By David A. Franklin, Jr.  

Would you as a high school senior complain that a kindergartner "made me do it’? Ted Cruz came to Washington with his Ninja Turtle lunch box and his only book Dr. Seuss’ ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ but as a junior having not finished his first year of playschool was able to lead seasoned GOPs who have been in Congress for decades making decisions on every aspect and facet of the country’s business. 

The scenario plays out in two obvious pictures:

The one sees Cruz building an image and recognition to serve his aspiration/ambition to sit in the White House
after the 2016 Presidential Elections.  Of course – news flash! It is not going to happen. Cruz is nothing but a Sarah Palin who went to school.
       
The other which is the serious, very serious picture – we recognize that these men and women of the GOP are incompetent, have no integrity, conviction or backbone and act with one motivation and one only -to save their jobs and
at the expense of their employers – the voters. And as in the kids’ story ‘The Emperor’s New Coat’ here a child Ted Cruz exposed the weakness, flaws, and failings of (the Emperor) in this case, those we put to run the country. 

The reasons for Cruz’s actions are understandable although the route he is travelling to achieve his selfish end is totally disgusting, obnoxious, loathsome and repugnant. But the gravity of the second picture is unspeakable. 

These more seasoned men and women of the Republican House of Representatives have exposed their true self; they are nothing but links in a ‘chain of fools’. Of the 232 Republican members, 49 are members of the Tea Party Caucus.  The majority of 183 sits back and is content to be led by this puerile bunch! And yet they, the older heads, the more seasoned and experienced political professionals, argue that this bunch of numbskulls are ruining their party! News Flash again…it is you who are wrecking the party. You are playing the bullied and sitting back and blaming the bullies.

GOP INFIGHTING

Rep. Peter King(R-New York) who, in my opinion, has earned the “loud mouth” award continues to talk sense going against the opinions of his party but then turns around and vote against his own conviction. He is included in the group of seasoned and experienced. He has been at this job since January of 1993.

Then there is poor John Boehner who everybody insist means well, is an honorable man but neither of these qualities have been brought to bear in performing his job. As a matter of fact he continues to collect his close to quarter of a
million dollars annual salary coupled with all the other perquisites that come with the job – fantastic health insurance no less. And he has done/accomplished absolutely nothing for his almost 5 years of speakership. Not only should he refund all the money he has so far collected but he should be called upon to pay for the damage to the economy he has caused because of his bad stewardship. But like all the others in the ‘chain of fools’ he is only there to protect his personal interests. He has been in the House since 1991. He is being hauled and pulled by the Tea Party members of the House and without saying a word, Rep. Eric Cantor, the Majority Leader, is daring him to take a decision such as to bring a vote to the floor for a full majority vote. Cantor is ready and waiting with his dagger in Boehner’s back to take over the Speakership and he Boehner knows it and is afraid. His life is a constant Halloween with ghosts and goblins coming at him from all angles and he is petrified.

I could name each member/link in the ‘chain of fools’ with seniority dating back to 1971. One would think that if these ignoble men and women some of whom have apparently become bench-warmers, by now would have had enough and would realize their demitting office at this point will in no way affect their pension. Once upon a time somewhere before the invasion of the Tea Party some of these representatives used to make their voices heard and respected. I keep asking couldn’t this faction of the party revolt against the upstarts of 2010. 

My God, some have been in the House for 42 years - for as many years as Ted Cruz is alive and almost as long as Dr. Seuss’ ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ was published! This means they have been running the country’s business since Cruz was pooping in his diapers and before he was old enough to read Dr. Seuss yet they are afraid of being primaried back home? They are obviously at the advanced stages of diminishing returns so either they do some real work or its time to
go. 

Now - a little on the Tea Party Caucus. This was launched and chaired by none other than the infamously, notoriously, scandalously, disgracefully stupid Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. 

Again, this is one of the most unintelligent human beings I have had the displeasure of watching on my television screen. Yet she sits on the House Intelligence Committee no less. This is not saying much either for whomever afforded her the pleasure of such lofty position. Following a trail of idiocy and as recent as April of 2013 in an article "Michele Bachmann embarrasses herself during House Intelligence Committee hearing” in the CityPages Blog – a topic I deem faulty because this person cannot be embarrassed because she has no sense and hence no capacity for humiliation or discomfiture. The article opens with the observation:
“If you had any doubt that ousting Michele Bachmann from the Intelligence Committee should be a no-brainer, check out this video.

