Written by This Friday, July 17th, two groups are going to protest in front of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ office on Swan and Pima. Arizonans Setting Energy Free (ASEF) has organized a Cap’n Traitor protest to highlight Giffords’ vote for Cap and Trade. Here is a copy of the flyer.
The Arizona Tea Party is also holding a protest at the same time and location in Tucson as part of their nation wide Code Blue for Health Care day. You can read more at the Arizona Tea Party web site.
The Pima County Democratic Party has incorrectly stated that the protest has been organized by the Tucson Tea Party and has labeled them “an extremist organization.” Once again the Democrats have their facts wrong and cannot engage in the political process without demonizing the other side with labels. Some things never change.
An Executive Assistant to one of the Pima County Supervisors mistakenly thought that the protest were related to immigration. They are not about immigration. The protests planned for Friday are about the Obama Administration’s planned government take over of health care and about Giffords’ vote for Cap and Trade.
Update: We dug through our archives and found a photo from the most recent “extremist” Tucson Tea Party event.
A reader sent us another photo of the dangerous and radical “extremist” Tucson Tea Party sitting on the grass listening to subversives like Dr. Steve Knope. Quick, call Homeland Security!
The Democrats really do not understand the Tea Party movement. It is not a right-wing group but rather a rallying point for Americans fed up with ineffective, intrusive, and wasteful government.
It looks like “We are all community organizers now.”
Patti, I am sorry but you are wrong. The Tea Party is funded and run by Freedom Watch and Americans for Prosperity. Both groups are founded, funded, and are paid to orchestrate this “grassroots” movement by corporate interests, corporate lobbyists, and folks like the Koch’s who are indeed right wing groups and that are very much a part of the establishment.
It is not a conspiracy…you all are being asked to rally for the very corporate machine that you sometimes rail against and the only Americans you are really protecting are those in the insurance industry that might…might…have their own special interests harmed in favor of the interest of millions of average every day hard working Americans like you.
What about Arizonans Setting Energy Free? Who is funding them? Please tell me so I can get a check for Gila Courier. We have not received any money since starting this blog!
Do you realize you are starting to sound a lot like a left-wing version of Senator Joseph McCarthy? The Tucson Tea Party is self funded locally from selling t-shirts and getting small donations at the events. Are you saying large U.S. corporate interests a sending operative to Tucson so they can drop a $5 bill in the fish bowl?
So what if “corporate lobbyists” are funding the Tea Party. If this is true, it sounds like Obama is not the only one who has read “Rules for Radicals.”
Is Freedom Watch also a subversive group? Will Janet and her Homeland Security squad add them to her “watch list”
Here is a YouTube video interview of a Freedom Watch official talking about just how they aid and provide support for the Tea Parties. They do orchestrate them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHDFWViHL7o
You will find on their website links to the Tea Parties as well. Also, check out the boards of directors on the Freedom Watch site. They are folks like Dick Armey, Steve Forbes, no doubt heros of the right, but indeed…members of the deep right wing establishment. You will also find corporate supporters.
Bill is right. This is just the right wing republican and business establishment taking a page from grassroot organizing 101. That is fine, that is American.
BUT it is NOT a free flowing grassroots movement. It was established with a purpose. It is also NOT bipartisan. It is also NOT antiestablishment…and it is NOT anti-Wall Street or corporation.
It is a movement to protect the monied interests of this country. If you don’t see that you are really missing the pitch.
Kralmajales,
You are losing it. I watched the YouTube video. Freedom advised the people who started these events to have a signup sheet at their activities and to build an e-mail list. Wow, why didn’t we think of that. That is pretty far from controlling the movement.
I think you are way wrong. The Tucson Tea Party is non-partisan. Maybe you missed the speech by Tammy Bruce. She is about as far from the Republican establishment as it gets.
You forgot the weekly Friday conference calls to organizers that are used to help “support” the movement. There is absolutely a linkage…and there is absolutely a connection to these too, yes, right wing and corporate interested movements.
Oh I don’t doubt that there have been a few democrats swayed, but I don’t think they know what is truly behind this movement.
Tammy Bruce is a converted (and not recently) conservative. She is decidedly not a democrat, did support democrats in the past but supported both Bush’s and McCain. I would hardly call her…who amounts to a conservative radio talk show host, an example of bi-partisanship.
And again, good for her. But to claim that this is about ordinary Americans trying to create less government and less taxes…and that is not linked to the GOP establishment…and the interests of corporations who benefit most from this movement, is crazy.
