Some On The Right Doubting The Fact That Osama Is Dead—These Are The Voices Directing Today’s Republican Party

Osama bin Laden has been killed and buried at sea.

Will it surprise you to know that some of our fellow Americans remain unconvinced that this is really what has taken place?

(Tea Party protestors. Photo by dbking.) 

Below are just a few of the comments in reaction to Osama’s death from the Facebook page of Houston radio station 740 KTRH and from the Facebook page of Texas U.S. Senator John Cornyn.

These people don’t represent all Americans or all Republicans. Yet given that Donald Trump is leading the polls for the Republican Presidential nomination, and given the extreme tone overall of the Republican Party/Tea Party, it has value to understand the voices that will be well-heard  by elected Republicans and by Republicans seeking office around the nation in 2012.

They don’t believe the birth certificate is real and they don’t believe that Osama is dead. Are these the folks you want directing the future of the United States of America?

From the reactions to Osama’s death—

As long as our country hunted this so called man they should of hung him on the whitehouse lawn for all the world to see not at sea.I ‘m not buying it.

how do you know he didn’t die of natural cause he’s old and sick just to get credit for his death.

Now why on Earth would they have done something so incredibly stupid as to dispose of the body??? Me smells a rat.

How convenient for Obama, who has thw lowest approval ratings of his career. And wasn’t Khalid Sheik Mohammmd the mastermind of the attacks, Osama just bankrolled them. Where was Osama killed? When? Where is video of his corpse, man?

It makes me rather suspicious. Now I wonder just how real this is.

Obama made sure his brother’s remains were properly disposed of according to the Muslim tradition hmmmmmmm…..how convenient.

How convenient, no one knew where he was. Obama’s popularity is falling even among the unthinking masses on the left. Now we hear reports of the man everyone has been looking for dead, and we dispose of the body before anyone can see it, “out of respect”. Just before a second run for president for the man who has been lying to us since he took office. Next we’ll get a photoshop picture as proof.

Buried at sea before an autopsy or proof could be gathered? To respect Muslim traditions? Come on, America…. start demanding some proof.

This just in: Osama’s body has been buried at sea! Can we say “Big fat HOAX” boys and girls? Can we say “Election Ploy”? Dear Mr. Obama: April Fool’s Day was April 1st. You’re a month late!

Is Bin Laden dead? Wheres the proof? Did you guys at least bring his head back. To show us that he is dead.

Obama is blowing smoke up our asses. I want to see Osama and think he needs to be on exhibit for ALL Americans to see that he’s REALLY DEAD!!!

There BETTER be pictures.

Right buried the body at sea? WTF are you kidding me?

Senator Cornyn, there better be a Congressional hearing for testimony on all this. The Administration dumped evidence into the sea under the guise of respect for Islamic law, I’m sorry why would we throw away very important evidence????

Sort of like the Obama Birth Certificate, all on paper with no physical proof!!!!!!!!!!! Just like all the MSM reports

DNA test that was done on the spot, in one day? No other samples to confirm it?? HAHA

How Do Average Working People Who Are Republicans Tolerate These Things?

Republicans in Congress have blocked a bill for medical care for 9/11 responders because of an alleged concern it would add to the deficit.

Yet at the same time Republicans insist on tax cuts for the most wealthy regardless of the impact on the deficit.

I wonder sometimes if we live in a legitimate country, or if we all exist and work so a powerful few can prosper.

How do average working people who vote Republican tolerate these things?

Even if you disagree with Democrats on many issues, how do you stand something like this?

What Does The Tea Party Represent?—Will Centrists & Independents Support Tea Party Backed Republicans?

Above you see what the Tea Party presents itself to the public. The billboard you see here was paid for by a Tea Party group in Iowa.

Is President Obama as bad as Hitler or Stalin? Is he for genocide and putting people in camps?

I’m very liberal. I’m not going to vote for any Republicans in the upcoming November elections. I’m upfront about this fact.

If you’re somebody who could vote either way depending on the candidates and the office up for election, you’ve got to decide what you’re going to do.

Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, who is up for reelection, recently said that he would support lawsuits looking to see if President Obama was really born in the United States.

The economy is a mess and Louisiana is under siege from all the BP oil, yet this is what Senator Vitter is talking about. This is how beholden Republicans are to the Tea Party/far right wing agenda.

A few days ago the NAACP passed a resolution saying that the Tea Party has racist elements.

Let’s say you don’t agree with this or that you don’t like the NAACP. Fine.

