Why haven't the Teabaggers complained about the High Court taking away Miranda rights? Because the Teabaggers are really a fraud!

This is the reality of the Tea Bag movement which formed since Barack Obama was elected President. Their claim is that they have risen up to fight and stop President Obama and his Administration's attempt to take away their Constitutional Rights. They are worried he is going to take away their right to bear arms, even though he has never said that or implied that. They say he and his Administration are against free enterprise and want to make this a Socialist Country, because he bailed out the large Banks and the Auto Industry. These Teabaggers act purist but are anything but.

This morning there was an article on Yahoo.com about the High Court and their decisions over the last 10 years to limit Miranda rights. The title of the article is, "High court trims Miranda warning rights bit by bit." In the article the following is excerpt:

The Supreme Court made major revisions to the now familiar Miranda warnings this year. The rulings will change the ways police, lawyers and criminal suspects interact amid what experts call an attempt to pull back some of the rights that Americans have become used to over recent decades.

The high court has made clear it's not going to eliminate the requirement that police officers give suspects a Miranda warning, so it is tinkering around the edges, said Jeffrey L. Fisher, co-chair of the amicus committee of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
"It's death by a thousand cuts," Fisher said. "For the past 20-25 years, as the court has turned more conservative on law and order issues, it has been whittling away at Miranda and doing everything it can to ease the admissibility of confessions that police wriggle out of suspects."

The court placed limits on the so-called Miranda rights three times during the just-ended session.

You see if the Teabaggers were really serious about preserving their rights, they would have been marching against the assault on our Constitutional Rights regarding unauthorized domestic Wire Taps without FISA Court approval, as was started in the Bush/Cheney Administration and continued carried by the Obama Administration. Instead, many in the Tea Bag movement are still questioning whether President Obama was elected legitimately, since they claim he was not born in the U.S. They complained they didn't want Government involvement in their Healthcare, even though many love their Medicare. They complained about Death Panels, even though no such thing was ever considered. You see, much of what they seem to stand for is fraudulent to the original Tea Bag movement on taxation without representation. We have the lowest taxes we have ever had as a country and that is why we are broke. They want the Bush Tax cuts to stay in effect, even though it will represent over 30% of the deficit we have as a country, and when you add in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars spending, it adds up to virtually the entire Budget Deficit for the next 10 years.

Looking at the chart above from an article by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, you can clearly see that the Bush Tax cuts are responsible for a significant portion of the deficit in the coming decade. And do you think Tea Baggers want these tax cuts to continue? You bet they do. Just ask former Republican Representative from Texas, Dick Armey, one of the founders of the Tea Bag movement. Oh, and by the way, it was the same Dick Armey that was in favor of open Immigration across our borders and also favored a Free Enterprise System of little, if any, or no regulation. You see they are frauds. If nothing else, their positions are inconsistent, as are also the Republican leaders of the Senate. Their entire game plan is to deny President Obama (and the country) any success out of the messes they have helped create in the first place.

What's happening in politics this year? One word, shakeup!

The political parties are scrambling for change, at least that is what is happening in the Republican Party. It is being split apart with the Tea Party movement. It is difficult to tell at this moment if these changes in the long run will be beneficial. However, when people start to get involved and taking the phrase "power of the people" to new heights, it is indeed good for democracy. So those who believe on the right that true Conservatism was abandoned by the Bush Administration are correct, as more money was spent that we didn't have, than in any other presidency as far back as you can go. It seems Fiscal Conservatism is coming back in vogue by the efforts of the Tea party and proposed and articulated by Republican Rep. Ron Paul, who is a Libertarian in philosophy. I think we can all agree that irresponsible spending hurts our country more than even terrorism. We have amassed so much debt, we are not much better off than many countries in Europe like Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Great Britain. This was the cause of the ousting of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister. Living within one's means is what is required of us all. So I think this is all for the good as I see it within the Republican sphere.

So now let me look at the Democrats. There has not been any such movement on the left in the Democratic Party. I would have thought that there are social liberals but fiscal Conservatives out there who would push the Democrats more, and unfortunately, none have shown up to date. One way in which we could have more bipartisanship as was demonstrated yesterday, when Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont was able to get a Bill passed to have a one time AUDIT of the Federal Reserve from the years 2007 to 2010. The Bill passed 96-0, which is unheard of since President Obama got elected. Republicans and Democrats can work together as long as both Parties use the common language and philosophy of Fiscal Conservatism to rule the country. The Party's can fight over social issues but come together for the good of all on Fiscal issues such as reducing the National Debt and using PAYGO to approve any spending Bills. There is common ground here if Progressives seize the moment to work cooperatively with Tea Party advocates, and Libertarians, to get us back on track as a country, from the spending of this and previous administrations. I show 2 charts tonight. Oner is of the National Debt increase since Reagan. and the other is a chart of Debt versus GDP by Country. This last graph may be difficult to see so blow it up as it is worth it.

The responsibility of the media in reporting news.