Despite these attempts to make the “movement” appear organic, the principle organizers of the local events are actually the lobbyist-run think tanks Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works. The two groups are heavily staffed and well funded, and are providing all the logistical and public relations work necessary for planning coast-to-coast protests:
– Freedom Works staffers coordinate conference calls among protesters, contacting conservative activists to give them “sign ideas, sample press releases, and a map of events around the country.”
– Freedom Works staffers apparently moved to “take over” the planning of local events in Florida.
– Freedom Works provides how-to guides for delivering a “clear message” to the public and media.
– Freedom Works has several domain addresses — some of them made to look like they were set up by amateurs — to promote the protests.
– Americans for Prosperity is writing press releases and planning the events in New Jersey, Arizona, New Hampshire, Missouri, Kansas, and several other states.
This type of corporate ‘astroturfing‘ is nothing new to either organization. While working to promote Social Security privatization, Freedom Works was caught planting one of its operatives as a “single mom” to ask questions to President Bush in a town hall on the subject. Last year, the Wall Street Journal exposed Freedom Works for similarly building “amateur-looking” websites to promote the lobbying interests of Dick Armey, the former Republican Majority Leader who now leads Freedom Works and is a lobbyist for the firm DLA Piper.
Americans for Prosperity is run by Tim Phillips, who was Ralph Reed’s former partner in the lobbying firm Century Strategies. The group is funded by Koch family foundations — a family whose wealth is derived from the oil industry. Indeed Americans for Prosperity has coordinated pro-drilling ‘grassroots‘ events around the country.
UpdateThis afternoon, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, leader of the corporate-funded American Solutions for Winning the Futures (ASWF), blasted an e-mail to his supporters with a reminder to attend the protests, along with a “Toolkit” of talking points. Gingrich’s ASWF is funded by polluters and helped orchestrate the “Drill Here, Drill Now” campaign last summer. ASWF has been an official “partner” in the tea party effort since at least March.
And after reading that…now note that Americans for Prosperity are DIRECTLY involved and partner with the Arizona Tea Party. Its all over the Sonoran Alliance blog.
I think you are going a little Captain Queeg on us. Just because two like minded groups coordinate does not mean one is controlling the other.
A conference call is hardly evidence of some great conspiracy. Did it ever occur to you that the Tea Party movement sprang up from the grassroots and institutional groups are trying get on the band wagon in order to look important and to raise money.
I am one of the primary organizers for the Tucson Tea Party. We are not funded by any large organization and it angers me when I hear this. The only donations we receive are from ordinary citizens who are honest and good people. No large organization runs us or tells what to do. The Tucson Tea Party is just a group of citizen activists who are concerned about the direction of our country. I am a stay at home mother of three children. I am a daisy girlscout leader and volunteer my time at my kid’s public schools. If I am an extremist our country is in serious trouble. Here in Tucson our Tea Party is the real deal and growing by leaps and bounds everyday. We are silent no more!
You are becoming shills for the insurance industry, Wall Street, and the very wealthy who dont want to support our schools, roads, health and welfare of our country. To attack govt. as the problem is just plain amazing when you consider what the cuts in budgets are doing to the infrastructure of this nation. It is why groups like Freedom Watch and Americans for Prosperity are directly linked to the Tea Parties. It why their backers want you all to run around protesting and doing their grunt work for them. It is their only hope to save their wealth and power for you to preach the gospel of low taxes, stripped down government, and to somehow call this freedom…when it has been the very people using this movement who have created the situation that we are in now. The War in Iraq, the lax regulation that has allowed companies and the Madoff’s this kind of power, the failing of banks to be watched, and the enormous spending of the Bush administration backed by a GOP controlled Congress.
So what you are preaching is cutting even more funding to our children, stopping Americans from getting the healthcare they deserve, and all the while promoting an ideology that benefits the few (who you are inadvertantly shilling for) over the many.
What a movement!
Truth is truth and I see now that you don’t want to understand the real possibility that a large group of concerned citizens are on the move. We won’t be stopped by name calling,lies or rudeness. Continue blogging in your living room and watch while I and many others outwork you.
Roger,
Good Hell man, you know who I am, and, if I recall, you voted for me! Myself, my wife, and a college student, Robert Mayer, are the organizers of the Tucson Tea Party. There is no Freedom Works, AFP, Fox News, Big Corporation, or any moneyed interest behind what we are doing. We are not even really affiliated with the Arizona Tea Party.com website. There is not even really an “Arizona Tea Party” organization-wise.
