From the article carried by the Lufkin Daily News this morning LDB was very accurate in its assesment of the Tea Party rally of July 4. One wonders what those people truly want. Do they want a new revolution? It sounds as if they do. What kind of nation would we have if they controlled it? Though reports of the rally proved our assertions correct, we are not in the least pleased we were.
Judging from their rhetoric it would seem the speakers at this rally have not studied history or government at all. It’s amazing that attorneys, men who should be well educated in the legal process and the Constitution, so eagerly and deliberatly deceive the public with their misrepresentation of facts and hateful accusations against parties that are hardly guilty of anything more than conducting business as usual.
The rally goers were encouraged by Republican Congressmen who are themselves responsible for the loss of freedoms America suffers from. Congressman Gohmert would not even be in office were it not for the illegal actions of our state government in drawing district lines. Gohmert is an illegitimate Congressman in an illegitimate district created because of pressure from Tom DeLay.
It’s incredible that two men at the rally have direct links to DeLay, as mentioned in the previous post about this rally. Cruz had the audacity to say our country is “facing the single greatest threat to our liberty that we’ve ever seen.” No joke, Mr. Cruze, and you’ve had a major hand in making this threat a reality. You, Mr. Cruze, helped Tom DeLay and the right wing hold power so it could rip our liberties away in the Patriot Act and subsequent legislation that gave life to the monster.
The crash this nation is experiencing was inevitable. The Bush Administration has been playing a game of Jenga with the U.S., pulling out one after the other block, knowing full well the whole thing was headed for collapse. But what does it matter to them now? They’ve stolen from the nation, built their financial empires, and insulated themselves from the crash. They played America like a sucker and now we’re the broke and destitute while they ride off to Dubai or wherever with a pocket full of American gold. And now those left behind are blaming Obama for pulling the last block out when the whole thing was unstable already.
The young Mr. Flournoy can easily blame Obama for “change for the worse” but like every other sour-grapes right winger he fails to admit Obama inherited the mess, he did not create it. “We are giving too much control to our government,” the young man said. “We don’t need more government control, we need more character.” Indeed, where was he and his parents when the crooks were in the Whitehouse? All lined up to support them, no doubt. Character. If Mr. Flournoy and the other speakers believe the former administration or McCain/Palin had character then they would not know character if it bit them in the rear.
What does it mean when someone says “legislation is purely facade”? It means the speaker of such silliness can’t find flaws in it and assumes it is not what it appears to be. It’s bewildering what Mr. Flournoy has been learning all this time in college if he still does not realize the truth of climate change. Surely he had to have at least one science class?
Men like Mr. Flournoy and these others have sufficient coin in their pocket so as not to be overly concerned about the loss of jobs, loss of food, loss of water and loss of life those poor masses will experience. Hundreds of thousands of human beings on this planet are going to die from starvation and lack of water. Because of American and European excesses, along with the Chinese and Indian rush to match our society, this globe faces a very terrible century ahead. The evidence is absolutely overwhelming. Eight years has been thrown away while the right wing have said stupid things like “the environmental issue is not about any inevitable truth, it’s about feeding the fearful masses and hack scientists.”
Then there’s Ms. Jessica Hughes. It’s pretty amazing that a hateful woman who spoke lame insults to a person merely exercising his right to support his candidate has risen to such stardom as Ms. Hughes has. Ms. Hughes’ presense on the platform is the best evidence that the right wing does not have its heart open to the people of America but is conceited, self righteous hatemongers who merely want their way at all costs.
She and all others are dead wrong in blaming Obama for the Secret Service investigation of her comments. Let us remind readers again that the Secret Service was under the control of George Bush at the time. Obama was merely a candidate. He was the opposition candidate. How in the world could he have been respondible? Even if one of the hundreds of thousands of his supporters lied to spite Ms. Hughes’ vulgar words how could he have even known? Is she so conceited to believe she is so important? “You probably think this song is about you, don’t you, don’t you!”
There’s no room here to revisit Ms. Hughes story but suffice it to say there’s been so much idiotic writing about the incident it’s clear to anyone with a funtioning mind that Ms. Hughes was very insulting and offensive to a legitimate campaign worker doing what he believed in. Whether or not she spoke or implied a threat is not the issue. The issue is that Ms. Hughes was disrespectful and hateful and thereby elicited the same kind of response from a campaign worker. Attitude, Ms. Hughes, is everything.
Quote the Lufkin Daily News: “We are through playing defense, and we are going on the offensive,” Hughes said. “We want to equip you as a soldier in a new, peaceful American revolution.” Peaceful? What of Mr. Cruz’s remark that Texas is “America on steroids…. It is a spirit that says ‘give me a horse, a gun, and open plain and I can conquer the world.” Doesn’t sound so peaceful.
Mr. Flournoy accused Obama and “hack scientists” of “feeding the fearful masses.” The rhetoric coming from this rally is precisely that. Every speaker, judging merely by the words quoted in the Lufkin Daily News, fed fear and hate to the crowd they stood before. This rally looks to be little more than insurectionism itself.