See what you think, however, of the Tea Party response to the NAACP’s assertion—

“You’re dealing with people who are professional race-baiters, who make a very good living off this kind of thing. They make more money off of race than any slave trader ever. It’s time groups like the NAACP went to the trash heap of history where they belong with all the other vile racist groups that emerged in our history,”

The NAACP is not some revolutionary outfit.  They don’t profit off race as did slave traders. They are not a “vile racist group” like some other groups in our American history.

The Tea Party, lead by Glen Beck, is going to hold a rally next month at the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream speech.

Why would the Tea Party they do this other than to mock the memory of the day? What’s the point but to anger people? A rally could be held any other day and any other place.

It seems apparent Democrats will lose seats in Congress in 2010.  Democrats are not going to be promoting a big agenda in the next session of Congress regardless of whether they hold on to their Congressional majorities or not.  

The Republicans seem to be almost fully under the thumb of their most extreme ideological supporters.

Such as the Texas Congressman, Joe Barton, who apologized to BP.

Such as Republican Kentucky U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul who said that private business places should not be forced to serve black people.

Such as Republican Nevada U.S. Senate nominee Sharron Angle who seemingly has called for violence if Democrats hold on to Congress.

I predict that these Tea Party supporters will prove to be far to the right, that many politically centrist and independent Americans will choose not to support Republicans in the 2010 elections.

The Tea Party represents an angry ideological extremism out of step with the majority of Americans.

Congressman Ron Paul Is Second Elected Republican To Talk Treason

Republican Congressman Ron Paul of Texas is the second elected Republican in the Lone Star State to talk treason in recent days. (Photo of Rep. Paul, in front of our flag, above.) (Here is a map of the areas represented by Rep. Paul.)

Here is what Rep. Paul said—

“[Perry] really stirred some of the liberal media, where they started screaming about: ‘what is going on here, this is un-American.’ I heard one individual say ‘this is treasonous to even talk about it.’ Well, they don’t know their history very well, because when you think about it… it is very American to talk about secession. That’s how we came in being. Thirteen colonies seceded from the British and established a new country. So secession is a very much American principle….”

Rep. Paul terms himself a libertarian, even as he asks for $398 million in earmarks from the most recent federal budget, but he is an elected Republican in our Congress. 

Last week Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry said Texas could consider leaving the union if it felt oppressed by the federal government. The federal government has of late been oppressing Texas with hundreds of millions of dollars in stimulus funds 

Is the Republican Party of Texas loyal to our union or is it not? What do they think Ronald Reagan would have thought about this disloyal talk? 

A recent Rasmussen poll reports that 18% of Texans would vote to leave the union if they had the chance. Another 7% are not sure. That is 25% of folks in Texas would would support or consider supporting leaving the union.   

What share of Texas rank-and-file Republicans hold this view? It seems that at least 40% or so of Texas Republicans must hold this view. I doubt it is Democrats that support this position of treason and blind anger.

It’s not just Texas. National Republicans had little problem with putting secessionist Sarah Palin within close reach of the White House. 

If Republicans and conservatives want to equate our elected President Obama and our elected Democratic Congress to taxation without representation, they are free to do so.

What I will do, as will liberals and Democrats across the nation, is salute the flag of the United States of America.

 

National Republican Party leader and conservative leader Rush Limbaugh has defended Governor Perry’s views on treason.  Given Mr. Limbaugh’s wide following with conservatives, one would be fair to conclude that the option of tearing the nation apart is a mainstream Republican view. 

Ideally in our democracy, competing political parties would offer differing views on the issues before the nation and the people would decide which views they feel are best.

But if Americans have cause to question the loyalty of one the two main parties, and have reason to question the loyalty of the conservative movement,  then we may reach the point where Republicans and conservatives can no longer be seen as legitimate participants in the national political debate.

1948 Republican Platform On The United Nations

Below is the 1948 Republican convention platform position on the United Nations—

We believe in collective security against aggression and in behalf of justice and freedom. We shall support the United Nations as the world’s best hope in this direction, striving to strengthen it and promote its effective evolution and use. The United Nations should progressively establish international law…and be provided with the armed forced contemplated by the Charter.

What a difference 60 years makes. Imagine today’s Republicans discussing collective security, international law and arming the United Nations. 

Though none of this is to suggest that Republicans of that day lacked a full compliment of Commie-hunting paranoids. Maybe though they were, for a brief moment, not fully in command of all the party.

The 1948 Republican convention was held in Philadelphia and nominated Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York (below). Though Mr. Dewey began the campaign as the strong favorite, he was defeated by President Harry Truman.

A Long Ago Political Fight

 

I’ve been reading Unforgivable Blackness–The Rise And Fall Of Jack Johnson by Geoffrey Ward.

