This article is now circulating on twitter and in the blogosphere:

Continuing his unprecedented power grab, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker ordered the state capitol to be cleared at 4 p.m. local time Sunday, closing the building to Wisconsinites protesting his plan to gut the right to bargain for good jobs. Now he’s violating their freedom of assembly, too. Dozens of ministers, rabbis and priests joined workers and students from across the state, risking arrest to protest the closing of the capitol to the public.

Wisconsinites from all walks of life—nurses, firefighters, snowplow drivers, police officers, students, teachers, and others—have been in the capitol building peacefully for 14 days.

The Republican Tea Party claims to be defenders of the Constitution, but in reality it is just another symbol that they use to pretend they care about America. Other symbols they fraudulently assume as markers of their “patriotism” include: the Founding Fathers, the American flag, the bald eagle, the Gadsden flag, and the Confederate flag. But when it comes to acting like a patriot, when it comes to following the Constitution, they openly flaunt its most important provision: the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights.

And, tellingly, the same group of climate change deniers, who deny the reams upon reams of evidence that human-induced climate change is a very real phenomenon, are now denying an independent review that proves them wrong. This is now the 5th public review of the climategate emails that has fully exhonerated the scientists involved.

Senator James Inhofe, leading climate change denier and oil industry toadie, is now not only denying the science but is denying independent reports on the science. In an independent review of the emails that were stolen from climate scientists, one of the main findings was that there was NO manipulation of data.

So what is the first thing that liar and oil industry goon Inhofe says? He cries about manipulated data, proving that this individual is simply not capable of dealing with the American people honestly. In fact, he is the very person who first called for the review, and now he’s lying about the results that he doesn’t like. Too bad!

Here’s the evidence that Inhofe is a liar, right smack dab in the article on the topic in the Washington Post:

Inhofe released a statement thanking the Inspector General and highlighting the eight messages singled out for detailed review. In the statement, Inhofe says, “This report shows that some NOAA employees potentially violated federal contract law and engaged in data manipulation.”

However, the Inspector General concluded that there was no evidence of any such manipulation.

It really wouldn’t matter much if the right wasn’t a fully-owned subsidiary of the oil and energy industry. Do David Koch and Charles Koch, who each inherited billion dollar fortunes because they happened to be born to a corporate oil tycoon, really care about Joe and Jane’s monthly energy bill? If you think yes, then you simply don’t understand the “profit above all” mentality in the industry. A perfect example of this is Enron, which was led by a man, Ken Lay, who openly abused the law to scam energy consumers and even his own shareholders and employees.

The conservative myth that Republican policies are good for energy consumers belies the fact that their policies do nothing but keep American economy weighed down by the anchor of OPEC and an energy source that is intrinsically tied to the geopolitical situation in the single most unstable part of the world. Our economy is directly connected to the well-being of dictators and kings like Muammar Gaddafi, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia.

This is exactly what I’m talking about:

Libya is the world’s 12th-largest exporter of crude oil, producing 1.8 million barrels a day. But Col. Muammar Gaddafi, the country’s embattled leader, is said to have ordered the destruction of his country’s oil facilities in an effort to dramatize how regime change could wreak havoc, both within Libya’s borders, and in the broader global oil economy. And Gaddafi’s son Saif has warned that continuing violence could drive foreign oil companies out of Libya.

That uncertainty caused the price of oil to spike to $100 a barrel yesterday, for the first time since 2008. And the average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. rose this week by 5 cents to $3.19–the highest February price since 1990.

If oil and gas prices continue to surge, Americans would have less money in their pockets, which could in turn lead them to pull back on consumer spending–just as such spending was starting to pick up again. Renewed consumer spending has been a crucial driver of the recovery, so if Americans put their wallets back in their pockets, economic growth could slow dramatically. And businesses, lacking confidence, would likely think twice about hiring new workers, making it all but impossible to bring down the unemployment rate.

So when you hear some Republican Tea Party Senator or Congressman mock real energy reform ideas — like renewable domestic energy or energy efficiency or green building or plugin-hybrid cars — and instead promote a “Drill Baby Drill” mentality, just remember that as long as America is committed to using oil of any kind, our economy will be exposed to weakness caused by political instability in countries that reject the freedoms we take for granted. Why anybody would want to subject our economy, and their own personal finances, to the whims of dictators and tyrants is anybody’s guess — especially when we can create jobs producing clean energy right here at home.