At any moment one might expect a confederate flag to go up and see Cruz, Flournoy, and Hughes standing beside a couple of rednecks riding in the back of a pickup yelling, “the South is gonna rise again!” Racist comments that followed the Daily News article on the Lufkin Daily News website reinforce such a vision.
Hate. Anger. Misrepresentation or denial of truth. Deception. Mass rallies led by charismatic leaders during which the participants declare themselves good and the leaders insist their opponents are not only bad but evil. An arena filled with banners. Why does this sound familiar? Oh yeah, Some German guy did this stuff in the nineteen thirties. It didn’t turn out so well for a whole lot of people.
Citizens of Texas and America, you folks better wake up. The right wing is leading you down a path that will destroy this nation. They’re accusing Obama of every single thing George Bush and Dick Cheney are guilty of. They’re comparing the Obama administration and our current government to Hitler and Stalin (two extremely different ideologies, by the way) as they, themselves, are using the very tactics Hitler used to gain power.
Those of you who read this post and attended the rally or are persuaded to believe the lies and exagerations spoken there please, we implore you, learn your history. Follow your true faith. You call Christ the Prince of Peace. Why do you cry for social warfare and support war abroad? Christ spoke of forgiveness, love, turning the other cheek. Why do you speak such hatred and intolerence?
There are paralells between what is happening today and pre-war Germany. Indeed, Hitler attacked the government much as those who stood at the Tea Party did. Hitler claimed to be a Christian and declared the rightness of his cause just as those at the Tea Party did. There is your comparison. The only thing lacking between the National Socialist party and America’s right wing is a man at the top. We hope that person never, ever emerges.
The Obama administration is merely going through the motions, following through on a few promises that got him elected. He knows full well the Congress will prevent radical social programs. He has, in fact, mostly picked up the baton carried by the Bush administration, continuing the wars, deception, abuse of freedoms and disregard for constitutional law that the previous leadership were guilty of. We are no fan of his policies any more than we were of Bush/Cheney’s.
The answer is not hatred, however. The answer is not mean-spirited rallies that stir emotions and threaten to divide this nation. Carried forward, the rhetoric of this Tea Party rally can do nothing less than rip our community and society completely apart. There must be calm. There must be respect. There must be concern for all citizens. Most of all there must be a far greater understanding of the rule of law, the process of change, and a respect for the Constitution. Insurection is not the answer.
We appeal to all citizens, stop the hatred and choose a peaceful, legal means of recovering our freedom. Those means exist. Discover them. Use them. If you do not you will destroy the very foundation of freedom and democratic government you claim to believe in.
texasbohemian
2 comments
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July 5, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Jessica Hughes
Do you genuinely believe that I deserve to be interrogated by the National Police because I gave an honest answer to a question? I was called on my cell. I paid for that call. Are you seriously decrying the loss of liberty under Bush while suggesting that my liberty should not include being allowed to call someone a socialist on my own phone? Freedom to say only what is inoffensive to all is no freedom at all.
You should know that I do not blame Obama for the Secret Service visiting me. I also do not blame Bush. Neither of them personally sent them so blaming either would be patently absurd.
I do blame the foolishness of the Congress and Bush for signing a document they never read. They voted only on a summary provided by the Justice Department. I would note that since Obama took office the demands for a repeal of the PATRIOT Act have conspicuously dried up from the Left.
I blame an abandonment of the Rule of Law and our Founding principles which supported individual self-determination; not enabling servitude to an all powerful Nanny State.
It is silly to compare a demand for the government to get out of our lives economically and personally, to the rise of Hitler which historically followed on the heels of an intense growth of centralized power. Socialism. You know, as in “National Socialism” was the foundation for that turn and had you paid any mind to what I actually had to say you would have heard someone asking for the chains of government to be taken off of the people, not tightened.
I cannot speak for those who got up and bashed Obama except to say I find it counter-productive and frankly off-point. Obama is not the problem any more than Bush was. The problem is a century long slide away from personal autonomy and toward Statist control. Both parties are guilty and I can admit that. I said that in my speech.
If you can admit that as well, maybe you will be part of the solution and not just another party-hack like too many on both sides are.
July 6, 2009 at 12:23 am
texasbohemian
Hello, and thank you for comment.
I somewhat remember the story about you in the Lufkin Daily News. The implication was that your tone and demeanor was not flattering to the staffer and the staffer got angry. Not hearing the conversation, of course, all I have to rely upon is the reports.
In researching the incident I found many right wing websites that carried your story and used it to bash the government and Obama. For example, the website Conservative Politics Today has this headline: “Meet Jessica Hughes, The Latest Victim Of Obama’s Goon Squad.” It was words like at I was referring to in the post.
I agree they should not have called on your cell phone but unfortunately from what I understand campaigns use random dialers and since campaigns are exempt from the no call list any number is fair game. If the staffer had been getting a lot of East Texas calls no doubt your response was not uncommon. Perhaps something you said or the way you said it made the staffer angry. There are many reasons a misunderstanding could have arisen that led to the investigation. Since the call was not, as you said, a recorded call (which is illegal without direct acknowledgement and possibly illegal altogether when it comes to voter polls) there’s no use revisiting that part of your story.