I suspect you have been fed a tremendous line of bull, because I know you didn’t arrive at these conclusions on your own, you’re better than that. Here’s the thing, if what you have been led to believe about the organization of the Tea Party is completely and totally wrong, do you think anything else you have heard is even remotely the truth?
Just stop. Ask me any question about the organization and I will give you the unvarnished truth. You know who I am, and that I will level with you.
I don’t believe there will be a single paid organizer at the Giffords protest rally tomorrow. Want to make a similar bet on the pro-Giffords side?
You wont outwork me. I assure you. And I will tell you something…my cause is a far better one than yours…it is about helping people, about fairness, about some form of equity in this society. My arguments win because more and more people are seeing that the philosophy of this movement is not about change but about solidifying the power of the already very powerful. Your cause is not about freedom for fighting against the system, your cause is about reinstalling the exact system we had last year…the one President Buch preached and did not follow.
I smell fear in Kral’s posts. Someone is trying very hard to deny the grassroots, organic nature of the tea party movement, and for good reason. It’s a counter and a threat to socialist propaganda.
Crowds of 4,000; 5,000; and 10,000 Arizonans are’t exacltly a blip on the left’s radar screen. They have taken notice and are getting nervous.
Jennifer,
Keep rattling the lefty’s cage. We support you 100%!
We are shills? Baloney! Were you involved in the Tea Parties? Sounds like you know all about it! Jennifer and many others, including me, worked nonstop to organize this in conjunction with several grassroots groups. Believe what you will, but watch out! We are here to stay.
Kralmajales:
Obviously, you never let the truth get in the way of a good lie, do you?
As someone who was part of assisting in the Tea Party organizing for Independence Day and who was responsible for bringing Tammy Bruce to our Tea Party, I must ask: what part did you contribute? You apparently think you know everything about the organization process of this event. Clearly, you are ignorant!
It’s a shame you were not at the Tea Party event and speaking w/ the diverse crowd for yourself. Bet that would be too dangerous, wouldn’t it? Perhaps you would have found your muddle-headed conspiracies debunked – severely!
Oh, and just a note about Tammy: she was also a Reagan supporter, then a Bush 1 supporter while she was running for president of NOW! No big secret there. She then became a Clinton supporter and also worked for his campaign along with the Feinstein & Boxer campaigns in CA during the 1992 elections. You really do not understand her career or her activism. Therefore, you are better off not commenting at all on something you know nothing about. But that’s a typical left wing approach now, isn’t it!
I’m proud to be a conservative. I’m also a conservative who is prolife, gay, holds a graduate degree from a prestigious Chicago university, has had to deal with fascists such as William Ayers and worked in the urban public schools of Chicago and Tucson to see how liberal policy has senselessly robbed people of their very lives and treated people as victims in order to remain in power. Oh, and I’m a registered No Party voter in Arizona, too. I’m as opposed to liberal Democrats as I am to RINOs.
As much as you would like to accuse us of wanting to cut off funding to children and keeping people from having access to healthcare – let me offer you some facts because you are dangerously void of them!
Who was it that cut off funding for innercity students just this past spring in Washington DC? That funding was used for children to attend schools their parents wanted them to go to. Now, those children will be forced to attend DC public schools. The president cut off those funds for the children of DC who were thriving in schools outside of DC’s horrendous public school system. As a former public high school teacher, there is nothing more appalling than the public school system – and I bet you support Obama’s right to choose where his children will attend school as he denies other parents the right to do so. Oh, and it was largely households in lower income brackets. That’s great hope and change isn’t it!
I find it ironic you are also not too concerned about the debt today’s children will be burdened with due to the economic takeover by this administration. Your feigned concern for children is quite disgusting.
The accusation we are stopping people from accessing healthcare: NO ONE IS DENIED HEALTHCARE IN THIS COUNTRY! However, should you and other Obamabots succeed in passing nationalized care, you will be complicit in forcing people out of health care they deserve – and currently have – under law! Those who will be the most burdensome (terminally ill, disabilities, elderly) to the government healthcare system will see their services rationed. As someone who has spent most of her adult life without insurance, I can attest to the professional quality care I received when I needed it – and no, I am by no means rich! I find it stunning, too, that so many complaining they cannot afford health insurance are able to place a priority in buying cartons of cigaretts and even alcohol. Several own flat screen tv’s, something I don’t even have. It’s a question of personal responsibility for the most part and priorities.