But this is the headline of the email I woke up to, which was just sent by Floyd Brown a few minutes ago:

Obama Declares War

Sweet, eh? What a nice message to wake up to! So positive and ful of pride for one’s country. So full of respect for the office of the presidency! The respect and grace with which the Republican propagandists treat their fellow Americans is truly touching.

Now, I am a pretty avid consumer of news. Actually I am frequently reading news and opinions on the web, on twitter, etc. But I must have somehow missed the article where the President of the United States has declared war on his own people!

I’ve seen that Mohmar Quadaffi has basically declared war on his own people, but not the President of the United States.

But before I post a sample of the fevered lunacy of Republican establishment propagandist Floyd Brown, let me remind everybody here of one thing:

This email list has one purpose and one purpose only, to scam Republican Tea Party activists into sending Floyd Brown their money.

With the scheme of scaring right wing activists in your mind, please read a sample of this truly disturbing text:

If you believe that these Wisconsin protests are a local issue… you’re sorely mistaken. If you believe that there is some “perfect storm” brewing and that it is a coincidence that the Wisconsin protests are happening now… you’re wrong. And if you believe that these protests are, in actuality, about public-sector union employees demanding more of your hard-earned money during a time of extreme economic distress… while the rest of the nation suffers… you’re still missing a huge… huge… part of the picture.

These protesters are being used… Joseph Stalin coined the phrase, “useful idiots.” These protesters are dupes… pawns in a very dangerous game that Barack Obama is playing with the United States of America. Barack Obama is not siding with the unions for the sake of the children… he’s not siding with the unions for the sake of hard-working and dedicated teachers… and he’s certainly not doing it for you.

The end-game is the complete and utter destruction of the United States economy and your way of life. Obama and his allies are playing the game to win and each and every American who cherishes freedom and the American way of life MUST do the same. You must not let them get away with it. They must be stopped.

Right, sure, uh huh. Wow. So the meme of the day is that the President of the United States wants to “paralyze” the country so he can destroy it from within. And it’s not to support teachers, and it’s for the children! That is the BAIT.

Now here is the HOOK. The last paragraph, the entire paragraph is hyperlinked to a page where you can send a fax to Congress. But in order to send that fax, you need to cough up a minimum of $25. $25 dollars to send a fax! I don’t know how many people actually use his little “service” but it is clearly a scam.

The next paragraph immediately follows the previous one that is hyperlinked to the fax scam and ends with “they must be stopped”:

Use the button below to send your urgent and personalized Blast Faxes to the Republican and Democratic Leadership of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives.

Again, the “button below” is part of the scam.

When you click on either the link or the button, you get taken to a page where with a couple of clicks — and by giving this scammer your credit card — you can send a fax to members of Congress.

Sounds great, right?

All you have to do is give Floyd Brown your name, complete mailing address, email address, employer and occupation… and your credit card along with the selection of one of these options:

Contribution Amount:
$25.00
$35.00
$50.00
$100.00
$250.00
$500.00
$1000.00
$2500.00
$5000.00

Making Republican Tea Party activists pay a minimum of $25 for one fax is bad enough, but who out there — after reading these truly disturbing emails — is going to fork over a massive chunk of money like $500 or even $5000?!

It is truly bizarre. It is hard to know which mentality is more disturbing, the kind of person who would read such blatant falsehoods about our president and hand $5000 to a total stranger (with a long history of deceiving people in political scams) OR, the person who writes this stuff to use fearmongering to scam people out of their money. Either way, there are some truly sick people on the right. They expose themselves every single day.

And I hope that anyone reading this will help me in exposing these twisted lunatics by subscribing to Expose the Tea Party, sharing this message with anyone on either side of the aisle who is politically active, and tweeting or retweeting my messages (and following) the twitter account I have established for this purpose: @exposeteaparty.

It should go without saying that I will never, ever ask anyone to support my cause financially.

Let’s demolish the latest Republican Tea Party lies, shall we? Here is how this salacious email begins:

The protests in Wisconsin are a perfect representation of the American Left: loud, selfish, churlish, anti-democratic, and unshakably assured of their inalienable right to get paid for doing nothing.