Obviously the staffer reported you made a threat, whatever the reason. I do not, to answer your question, believe your comments warranted a personal investigation although considering the situation an investigation was inevitable. Homeland Security is, of course, paranoid. It was created to be paranoid. Second, as an opposition candidate who was black no doubt increased the likelihood any little comment would be investigated. Third, since he was the opposition candidate the Secret Service probably could not afford not to investigate every little possible incident or they would be held accountable.
As for the interview, or “interrogation” as you put it, they were just doing their job. The fault lies with the system and the paranoia of our times, not with the investigators. Who knows how many other investigations they made to homes where nobody said anything about it. As a former foster parent I know that CPS reacts in much the same way to the most minute of reports. Every foster parent is investigated. Virtually all are vindicated. It’s part of the system. Unfortunately we are all part of this paranoid system called Homeland Security.
Calling federal officers, whether they be FBI or Secret Service, National Police is inflammatory. It plays into the hands of extremists who will use your story as they see fit and alter it when necessary. I would suggest focusing on the paranoia that led to the incident instead of using terms like “interrogation” and “National Police.” Whatever you mean by it to those who are not conservatives it sounds like extremism. The problem, again, is not Homeland Security, it is the paranoia that allows it to exist.
You make some very good points. I had no faith in Obama whatsoever from the very beginning of his campaign. I considered him only marginally better than McCain and mostly for personal reasons, because I suffer from illnesses and have no health care and I have a heart for the poor and children and I held a small hope social programs might be improved. But he has proven as bad as I expected. It is certainly worth noting the calls to repeal the Patriot Act dried up. The world looks different from the oval office. It takes a man of more courage than we’ve had in that office for a long time to stand against the imperial presidency and give the power back to the people.
It wasn’t the calls for government to get out of our lives that prompted me to compare the Tea Party to the rise of Hitler. It was, instead, the tone of what was said and the nature of the meeting. I merely observed that those in the meeting were calling Obama and his supporters Nazi’s and Obama Hitler or Stalin were engaged in the identical activities Hitler used.
I was not able to hear your entire speech. I would have liked to. I thought about attending to report on the meeting but considering some of the other speakers and their links to DeLay, a man I have long considered Texas’ biggest crook (whom I’ve written about before) I could not bring myself to attend. I was not sure I could hold my peace. It would have taken hours to get in and out and I wanted to spend the day with my family.
I do blame Bush for your troubles specifically and the destruction of our Constitutional government in general. Actually it’s Cheney, not Bush, who bears the blame. Bush was a figurehead. Consider how Cheney continues babbling while Bush is more quiet. Whatever you might believe about the events of 9/11 there’s no doubt it was used as a spring board to seize power. I never believed I’d see the day when such a thing as Homeland Security ever existed in this land. From 9/11 until today I have been consistent in pointing out to any who would listen it was all a power play. History has proven me correct.
You are correct that both parties are guilty. In fact, there’s not really two parties, just two elements of a single effort. There may have been a slow glide into imperialism but after 9/11 America fell from a cliff. The continuation of illegal and unconstitutional activities by Obama verify that the difference between Republicans and Democrats at the top are mere semantics and hot air.
Please understand I am not part of any party. I object to the party system altogether. Moreover I share the moral standards of the right even as I hope for an equitable social services system. I’ve been a welfare caseworker and a foster parent. There are families trapped in poverty, kids trapped in abuse, adults whose mental and physical conditions prevent them from finding even the simplest job. And, as I said, there are hundreds of thousands who have no health care at all. I am a veteran but the state of the VA is such that help there is virtually non-existent. Where people with good jobs and insurance can go to the doctor for assorted ailments, the flu, etc., I sit at home in pain. My wife works but her insurance is so expensive and the co-pays so high I can’t get her to go either. These are real problems that the right wing refuse to acknowledge. These problems cannot be solved without government involvement at some point.
I do not mind a government with sufficient authority or ability to serve the citizens. I do mind a government that limits freedom in any way, that is paranoid, that ignores civil liberties and civil rights, that does not abide by the rule of law. I object to a government that goes to war on a whim. I object to American imperialism abroad. I believe the lives of children in Iraq and Afghanistan are of equal value as those women want to abort. Killing is wrong, period. This is my belief. Our government should promote life and freedom, nothing else.
I have gone on longer than I should. In the end the problem is that the only people speaking up are those with radical agenda, right or left. So few who hope for reason, calm, discussion, and compromise have anything more to say. I am one of those few. I believe solutions can be found. I believe the rule of law and our constitutional government provides the means to wrestle power back for ourselves. But I am skeptical that it will ever happen. I am skeptical because the majority are mired in hedonism, uninformed, uninspired to make changes. They’re just not miserable enough and by the time they are it’ll probably be far too late.
Thank you, again, for your visit to this site.