FROM  LAST WEEK: Jim Graves will run again next year, setting up rematch with Bachmann [UPDATE] 
Bachmann, who remains on the committee despite a recent 200,000-person petition drive calling for her ouster, made a fool of herself while attempting to question CIA leaders during a hearing last Thursday. Bachmann's questions either didn't make sense or pertained to classified information CIA officials weren't about to discuss during a public hearing. She repeatedly elicited blank, baffled stares and extended silences in which the CIA leaders seemed to be asking
themselves, What the hell is this lady talking about?” Read more and/or watch video at http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2013/04/michele_bachmann_embarrasses_herself_during_house_intelligence_committee_
hearing_video.php 

So much for the definition of the concept (intelligence).

Then of course she repeated in her shrill and annoying voice for President Obama’s entire first term that her and her caucus’ only goal is to make him a one-term president and she repeats it even in his second term. Thank goodness she won't be running for re-election in 2014. She's still dangerous because she can still do damage outside of Congress.(like former U.S. Senator Jim DeMint)

Should we visit the other stalwarts and front leaders of the Tea Party to whom the other 180 plus Republicans in the House are cowering to? 
-         The Rand Paul
-         The Marco Rubio who won – was handed a gift for the only reason that the continuing infighting and self-serving 
          make-up of the Democratic Party in Florida will not stop. I am watching the gift that will be handed back to them 
          in the governor’s race of 2012. Here comes Rick Scott again.
 -        And this list is already nauseating enough to stop at Sarah Palin. Enough said.

But these are the people to whom the country’s business is handed over fully, and the dumb high school seniors (House Republicans) keep cowering to, simply cringing, trembling and recoiling from the pack of nit wits. 

God bless the United States of America. And while you are at it God, please help the United States of America!

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"KITCHEN POLITICS 123 RADIO SHOW with DAVE & LORI" 
S04/E09: "OCTOBER 17---The Day America Stood Still!" 
Show Date: Thursday, October 17, 2013 
Time: 8:00pm EST
Telephone: 619-789-1959 

By David A. Franklin, Jr. 

For beginners, the Republican Party was licking their chops after the 2010 mid-term elections when the Tea Party contributed 28 of the 39 seats they needed to take control of the House from the Democratic Party. They
literally won the House for the Republicans and since then Tea Party members have sought their rewards and have gotten it by fair or foul means. 
The GOP seemed to have expected these people to come in and fall in line or at best be rational human beings but the
2010 win is like karma….. it is biting the Republicans in the butt. The party just does not know what to do with them, how to handle them or how to get rid of them. Classic case in point, the House Speaker John Boehner when you think he cannot look any less stupid, any more of a coward any more out of control of his caucus he does.  Members of the Tea Party in the House hold Boehner where it hurts, applying pressure at will. No wonder his face wears a permanent scowl.

Up front, former U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) urged these ‘new-comers’ to “put on their boxing gloves and be sure not to be ‘co-opted by congressional leaders”. And put on their gloves they did but contrary to party’s wishes and hopes the gloved fists are being used to decimate/destroy their own party. This is a true case of “all that glitters is not gold” or “be careful for what you wish”.

Like the Syrian civil war the Republicans have many players, each with their own agenda and not with the interest of their country factored in.  Syria has the ruling Alawite sect (Shiite Muslim offshoot) which makes up President Assad’s senior political and military associates, the Sunni Muslims which is the majority and is aligned with the opposition; and then there are the other ethnic and religious minorities – the Armenians, Christians, Kurds, Druze, Palestinians and
the list goes on.

In comparison with Syria, the Tea Party which itself is a divided group boasts the SACs (Self Aggrandizing Clan)
sometimes led by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and then by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) the most transparently disgusting of them all, Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) and Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah). Then there is the group of
Partiers who are not showboating as the foregoing but just as dangerous. Three or four sects of Tea Partiers which these ‘leaders’ dumb down with every utterance, with every clown show.