The Healthcare marathon debate, which has taken place over a year to this point, has pointed out major distortions in the messaging and reporting the 24/7 media cycle has kept us misinformed. First the data reported today on the Ed Show. Here 's what he reported on the results of a new Harris Poll about Republican attitudes about President Obama:

67% Believe That Obama is a Socialist
45% Believe that Obama was "Not born in the United States"
57% Think he is a Muslim
24% say "He may be the AntiChrist"

This is a direct result of the lack of investigative reporting and fact checking by some in the media and specifically promoted through Fox News. The Republican Party is devoid of common sense Republican leaders today, because they have been demonized by the far right wing of the Party and it has moved Moderate Republicans far to the right to appeal to the base and not to be challenged by the Far right Tea Bag group, headed up by former Congressmen Dick Armey and others. There are a number of really smart Republicans who have contributed to these problems by their silence. It's hard to oppose a movement which has become a mob now which you have belonged to for many years. There were Republican statesmen who would have spoken out in their time against racist comments, slurs and fear mongering. Such Republican leaders were Sen. Bob Dole for one, Senator Howard Baker or another, and going a long way back President Ronald Reagan and President Dwight Eisenhower. It's time real Republicans gained back the Republican Party by having the courage to speak out. Where are today's voices of Sen. Richard Lugar, Mitt Romney and the old John McCain who was so proud to put Country First?! The media needs to do a lot more investigative reporting rather than just reporting on any comment, whether true of not, just to fill the 24/7 airwaves.

If this country isn't what we want it to be, no matter what side of this issue you are on, the media is front and center in the area of being responsible to the Constitution and the American people for it being a better or worse country. The Constitution guarantees a Free Press. But WeThePeople must demand that it be there to investigate newsworthy items as to the truth of the facts and then show us the positions of both sides. There have been some TV Cable programs like the The Rachel Maddow Show, which does do investigative reporting and chases down claims to bring the truth to her viewers. But she is rare.

Here's an excerpt from an article on the Newspaper business and their declining numbers of investigative reporters:

"Newspapers care about investigative stories, but they frequently don’t back that up with resources that reporters say they need to do in-depth work...."

and this:
"Most of the journalists responding to the survey said their papers are more supportive of investigative reporting now than even 10 years ago, but many said the support is superficial.

Thirty-seven percent of newspapers had no full-time investigative or projects reporter on their staffs. The majority had two or fewer, and only 10 newspapers had four or more investigative or projects reporters working for them.

In addition, 61 percent of the newspapers had no investigative or projects team. Of those, 16 percent had teams in the past, but they have been disbanded. Sixty-two percent of the newspapers surveyed did not have a single editor specifically charged with working on investigations."

I am tired of the "Marketing" and "Spin" of news. In the past 25 years Newspapers have had to lay off Investigative reporters as the age of TV and then 24/7 news has changed much. We must become more active with our voices and end this trend. You with me?

Executive Pay vs. Worker pay and the Tea Bagger movement

I took a look this morning at why so many Americans are mad and why this Tea Bagger's movement has gained such strong traction in light of the recent violence directed (or misdirected) at the government. In part some elected officials are responsible for where we find ourselves today, but it is simply amazing to me that the anger that is building, spawned by Republicans like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and the likes of these Republican Senators, Sen. Kyle, Sen. Jim DeMint, Sen. John Cornyn, Sen. Mitch McConnell, former Republican Congressmen Dick Armey and Minority leader John Boehner, is not placed where it should be. It should be aimed at the Republican Party and its leaders, as is shown in the chart above! (Click on the charts to enlarge them.)

From the chart above on EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION, from the NY TImes you can see the divide between Executive pay and average worker pay since 1940. It is very clear to me that around 1985 this trend skyrocketed upward. This was when Pres. Reagan had massive tax cuts for the wealthy and trickle down economics was touted as going to be a good thing for the Middle Class and the debt began to rise. It is my opinion, and I will get the facts on this, that it was the Financial sectors Executives which were primarily responsible for this move up coincidently with the invention of Credit Default Swaps and other derivative instruments created in those years. Both charts track very well.

It was also emboldened by Sen. Phil Gramm's legislation, called the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, to deregulate the Banking and Insurance Industry by getting rid of Glass-Steagall in 1999 tied to a bill to provide the funds to keep the government running, when Newt Gingrich threatened to shut down all government. The amendment passed in the middle of the night and was signed into law by President Clinton, who in my view didn't know what he was really signing and the implications, but that's another debate for a different time. Suffice to say he signed the legislation to prevent a government shutdown. The effect of this and those new financial instruments changed most significantly Executive compensation possibilities as the stock market had soared to over 10,000 and the Nasdaq to over 5,000.

So enough of the history and now focusing on the chart, the folks to be upset with are those who passed Banking and Insurance deregulation in the first place (Mostly Republicans with the assistance of Bill Clinton and weak Democrats and also Executives in the Financial Institutions and their Boards who approve these ridiculous levels of compensation. The Democrats should be knocking the heck out of Republicans with this issue as they have stood with the workers and trying to help them with programs such as Social Security and Medicare. But instead it is the Republicans who are getting the masses all worked up to "throw the bums out."

I agree with them on that point, but it is Republicans who should be thrown out, all of them, for creating this mess and being on the side of lobbyists on the healthcare debate and backing the Insurance company Executives from For-Profit companies. The Democrats have got to start to play hardball and reverse this inequity of pay for the middle class and help the poorest amongst us. I'll bet if you if you check donations made to Haiti for the earthquake which devastated the country, most were small donations and made by people who could little afford it compared to the salaries of those Executives. It is morally wrong and inhumane. The problem is the entitlement attitude of these people. They see nothing wrong with their compensation compared to the workers. They actually believe they deserve what they are stealing, and I use the word stealing deliberately. It's a crime and they have no shame or conscience. They want to pay off TARP quickly so they can get back to wealth accumulation. What do you think?