Tea Party vs. the Grand Old Party

The schisms btw the "new" Tea Party ethos and the old GOP powers that be are causing some interesting fissures on issues like the Patriot Act and...more surprisingly, maybe, abortion.  Tho this topic is covered in a variety of blog entries, it seems to me that this is a developing/ongoing story that deserves its own tracking.

Maddow is out front on this/watch (from Feb 8 2011):

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(More on the Patriot Act split is under the "Civil Liberties" entry).

TP v GOP on Abortion (!)
(on the abortion as wedge issue more generally, see "Culture Wars" entry)

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(Feb 8, 2011)

• y, the GOP never had any intention of addressing the economic concerns of the tea partiers, (3/2011)
• Wisconsin: the Tea Party's Waterloo? (3/2011, Salon)
• ORCs vs YATs (budget showdown btw GOP/TP- 2/10/11)
• Dkos not so sure it's a TP/GOP split (2/9/2011)
• Libertarians heckle Cheney/Rumsfeld at CPAC (2/2011, Alternet)
• Tea Party wants Boehner to be primaried 3/2011

hmmmm....

Class Warfare (Wealth inequality, etc)

Mitt Romney flashing those benjamins

Also:

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World of Class Warfare - Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives
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Political Humor & Satire Blog

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("World of Class Warfare: Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives", Aug 18, 2011)

Distribution of Wealth

• Why the truly alarming economic trend is not income inequality. It's the Wealth Gap, Stupid | Mother Jones (2/13/2012) 
• The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office confirms that the rich have been getting richer. : CBO | Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007 (10/25/2011) 
• Young Turks covers this CBO report

From CBO report, Oct 25 2011

(chart from MoJo's "It's the Inequality, Stupid")

Growing Pie? shrinking pieces for 99%

• How the McEconomy Bombed the American Worker | MichaelMoore.com  (May 10, 2011)
• Divide and Conquer; convince you that you have to fight for an ever smaller piece of the pie.  (robert reich, "The Republican Strategy" (Feb 2011) 
• "They pit average working Americans against one another, distract attention from the almost unprecedented concentration of wealth and power at the top, and conceal Republican plans to further enlarge and entrench that wealth and power."
• ONE | Catholic bishops to US House: ‘Make the poor a top priority’  (4/14/2011)

Poverty, Income inequality...

• Corporate Profits Just Hit An All-Time High, Wages Just Hit An All-Time Low - Business Insider - (6/22/2012) http://goo.gl/yk4jh
• As Big Bank Stocks Plunge, CEOs Continue To Reap Huge Salaries | ThinkProgress (1/2/2012) 
• Bottom Line - CEOs rake in huge sums when their companies go bankrupt (1/27/2012) 
• Wall St. Record pay when regular Americans facing unemployment, stagnant wages (2/4/2011)--the study is by Wall Street Journal: $135 billion in compensation. Exec payouts = 1/3 of the total Wall St bank bailout ($417billion)
• Review: The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett | Books | The Guardian (3/13/2009)
• the life-diminishing results of valuing growth above equality in rich societies can be seen all around us. Inequality causes shorter, unhealthier and unhappier lives; it increases the rate of teenage pregnancy, violence, obesity, imprisonment and addiction; it destroys relationships between individuals born in the same society but into different classes; and its function as a driver of consumption depletes the planet's resources.
• Wilkinson, a public health researcher of 30 years' standing, has written numerous books and articles on the physical and mental effects of social differentiation. He and Pickett have compiled information from around 200 different sets of data, using reputable sources such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the World Health Organisation and the US Census, to form a bank of evidence against inequality that is impossible to deny.
• 21 CEOs With $100 Million Golden Parachutes | Mother Jones (1/18/2012) 
• Thirty Years of Unleashed Greed | Truthout (10/28/2011) 
• Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% - Vanity Fair (5/2011) 1% of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.
• The Forgotten Truth That Conservatives Created The Welfare State Ray Medeiros/Politicus 2/2011 ( Low wages push ppl onto welfare) 
• Executive Bonuses Bounce Back - WSJ.com  (3/18/2011)
• Executive Excess 2010: CEO Pay and the Great Recession - IPS (Sept 2010)
• Executive Excess 2011: The Massive CEO Rewards for Tax Dodging - IPS (Sept 2011)
• The Rich Get Richer: CEO Bonuses Skyrocket; Worker Pay Flat | Mother Jones 3/18/2011
• War On The Poor: Minnesota Republicans Want To Bust Poor People Who Carry Cash | Crooks and Liars (3/2011)
• "250K Isn't Rich If You're A CEO But 50K is Rich If You're A Teacher":  Ray Medeiros 3/2011
• "It's the Inequality, Stupid" -MoJo 3/2011, great CHARTS AND GRAPHS abt income inequality
• Poverty Scorecard: 2010 scorecard analysis 
• "Executive Excess 2010: Exec Pay and the Great Recession", 9/2010, Institute for Policy Studies
• the CEOs who slashed their payrolls the deepest took home 42 percent more compensation than the year’s chief executive pay average for S&P 500 companies.
• American workers, by contrast, are taking home less in real weekly wages than they took home in the 1970s 
• Politifact:True: , just 400 Americans -- 400 -- have more wealth than half of all Americans combined," (Michael Moore statement in Wisconsin 3/2011)