We have the Establishment GOP who really seem to speak one thing which resemble reasonableness but vote the other for fear of being primaried in their districts by the Tea Party - these are the NBBs the No-Backbone-Bunch. Rep. Peter King(R-NY) the exemplary, classic specimen of the NBBs says it loud and clear that Ted Cruz of the SACs is a fraud and that Cruz is among the group of “Senate Republicans trying to force this issue (of defunding Obamacare) are holding the entire Congress hostage.” One would release a big sigh that at least there is one or even two reasonable heads in the Republican Party but then despite Kings vocal protest about this defunding baloney, he voted for the bill!!! A bill which supports the continuing resolution to fund the government but to defund the healthcare law. King’s explanation that he voted thusly “to keep the process going”. One cannot be sure who is talking at any one time, is it King the Reasonable, King the Scaredy Cat, or King the Pendulum…who? And so it is with so many of these NBBs. And like in the Syrian war, we cannot  forget the other religious and other types of minorities, chief among these is Sarah Palin who like a sleeping drunk opens her eyes and mouth and makes some stupid utterances when she thinks it is time for some  self-publicity. Not unlike Al Qaeda are Fox News and conservative talk show
hosts, Rush Limbaugh being the leader of this group.

It is plain even to the Grade 2 Elementary School student who is in the early stages of learning critical thinking that the goal of the GOP is to continue to escalate and amplify their hate for the President while in the meantime reducing the federal government to rubble. 

The part-time, on-and-off Tea Partier Rand Paul’s eyes are fastened on the White House who together with Marco Rubio decided that a sure path to presidency is to join Ted Cruz. So in this civil altercation within his party Paul is doing a “hit and run and back again”. The one minute he is a political outsider because he reads Americans as being sick and tired with Washington while at the same time underscoring the point that he has in his arsenal, enough knowledge of
government to drastically cut its size, its scope and government’s invasiveness in the lives of the American people. But hold on! Remember even if you do not agree with one’s opinions, ideas and ideals one can respect the individual for what he/she stands for if he/she holds these resolutely. But this Paul character (and a character he is) is straddling
between a tea party libertarian and at times convenient to him, he tries to appeal to the GOP establishment the group that he was so successful in running against in the 2010 mid-term elections. He now realizes that he needs to throw to the Establishment GOP members a bone of appeasement that would taste like he is on their side, supporting them but it is a bone that is transparently covered with the meat of manipulation, and exploitation at very least. Why do individual players in the GOP game think they are the only ones endowed with good sense?

VIDEO: Why Americans Are Against War On Syria
Published on Aug 30, 2013  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJYuViS-XVI  
In this video Luke Rudkowski
documents an anti-war protest on August 29th 2013. He asks the protesters why they are  protesting, what people should know and what they hope to happen:

Would you agree with me that this previously sensible group called Republicans who have benefitted from the likes of the country’s 16th and their first Republican president Abraham Lincoln who lead the nation (not the party) out of its worst internal conflict – the Civil War and bringing strength and organization to the Republican Party is gone to the dogs?  Lincoln set the stage and example to resolve a civil war of national proportion and these now-a-days self-serving, extremist political terrorists do not have the belly to, in the first place avoid a civil war within their ranks and should the conflict evolve as it has, to come together and lead as an homogenous group. No they can’t this
is just a greedy, self-serving group seeped in hatred for the President and love of self at the expense of the country. 
 
The Tea Party is a thorn, a spike and a prickle in the butt of the Republican Party. Democrats could say ‘keep on doing what you are doing Republicans’ if it were not that this group’s actions is bringing the country to its knees, destroying what hard working, well-meaning, logical, insightful Americans past and present have and continue to build. 

At times the situation seems hopeless but it is not. What can be done to this group of buffoons, Americans have the most powerful ‘weapon’ to surgically remove them from the management of the country! The power of the vote!!!

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"KITCHEN POLITICS 123 RADIO SHOW with DAVE & LORI"  
S04/E04: "How Stupid Are SOME Americans? Let's Count The Ways!" 
Show Date: Sunday, September 29, 2013 
Time: 7:30pm EST
Telephone: 619-789-1959 

Secretary of State John Kerry and the Obama Administration do not believe a military strike on Syria could be called a war. According to Mr. Kerry "We don't believe we are going to go to war in the classic sense of taking American troops and America to war," ‘War in the classic sense’ to me is a play upon words in an attempt to downplay the eminent consequences of a Syrian ‘invasion’, ‘surgical strike’ or whatever we wish to christen this.