Stuffing aside the obnoxious hyperbole, let’s get to the heart of this brazen lie. Since when is peaceful assembly “anti-democratic”? Let’s consult the, hmmm, what’s it called again? Oh yeah, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the first amendment in the Bill of Rights:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Anti-democratic? What planet are these people from that they think Americans are so stupid that they think they won’t know about the First Amendment?

And with regard to the comment that the protesters are gathered for their “right to get paid for doing nothing?” Teachers do nothing? Nurses do nothing? Prison security guards do nothing? Social workers do nothing? Firemen do nothing? Policemen do nothing? You can lie about a policy and sometimes get away with it. You can lie about a person and sometimes get away with it. But you cannot lie about a profession, much less multiple professions simultaneously, and get away with it. Nurses, teachers, prison guards… These people are hard-working, tax paying Americans, period, end of story.

These mindless attacks on fellow Americans transcend political boundaries. These Republican liars and propagandists are committing nothing more than a series direct assaults the very fabric of Americana. They may as well take Betsy Ross’ flag and shred it into a million pieces. They may as well take the original score of Frances Scott Key’s “The Star Spangled Banner” — our country’s national anthem — and shred that too.

Disgustingly, and true to form for Floyd Brown’s insane email lists, the email’s true purpose is to raise funds, not for political causes, but for Floyd Brown’s personal bank account. As we have discussed here on Expose the Tea Party, that is the true goal of these lists: to use political fear-mongering and race baiting to scam Republican voters into sending Floyd Brown their money. It is sad, but true.

On to more lies in the email scam:

And make no mistake, the chaos rending Madison is precisely the future Barack Obama wishes for every state in the union, because only such radical paralysis can allow him to press forward with his unpopular agenda. That is why the president has sided with the left-wing crowd in Wisconsin in ways that some liberals believe may be unconstitutional (and thus impeachable).

How did I know this was all President Obama’s fault? Maybe because “Expose Obama” has consistently and repeatedly lied to the lists’ subscribers, painting America’s duly-elected president as an evil terrorist socialist Muslim bent on destroying America. Again, the only real goal is to get Tea Party types to send money directly to Floyd Brown, a career member of the Republican establishment. But, apparently these people think that President Obama wanted Scott Walker to destroy Wisconsinites’ rights to fair pay, fair work hours, and fair medical benefits for themselves, their children and their families. Because somehow what is going on in Wisconsin — the roll-back of rights for workers that have existed for 50 years — is right in line with his “plan” for America. Of course, the lie of the day must somehow be tied in to the word “impeachment”. Why? Probably so Floyd Brown can sell more “Impeach Obama” bumper stickers and t-shirts (which, yes, he is hawking in this same ridiculous email).

This paragraph about Obama is nothing more than a preposterous series of lies that is so far from the truth that it is Orwellian in nature (meaning that the opposite of the statement is actually the truth). The fact is, it is not President Obama but it is the Tea Party governors of Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida and elsewhere who have made a concerted effort to destroy labor laws in America. And they have not done it alone. They have received financial backing from a massive propaganda channel, Fox News, and one of the largest and most powerful corporations in America, Koch Industries, each of whom gave the Republican Governors Association $1 million in 2010 to push their radical anti-middle class agenda on the American people. They have not ben interested in compromise or debate, just forcing extreme measures on their state and on their people for the Republican establishment’s agenda of killing the Middle Class in America.

Continuing with the lies in Floyd Brown’s email scam:

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has taken perhaps the most moderate, common sense course for a state facing a $3.6 million budget shortfall over the next two years. Not a single state employee will lose his job, not a single salary will be cut; he merely reduced the benefits package by asking public employees to pay for 12.6 percent of their health insurance. (They currently pay a whopping four percent; for every $40 they pay toward their benefits, taxpayers are on the hook for $960.) They must vote to recertify their union each year, and their pay raises will not exceed inflation – unless the voters approve it. The state will only match their retirement contribution, not pay 100 percent.

The objection to Scott Walker’s Wisconsin budget is NOT to those terms. As has been repeatedly noted in the press, the Democratic Senators and protesters alike have already agreed to every single financial demand of the dictator of the empire of Wisconsin. The only issue where the other side will not give in is the GOP’s total elimination of their right to negotiate fair hours and fair medical benefits. That’s it. Everything else has already been agreed to. And let’s be honest here, because Floyd Brown refuses to be, the governor’s plan to eliminate workers’ rights that have been in place for generations is nothing but extreme. To call it “moderate” is, again, a blantant lie.