So criticize all you want. We are not going away, and we will not be strong-armed into submission. Chew on that for a while.
Good hell man! You should be very careful of your sources. How can you believe anything they say when they are so completely wrong on the topic of who funds and organizes the Tucson Tea Party. How often is their information wrong? You know who I am and you voted for me last year. Me, my wife and a college student named Robert founded the Tucson Tea Party. Again my wife had it correct when she wrote we won’t be stopped by name calling or lies. Bring on your equity/”socialism” for the few man and see how many come aboard because so far it ain’t hitting the right chords and that is why the Tea Party exists.
I am the webmaster of the Arizona Tea Party website. I started the site back in March when I first heard of the Tea Party Grassroots Movement. I am not affiliated with Freedom Works or Americans for Prosperity. When I get and pay my monthly internet hosting bills, sometimes I wish I was supported by a national group.
The goal of the http://arizonateaparty.com site is to bring together events and people who believe in 3 principals: Fiscal & Personal Responsibility, Less Government and a Free Market. I am a liberal’s worst nightmare – a Mom, a Small Business Owner, and a past “soccer (golf) mom” with time on her hands. Obama has “awoken” a sleeping giant…
Almost having a deja vu back to the spring and summer of 2006 when Kral was out in front against a litany of Giffonators (it was worst in the Dem primary against Weiss and Latas) slinging whole hog including the postage.
Keep it up, Kral. I will never understand why the oppressed and exploited on the right gobble the hook, line, and sinker of the corporate elite that laugh as they fondle their puppets. The con is most adept as they focus attention on the government needle (taxes) to divert attention from the corporate needles, trivial atrocities like health insurance HMO’s, pharmaceuticals, oil, groceries, electricity…
Here’s to the Tea Party. Gut the government so it can’t stop corporations from stripping you of every thin red cent you’ve ever touched.
With corporations like AIG, who needs governance? If we could free Enron of government oversight, we would all prosper. ExxonMobile and Pfizer are committed to the economic well being of all Americans. What’s good for Bernie Madoff is good for the country.
I’m confused. The Democratic Party says the Tea Party is an “extremist organization” and Kral says it is a front group for big corporations. Can you guys on the left please get you story straight next time.
x4mr,
Funny you mention Madoff. That is the crux of the whole issue. There is exactly NO DIFFERENCE between the spending you are pursuing via the government and what Madoff did. Social Security? Check. Medicare and Medicaid? check. Stimulus? That too.
The really amazing thing is that you pontificate about cloth, and yet are blind to the biggest cloth of all, a growing federal government. We are going to pass 10% unemployment soon. You spend 2 TRILLION on what you say will stop it and fail, YOU OWN IT!
Obama has done nothing to stave off economic disaster but repay political favors. His stance on detainees is the same as Bush, we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan, we can still hold people indefinitely, Gitmo isn’t going anywhere. Stem cell research is still limited, Don’t ask don’t tell is still in effect. Obama still supports DOMA. Where is your damn change?
You want to talk hook, line, and sinker. You elected a Chicago pol who is only interested in expanding the role of the federal government in ways that benefit his friends. Every day is Haliburton, and you are bankrupting my children with TRILLIONS of layers of cloth.
I am the Tucson Tea Party, we are grassroots, and we say screw your plan.
Oh and Roger, you are still hopelessly wrong on our organization. If you have any questions on how we are organized or funded, just ask and I will tell you.
Quite frankly you are embarrassing yourself, and I like you more than that.
Extremist in the sense that it is right wing and strongly strongly conservative. Not the least bit moderate…and bipartisan…is a joke. You are right wing conservatives as evidenced by ArtGal above who used the term RINOs for moderate republicans. Dont try to hide what you are. It IS extreme to believe in cutting government and taxes in effort to create prosperity. I am sorry, but you all are exteme and wrong.
And yes, what this benefits is corporate America. If you dont see this and see what your arguments are really about and doing, then you are A) yes…extremely conservative or B) I will say…misled…to be nice.
Framer,
Like you too, but I know you are a conservative. This is a conservative organization through and through. There are linkages and ties to well known conservative think tanks all over the place and they do help with organization and in some places fund the movement. If they don’t yours, then you should really look into it. You are missing out. And today, I go to Sonoran Alliance and click on the link to Arizona Tea Party. It takes you immediately to another right wing webpage that is fighting healthcare called American Politicai Analysis. Self described as:
“American Political Analysis is a conservative minded political interest group that is dedicated to educating the American public about various political issues with regard to topics like energy, education, immigration, national defense, civil rights, health care, the rule of law and many other important state and national issues.”