Johnson was the first black heavyweight boxing champion of the world. He was champion from 1910 until 1915.

Johnson grew up in Galveston, Texas and was once president of the Twelfth Ward Republican Club in Galveston.

From that position, Johnson ran for Galveston County Republican Chair. This was sometime in the late 1890’s.

( No black Southerner with any sense would have been a Democrat back in those days.)

Here is an account of the Republican county convention where Johnson was a candidate for county chair—

“He had a bitter rival whose name Johnson only recalled as “Deep Six.” When the two appeared side-by-side before the convention and his opponent reached for his revolver, Johnson knocked him out. A fistfight then broke out on the floor, and the delegates rand for the doors. After that Johnson said, he decided to return t the ring: the ” political struggle was too complicated and too wearying” to suit him.”

Here is a newspaper account of the 1896 Texas Republican Convention. The issue up for debate was should black Republicans vote in a separate primary from white voters—

“….bludgeons, bottles, pistols and knives all figured in. Tables were smashed and chairs broken, while groans and oaths blended. ”

I’d like to see that on C-SPAN.

Here is a history of the Texas Republican Party from the party webpage. 

Below is an excerpt from that history—

“African Americans were one group of Texans that would consistently support the Republican Party in Texas in those early years. In fact, throughout Reconstruction, African Americans comprised about 90% of GOP membership, and 44 African Americans served in the Texas legislature as Republicans.

It was through the hard work of a number of dedicated African American men and women that the earliest foundations of the Republican Party of Texas were laid. The first ever state Republican convention that met in Houston on July 4, 1867 was predominantly African American in composition, with about 150 African American Texans attending, and 20 Anglos.”

The second State GOP Chairman, Norris Wright Cuney, an African-American from Galveston who led the Republican Party from 1883 to 1897, is said by State historians to have held “the most important political position given to a black man of the South in the nineteenth century.”

Prisons & Workhouses—Scrooge Mirrors Republican Social Policy

(Blogger’s update 12/8/12—This post was written 5 years ago when George W. Bush was still President. It is still valid today. The idea that we don’t have work for all our people or that the poor should be tossed in jail or neglected is at the heart of conservative thinking right now just as it was in 2007 and in the time of Charles Dickens.)

It seems that the attitude and policy suggestions offered by Ebenezer Scrooge in response to a solicitation for charity at Christmas, would fit in well with Republican and conservative social policy in modern America.

This post is based on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. This book was first published in 1843.

Below in italics is text from the book— (Don’t miss the last paragraph. It sums it up quite well. I’ve put it in bold to further beat you over the head with my point.)

 “…..This lunatic, in letting Scrooge’s nephew out, had let two other people in. They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold, and now stood, with their hats off, in Scrooge’s office. They had books and papers in their hands, and bowed to him.

“Scrooge and Marley’s, I believe,” said one of the gentlemen, referring to his list. “Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr Scrooge, or Mr Marley?”

“Mr Marley has been dead these seven years,” Scrooge replied. “He died seven years ago, this very night.”

“We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner,” said the gentleman, presenting his credentials.

“… At the ominous word “liberality”, Scrooge frowned, and shook his head, and handed the credentials back.

“At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge,” said the gentleman, taking up a pen, “it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.”

“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.

“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”

“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “ I wish I could say they were not.”

“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.

“Both very busy, sir.”

“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I’m very glad to hear it.”

“Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,” returned the gentleman, “a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?”

“Nothing!” Scrooge replied.

“You wish to be anonymous?”

“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.”

“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”

“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides — excuse me — I don’t know that.”

“But you might know it,” observed the gentleman.

“It’s not my business,” Scrooge returned. “It’s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people’s. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!”

Click here for a good history of what a workhouse was in 19th Century Britain. There is also a good history of Poor Laws.

Read this about the contracting out the establishment and running of poorhouses. The worked was outsourced. Some things never change.

“….the actual running of workhouses was not necessarily undertaken by the parish itself. It could instead be contracted out to a third party who would undertake to feed and house the poor, charging the parish a weekly rate for each inmate. The contractor would also provide the inmates with work and could keep any income generated. This system was known as ‘farming’ the poor. The contract was usually awarded to the bidder offering the best price for the job which might take a variety of forms, for example maintaining all the paupers in a parish, or just managing the workhouse, or just a particular group of paupers such as infants and children, or lunatics, or providing medical relief.”

The link and the above paragraph are from Workhouses.org.uk

Click here for what a “treadmill”  was as mentioned by Mr. Scrooge.

Mr. Scrooge learned the error of his ways. Maybe three spirits will come to the White House and to Congress and our Republicans will be given a chance at redemption as well.