In Wisconsin, as elsewhere where there is a new Republican Tea Party hypocrite in the governor’s mansion, they demand small government but use tyranny and oppression — aka Big Government tactics — to achieve their partisan ends.

And that makes them blatant hypocrites and abusers of the American political system.

Shame on them. Shame on these governors. Shame on the Republican Tea Party hypocrites. And shame on anyone who supports their tyranny or falls for their email scams.

What we’ve witnessed in Wisconsin under Republican leadership is, most importantly, an assault on working taxpayers who make up the fabric of our community. But just as interesting is that what the GOP did was a two-step budget tango. Step 1: turn an estimated $120 million surplus into a deficit by shifting gobs of public money into corporate coffers. Step 2: blame hard-working Middle Class Americans for the deficit that he created.

What this Two-Step Tango really shows is, not only an assault on the Middle Class and not only an assault on collective bargaining, but it just how disingenuous the Republican Party is on fiscal issues.

By using tax rates to allow corporations to pad their profits, the Governor and Wisconsin GOP have clearly sought to redistribute the wealth of the state. Of course, any hint of redistributing wealth from corporations — whose only concern is making more and more profit — to average Middle Class citizens and what is the Republican/Tea Party reaction? They run around screaming “socialist” like their hair is on fire, literally suggesting that our country has been infiltrated by an evil force that is bent on destroying all of God’s Creation.

These intellectual babies are not in favor of helping the Middle Class, the average hard-working American who wants to put food on their table or send their children to college to give them a better life. No. If the wealthy corporate elite don’t get their way on tax rates, it’s “socialism”!

Wisconsin state government using tax revenues to support the Middle Class? It’s “socialism”!

Wisconsin state government using central planning to redistribute wealth from the Middle Class to corporations? Why, that’s heroic to the blatantly disingenuous Republican Party.

This type of glaring hypocrisy is where the phase: “It’s OK If You’re A Republican,” or IOKIYAR, comes from.

Intellectual honesty was never the GOP’s strong suit, but this is one of the most brazen attacks on political integrity in the USA in a long while.

In the latest racially charged incident in his home state, Haley Barbour on Tuesday drew fire when he refused to condemn a proposal honoring a Klu Klux Klan leader and Confederate general on a state license plate.

“I don’t go around denouncing people. That’s not going to happen,” Barbour, who is considering a run for the White House in 2012, said when asked about the plate, the Associated Press reported.

[…]

The state NAACP has denounced the proposal from the Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans to honor Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who went on to become an early leader of the KKK.

In his financial disclosure report for that year, however, Justice Thomas reported that the Federalist Society, a prominent conservative legal group, had reimbursed him an undisclosed amount for four days of “transportation, meals and accommodations” over the weekend of the retreat. The event is organized by Charles and David Koch, brothers who have used millions of dollars from the energy conglomerate they run in Wichita, Kan., to finance conservative causes.

[…]

“I don’t think the explanation they’ve given is credible,” Mr. Pearson said in an interview. He said that if Justice Thomas’s visit was a “four-day, all-expenses paid trip in sunny Palm Springs,” it should have been reported as a gift under federal law.

The Supreme Court had no comment on the issue Monday. Nor did officials at the Federalist Society or at Koch Industries.

TAKE ACTION, SIGN THE PETITION!!!

He also needs to be held accountable for his failure to recuse himself in the Citizens United case, where his wife Ginny Thomas stood to gain financially from his involvement in the case.

These matters MUST be investigated by a serious, non-partisan special prosecutor.

The only thing he left out was that Mr. Huckabee didn’t walk on water. But he did indicate that, while they were traveling near the Sea of Galilee, there was a sense of calm in the historically war-torn country. In Floyd’s words, “How could a land so at risk of war be so serene?” It must have been the presence of Mike Huckabee! Aaa-aaa-men! [Cue doves.]

But the serenity of this laughable column is pierced by a grotesque and overtly bigoted attack against a nameless group of, “Moslem political leaders.” Here is the offending paragraph:

“Our trip to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem showed Gov. Huckabee’s earnest compassion and resolve to never see a similar mass murder occur. His emotional words after the visit made clear to those of us present why he believes Israel’s security must be protected. The threat to Jews is more than most Americans understand. Moslem political leaders don’t just want some real estate. Some seek to finish Hitler’s final solution.”