Framer, my friend, I know you are smart, I know you are conservative, and I know you have a history with the Republican party. If you are the organizer of this then I call almost say decidedly that it is not a bipartisan group (please no offense) and that it is about spreading conservative rhetoric under the guise of a movement of everyday ordinary bipartisan Americans.
Heres the link that Arizona Tea Party took me to off of Sonoran Alliance. I sure hope that this is a mistake.
http://americanpoliticalanalysis.wordpress.com/
Roger,
No, I’m not going to let you pull that. You stated in several forums that MY organization was funded by various entities which was clearly a lie. I, again, believe that you were fed this by other sources that were completely, insanely dishonest, so I don’t blame you personally, but acknowledgment of your being wrong on this point would be nice.
And that is the point. The attack by the Democrats was on MY organization. Am I an extremist? I would argue that you know that I am not. This wasn’t even my protest, and yet my organization gets smeared. Do not follow these idiots down that rabbit hole. I’ll bet Gabby is not really appreciative of their “efforts” either.
Again, there will be paid operatives at this event, none of them will belong to the Tucson Tea Party. So quit with your “astroturf” garbage.
I have, believe it or not, NOT be fed anything, by anyone, for anyone, to anyone. If I am at all flawed in my reasoning here, it would be to say that your Tea Party has no connections to the organizations that I have talked about, is not supported by any of them in any way, and that your particular Tea Party is not a shill for conservative interests. Again, because others are…and have been…and more will be. Then I do have evidence that yours is in particular. That said, I am not so sure that it isn’t. Maybe I will have to show up at the next one and see if the talking points match, if the groups that associate with yours are truly conservative and if this is a conservative organization to its core…as I strongly strongly believe that it is.
So, if I made you guilty by association, then I was wrong. BUT, I am not sure that I am. As I am see with all of these linkages the Tea Party is doing and how it shows up on conservative blogs, and the like…and how.
So not backtracking yet.
Last question, can you tell me that your group, uniequivocally, has had no contact with Freedom Watch, Americans for Prosperity, and even the one I posted above? Am I wrong in that? And, who does fund your groups, help you gets speakers and the like?
I am going to go back to Patti’s very first post:
“The Democrats really do not understand the Tea Party movement. It is not a right-wing group but rather a rallying point for Americans fed up with ineffective, intrusive, and wasteful government.
It looks like “We are all community organizers now.”
That is just hogwash…it IS a conservative right wing group.
“It IS extreme to believe in cutting government and taxes in effort to create prosperity. I am sorry, but you all are exteme and wrong.”
Wow. Just wow.
Kral,
The only extremist here is you. Your “facts” were debunked and your useless screed was reduced to a big pile of wild accusations. As is typical of those reading from the KOS play-book, you continue your wild rants and accusations with the intent to divide and polarize the base. You paint with a broad brush and of course never name individuals lest you make it easier to discredit yourself. Your strategy is to paint the increasingly frustrated, average citizen as an extremist in the attempt to get them to back down. You hope that calling them extremists causes the same shut-down that calling somebody racist does in public debate. Any organization of people that offers a counterpoint to the vast leftwing agenda (to employ the left’s tired cliches) are denounced as right wing radicals. Is there such a thing in your world view as a conservative organization that isn’t extremist? You’re not interested in public debate.
Charlie, its true. People dont want less education spending, they want more. People dont want roads, police and fire cut…they want more. We the people see what conservatism got us under Bush…and now here we are. We have also seen what this brand of conservatism gets us in the legislature. Even more failure. You control all of govt. and cannot even govern.
Less of the very little we have now is tantamount to extreme. And your arguments will not hold water.
Neps…I would be more than thrilled…now that we have settled that this is a conservative organization and movement…to debate you on the issues.
“We the people see what conservatism got us under Bush”
LOL wow! If Bush is a conservative then so is Obama. Both have bailed out their rich buddies at Goldman Sachs and both have begun nationalizing private industries. They both play for the same team and it isn’t your precious little Democrats or the Republicans. It’s called the Globalist Team and they don’t give a damn about how you want cradle to grave health care, social security and any of your other “wants” that the rest of us normal responsible people work for. They just want you to keep giving them power and you’re falling right into their trap. Stalin, your role model had a term for people like you. Crack a history book and try to figure it out.