"Redistribution of Wealth! Communist!"

• On redistribution of wealth : Does The Bible Mix Religion and Politics? - The Christian Left Blog (6/2/2011) 

There's a War on the Middle Class

• House moved to kill HAMP/Obama Mortgage Plan (CNN Money) - Mar. 29, 2011 
• Robert Reich (The Republican Strategy) 2/17/2011 
• - split the vast middle and working class – pitting unionized workers against non-unionized, public-sector workers against non-public, older workers within sight of Medicare and Social Security against younger workers who don’t believe these programs will be there for them, and the poor against the working middle class.
• How the middle class became the underclass (And how the DECLINE OF UNIONS hastens the decline of the middle class)- CNN Money Feb. 16, 2011
• Gov Walker's threat to American political stability (Huffpo, Steven Cohen, 3/2011)
• The American middle class owes its existence to the fact and threat of union organizing. That is why the attack on public workers' right to collective bargaining is an attack on the middle class
•  Michael Moore, "The Smug Wealthy Have Gone Too Far", Alternet 3/6/2011
• 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true
• Michael Moore: We Face a Global War on the Middle Class, AlterNet 3/2011 
• "Foreclosure Follies" House Republicans have introduced bills to eliminate four federal antiforeclosure programs and replace them with — nothing - NYT Ed, 3/2011
• The American Dream is Disappearing for This Generation! - Brian Conners, 2/2011 (compares our econ. situation to Egypt)

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Men of a Certain Wage - Money Talks
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("Men of a Certain wage - Money Talks")

[this post was getting too long; I've split off the UNION links to its own blog post]

(related content on Unions and Wisconsin at "Middle Class Fights Back" and "It's the Economy, Stupid" posts)

Civil Liberties, Obama and Bush

Torture, detainees w/o trials, Guantanamo, the PATRIOT act, the alarming (and unconstitutional) expansion of executive power--to me, these were among the most insulting offenses of the Bush administration.  I remember very clearly listening, during the 2008 election cycle, analysis (perhaps on This American Life? Perhaps Glenn Greenwald?) of Obama's positions on the expansion of executive power.  The commentator said, "We should not feel comfortable that Obama will reverse these breaches".

If I remember correctly, this analysis was only about executive power, not civil liberties abuses.  But as the Obama administration has failed to reverse Bush policies on detentions, or close Gitmo, or speak out strongly against the overreach of the PATRIOT act, I have thought of that bit of radio again and again.

