

One of the good things when Perry starts shooting his mouth off like this is he looks and sounds more and more like George W. Bush; same cocky air; same Texas sized bravado; same lack of understanding of anything bigger than a cock fight. He’s essentially Bush version 2012, and hopefully the country’s had enough of that nonsense.

 
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Posted by on September 20, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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Enhanced Interrogation?

20 Sep

While I whole heartedly agree with many of my conservative friends who question the validity of countries like Cuba, North Korea & China lecturing anyone on human rights, I wonder how it looks to others when we do the same, or when we – United States – broach the subject of the treatment of prisoners.

Fact is we – the United States – tortured prisoners, how many is irrelevant, we did it. And we did it with Presidential approval. Up until Bush/Cheney allowed it, I – as an American soldier – could proudly say the U.S. didn’t do “those things”; now I can only say “we don’t do it any longer”.

In May 2009 I asked the question “Did the United States of America Torture Prisoners? (https://thelibertytree.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/did-the-united-states-of-america-torture-prisoners/) and showed various images that showed U.S. military personnel doing just that. It wasn’t “enhanced interrogation”, it was torture.

“Enhanced interrogation”, the enlightened euphemism of the right, is in reality a failed administration’s attempts to cover up; under the Geneva Convention – of which we are a signatory – we committed an act of torture; we mistreated prisoners. Can’t repaint facts; we violated international law.

In spite of what misinformed talking heads like Limbaugh say, the United States didn’t use “enhanced interrogations” during WWII, Korea or Vietnam, it wasn’t until the Katz and Jammer kids got elected.

Additionally, no matter what Cheney tries to say in his book, we did not gather one speck of useful or credible Intel from the use of “enhanced interrogation”. Senator McCain and others, who know a lot more about this subject than the likes of Sean Hannity and the cast of Fox and Friends has so testified.

It is a dark stain on our nation’s honor, and it will take a long time for it to be removed.

It’s not something any real American should be proud of.

Bush/Cheney – and all of their cohorts – were wrong, and should be forever thankful President Obama wouldn’t authorize a full investigation and prosecution on the basis of war crimes having been committed.

I’m sorry, but as someone who has served for more than 21 years in the service, our treatment of prisoners during the previous administration was a willful violation; and IT WAS WRONG! “If we adopt the ways of the Nazis, we’re as bad as the Nazis.”

Another conservative justification is that we use many of the same “techniques” on our own troops during their training. Regarding the use of “those techniques” in the training of our own personnel; our personnel know they’re not going to die when they’re undergoing that training; it’s far different for a prisoner subjected to it. That’s a straw man argument waiting for a match.

Conservatives continue to amaze as they attempt to justify what the country did, saying it wasn’t “torture”; fortunately the United States Department of Defense doesn’t agree and defines Torture, “as an act specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incident to lawful sanctions) upon another person within the actor’s custody or physical control.

“Severe mental pain or suffering” is defined as the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from:

“the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical
pain or suffering;

“the administration or application, or threatened administration or
application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt
profoundly the senses or the personality;

“the threat of imminent death; or

“the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death,
severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality.”

Tea Party darling Congressman Allen West was forced into early retirement from the Army because he violated these definitions when he intentionally discharged his weapon next to a prisoner’s head.

Additionally, President Reagan signed the “United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment”; not some bleeding heart liberal, RONALD WILSON FRACKIN REAGAN!!!!

Its past time for conservatives to accept the fact Bush and Cheney screwed this up, and placed American service personnel – as Senator McCain has said – in real jeopardy because of it.

 
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Posted by on September 20, 2011 in Torture

 

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