Kral,
You fail at reading comprehension. I never said the Tea Party organization is a conservative organization. Even if I did, I’m in no way affiliated with them, don’t speak for them, and haven’t even attended one of their events. Rather interesting that your comment suggests you’re not willing to debate until your opponent has accepted your label though.
Kral, glad to know you speak for all people (minus us extremists). How’s that working out for you? Or do you just troll right-leaning sites looking for an arguement?
“You control all of govt. and cannot even govern. ”
The last time I checked there was a liberal Democratic President, the House has a Democratic majority (led by a liberal democrat), and and the Senate now has a Democratic majority.
Jason,
Was talking about the State of Arizona. And the brand of conservatism pushed by the Tea Parties is what Russell Pearce, Ron Gould, and a host of other up there believe too…and now here we are.
And as to control of the federal govt. Yep, controlled by dems now, but it was only months ago that it was Bush, a few years before that, that it was Bush, GOP House, GOP Senate.
Brian the extremist, good point about Bush. He talked your talk, but didn’t walk it. Neither did the other GOPers in the House and Senate that had six good years to lower taxes, lower government, and bring us freedom. Did they? Not chance.
Would it be safe to say that the argument here is that if we got rid of all the moderate repubs and replaced them with conservatives, that cut our government more and cut taxes, that we will be better off as a nation?
Again, I think such a movement would go down in history as a vocal opposition group with a tad bit of support and that would loose election after election. America doesn’t buy that philosophy any longer.
“America doesn’t buy that philosophy any longer.”
Do you really think America buys into the philosophy of higher taxes, large government, and uncontrolled spending? What about government controlled banks and automobile companies? Government controlled businesses(a.k.a. facism) didn’t work out too well for Italy in the 40′s, but that seems to be where were headed. Is that the philosophy you think America should buy into?
Jason, I dont believe in that extreme..by no means. You do appear, unless I am wrong, to be advocating for an extreme version of America that doesn’t exist and has never existed.
Here is what I believe. I believe in public education, great roads, great schools, equity in health care, public safety, and I believe strongly in a system of government that helps correct for the failures of markets. I do not wish, for a 90% tax rate, but I also don’t wish for a tax rate (at least in this state) that is already among the lowest…getting lower…and cutting govt. programs that are valuable in a way that harms our citizens and economic competitiveness.
The Tea Party advances a theory that cutting cutting cutting will lead people to invest here. It hasn’t worked here. It doesn’t because one principal part of the Laffer curve and other nations around the world is that a mix of govt and capitalism is what createds economic development. You can’t attract employers without good schools, a high quality of life, good govt. infrastructure and also public safety.
We live in a state and country that deregulated to the point where people were harmed. I don’t want govt control of our industries, but I sure do want them watched and effectively. I sure do want corporations to make profit but not without paying back some of the benefits they get from society. I also think, with healthcare, that we have slipped back behind many countries in Europe and around the globe. We must insure our uninsured. And that will not come from the free market because it didn’t and hasn’t.
Kral,
Tucson hasn’t had a government that advocates cutting cutting cutting in a very long time. Tucson city council is dominated by left-leaning, special-interest catering politicians that continually underfund core services and give money to social programs that have little to no economic impact. I submit Rio Nuevo as exhibit A. The Tucson Gem Show has threatened to leave the state because the atmosphere they have to operate in is not business friendly. To top it off, they hiked tax rates on hotel rooms which will only make it harder for hotels to draw tourists.
You blame Tucson’s problems all you want on the state government. The fact of the matter is the city council has been making sandwiches without bread for the last two years and now it’s catching up with us.
In terms of its practical application in the 21st century world of high technology, the free market creates a whorehouse of unbridled greed and corruption, and last fall’s meltdown gave the forces demanding MORE effective government a booster shot of steroids. Your tea parties can only watch as forces pour into making sure the malignant cancer of runaway corporate malfeasance is controlled. It only looks like it’s about Obama. We trusted the corporations, and they #@#$ed us, and no one wants it to happen again. Who, exactly, makes sure it doesn’t? Corporations?!
The orgy’s over and the country got completely screwed. Just because Obama got stuck with the $2T tab doesn’t mean he had the party. Regarding health care, we’re going to spend all THAT anyway. The HMO and Pharma tycoons just want to insure they get their billions out of it. The current health care system is organized to make a small number of criminals obscenely rich.
It follows a design well discussed by Nixon and Haldemann in the sixties (starting HMO’s with a profit incentive to deny care).