Keeping Track of the GOP/Teaparty Leadership in 112th Congress

• President Obama Calls Out Mike Lee's Scorched Earth Obstructionism | ThinkProgress (1/30/2012) 
• 12 Examples of Stunning Hypocrisy from Tea Party Republicans In One Short Month | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet (2/2011)
• Legislative GOP: Wasn't it Jobs, Jobs, Jobs??? (MN Prog Action, 1/26/11) [More on this theme at the Culture Wars entry]
• Comparing Pelosi's and Boehner's first months in office: 19 bills passed, vs. 4 for Boehner... And Republican Congress has been in session less than half the time of time of Pelosi's congress (2/2011)

Reaganing

Jack Donaghy is Reaganing (30 Rock)

"Conservatives don't worship Ronald Reagan. They worship what they believe Ronald Reagan to be"

• Politifact puts Reagan Claims to Truth-O-Meter (handy!) (2/8/2011)
• Reagan a tax/spend big gov guy who was also a pragmatist who respected objective reality (Eugene Robinson, 2/8/2011)
• Reagan, tax cuts, GDP (addicting info 2/11)
• Reagan unemployment rate almost 11% in 1982/high unemployment mirrored by high disapproval during his term
• Caller challenges Limbaugh on Reagan myth; Rush seems bewildered (2/2011)
• 5 Myths about Reagan's legacy (Will Bush, WaPo, 2/4/11)
• 10 Things Conservatives don't want you to know about Reagan (Think Progress, 2/5/2011)
• Reagan cared more abt UFOs than AIDS (Salon 2/4/11)
• Reagan's Triple Legacy (C&L, 2/5/11)
• Regan's embrace of Apartheid South Africa (Salon, 2/5/11)
• Reagan: Enemy of the American Worker (Truthout, 2/4/11)
• Reagan, Terrorist (RubberStampRoskm 2/6/2010--Reagan's 99th)
• Reagan's bin Laden connection (Slate, June 2004)
• Reagan's impact on education today (WaPo, 2/6/2011)

Reagan would be called a Socialist today

• Marco Rubio: Reagan erred in supporting 1986 amnesty for illegal immigrants

Hagiography

• America is like Reagan's Jellybeans by Ben Quayle (Politico, 2/2011)

Money, Influence, Corporations, Corruption, Lobbying

Until we fix how money courses thru elections and electeds' offices, we're always going to have a government and legislation written for the interest of those w/ the most $$$ (corporations!) and not that of the American people (98% 99.5% of whom don't have terribly a lot of $$--and certainly not enough to tip the influence of corporations).

UPDATE: I've made a separate collection just for  Citizens United

It's the Money, Stupid

• Great discussion: Lawrence Lessig on Money, Corruption and Politics | On Point with Tom Ashbrook (1/2/2012)
• the real problem is money in politics, not people in politics. Winning Progressive - Fighting for Jobs and Against Money in Politics (May 2011)
• Who's Paying for the GOP's Plan to Hijack the 2012 Election? | Mother Jones  (nov 2011)

Blame the Brown People

Culture, Racism, some History

• Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice - Yahoo! News (1/26/2012)  
• Culture Poisons Brain With Racism, Study Finds| LiveScience (10/2/2011) 
• It’s No Joke to Self-Deceivers - Ideas Market - (5/21/2012) WSJ - http://goo.gl/4YzEy - 
• "People who, in tests of implicit associations, for example, showed a preference for white people over black people, laughed more heartily at racially charged jokes."
• Alto Arizona! - History of Racist U.S. Laws - http://bit.ly/RHcN83
• The Echochamber amplifies and reproduces nativist attitudes: http://bit.ly/PU3KdZ

Fantasy Obama/Obama Paranoia

• Right-Wing Activists: 'Obama is working with Islamists to bring down Christianity, the West and America' | rightwingwatch.org (8/7/2012) - http://goo.gl/5zqG1
• Juan Williams (!) - Racial code words obscure real issues - TheHill.com (1/31/12) 
• Report: Unprecedented Number Of Death Threats Against Obama -- And Secret Service Overwhelmed | TPM LiveWire (10/18/2009) 

(MORE AFTER FLIP)