Israel is in a constant state of anxiety over attacks on their people and towns from their Islamic neighbors, no doubt about that. We know that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has denied that the Holocaust happened. Both of these are terrible in their own right.

But, Floyd, who are these generic “Moslem political leaders,” to which you refer, who “seek to finish Hitler’s final solution”? Hmmm… Could it be Ahmadinejad? Or Hamas? Or could it be someone else? Maybe, a leader who wasn’t born in the United States but says he was?

No matter whose name you insert in the blank space that Floyd leaves by castigating the generic “Moslem political leaders,” the truth is that this is nothing more than pure, unadulterated, uncut innuendo and thinly veiled bigotry.

And why “Moslem”?

Muslim, Moslem, Muslim, Moslem. Same thing right?

WRONG.

Let us be clear. This is not an accident. This is an INTENTIONAL TACTIC that we see time and time again on Floyd Brown’s “Expose Obama” email list. He often engages in this type of thinly-veiled bigotry and grossly over-reaching and ambiguous rhetoric, in which he leaves out specifics and instead sets the tone for the reader to fill in the blanks with his or her own bias.

“Moslem” is, in fact, used almost exclusively by anti-Islam, anti-Obama attack sites.

It is disgusting and it is wrong. But it is even more despicable that he uses the Holocaust — in which more than 6 million people were slaughtered; including Jews, Gypsies, intellectuals, and gay people — to promote his right wing political ideology, bigotry included.

And, of course, as it is with every single issue to a scumbag like Floyd Brown, Mike Huckabee and his “flawless,” “superman-like” qualities are but one thing and one thing only… a possible chance to beat President Obama in 2012.

How did I know that this Republican Tea Party purveyor of hatred and bigotry would end an article about the perfection of Mike Huckabee and the scariness of some nameless, Hitler-crazed, “Moslem political leaders” with an attack on the African-American Christian President of the United States of America Barack Obama?

Call it a hunch.

Stick around. Expose the Tea Party is going to be calling out Floyd Brown for his disgusting bigotry and propaganda tactics every step of the way.

“After plunging us over 14 trillion dollars into debt, the highest in American history, President Obama has doubled down on the reckless spending.”

Obviously the intent is to misinform readers with the implication that President Obama has spent $14 trillion in two years. Let’s look at the facts.

At the end of the fiscal year of 2009 (the last fiscal year under George W. Bush), the federal debt was $11,900 billion or close to $12 trillion.

The debt for the fiscal year before George W. Bush? $5.6 trillion.

Bush more than doubled the national debt in 8 years.

This is just another in a long line of examples of how the right wing disingenuously blames President Obama for the debt. When Bush took over, the budget was running a surplus. But a couple of tax cuts for the rich, two wars off the books, and a Medicare Part D giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry and Bush chalked up a hefty $5 trillion in debt on those 5 things right there.

Of course, the right also blames President Obama for having to spend money to keep America, and the civilized world, from sinking into another Great Depression, but that is a whole ‘nother angle at this that makes the GOP attacks so cynical and disgusting. If President Obama didn’t HAVE to spend billions saving our country from Republican-caused damage, then our debt and deficit would be considerably lower.

Will you ever hear any of that from the GOP? No way. The Republican Party is intellectual dishonesty in its most malignant and disgusting form.

“The Republican Party establishment group is really not thrilled with talk radio, they’re not thrilled with the tea party — they don’t like it, they’re trying to find ways around it,” he said.

via Rush slams Daniels on big tent – Jennifer Epstein – POLITICO.com.

What Rush Limbaugh doesn’t want to admit is that the Republican Party establishment and the Tea Party are one and the same!

Floyd Brown, who worked for three GOP presidential candidates, runs Expose Obama, a Tea Party email list.

Dick Armey, who was the Republican House Majority Leader from 1995–2003 in the House of Representatives, is now the head of FreedomWorks, a health insurance industry-funded “grassroots” group that fueled the Tea Party’s anti-health reform efforts. FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity are byproducts of David Koch‘s Citizens for a Sound Economy.

This is not news, even if Limbaugh doesn’t want to give the appearance that he is part of the Republican Party establishment.

He is.

It’s all part of the Republican/Tea Party con.