I like one definition by Ckaysewitz “war is an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfill our will”. It is in this case but the ‘our’ here are the world nations so America should not adopt and own this and go it alone; as a matter, how things are poised and are shaping up, it seems as if America is the only country barring one or two who want
to apply this solution. 
 
Let us go down memory lane on a few ‘not wars’ and see the devastation.

Vietnam War was an unofficial title but it was never officially declared war under the Constitution’s war powers clause. President Johnson was given the go ahead under the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964 to authorize 
“conventional military force”. Sounds familiar? “Surgical strike”. Over one million people dead including Americans, South Viatnamese and Viet Cong Troops. Civilian toll was astronomical.

Panama Invasion in 1989 was another non-war that killed hundreds of soldiers and a count of up to approximately 3,000 civilians. 
 
The Lebanon Intervention another of the species claimed the lives of 300 Americans (civilians and soldiers) and an unknown number of Lebanese. In this non-war the backlash was severe. – a suicide bomber killed 63 at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, followed by a month later where a Marine barracks in Beirut was attacked killing 241 American Soldiers. This was the largest loss of American military lives since Vietnam. Can America guarantee that Syria and its allies will not or are not planning their own “surgical strikes”? Is America thinking that they will sit back as lame ducks and do nothing? Will other factions within the mix, Al-Qaeda and the bad faction of the rebels in Syria see this as a window of opportunity to execute some devastation of their own?

And these are but a few of the ‘non-wars’ where all that was obvious was that devastation and loss of lives was the result. So call it what you may, you go into another country whether on ground, from the air or sea, it is war.

It will not be ‘long term’ the President and Secretary of State John Kerry say. Neither was it the intention of Vietnam, nor Iraq or Afghanistan. Then it is about what is long term – 5 to 10 years or 20 years? Are they banking that Assad will curl up and die? Will Putin, who has the biggest ego ever bestowed on mankind, sit cowardly by and not help the country in which he has so much investment? No and he said he will not.

Then for some Republicans there is never a time that they miss the opportunity to politic. In the process they flavor their
utterances with  blatant lies or they might be downright uninformed. This week, Ileana Ros-Lehtien, Florida Republican House Representative a top Republican conjured Ronald Regan’s apparent vigor in her criticism of the President. Again the Republican godhead was praised for his strength to amplify what they say is Obama’s weakness. She said he is weak in not acting ‘more directly’ in response to chemical weaponry in Syria. Of course she was on FOX, the farm for breeding and nurturing lies and misinformation. 

“It is against the norms of international standards and to let something like this go unanswered, I think will weaken
our resolve. I — I know that President Reagan would have never let this happen. He would stand up to this. And President Obama — the only reason he is consulting with Congress, he wants to blame somebody for his lack of resolve. We have to think like President Reagan would do and he would say chemical use is unacceptable.” 
Ms. Ros-Lehtien said.

A little history lesson for this Republican and FOX News and its die-hards. As recent as August 2013 the news revealed that declassified CIA documents confirmed that the “U.S. knew about and in some case helped Iraq’s chemical weapons attack against Iran in the 1980s” New Docs Detail U.S. Involvement in Saddam’s Nerve Gas Attacks, The
Atlantic Wire, Abby Ohlheiser, August 25, 2013:
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/08/new-docs-show-us-involvement-saddams-nerve-gas-attacks/68698/.  

It was Ronald Regan who turned a blind eye to the use of chemical weapons against Iraq.

Donald Rumsfeld who should have no voice to talk or lips to form words such as “oust Assad or stay on the golf course” .. “take responsibility”. Isn’t he who said of Iraq and Afghanistan that “history will judge the two wars a success and the harbinger of freedom for literally millions”? These wars (or non-wars) belonged to him as Secretary of Defense but of course he and his Neo-Con buddies are given large platforms to lecture the American people on matters of grave importance such as war. The unfortunate thing is majority listen and absorb as truth and gospel. Sad, sad day. 

Representative Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) has switched his ‘yes’ to the Syria strike to a ‘no’ and for no other reason
than fundraising:

"Today, I decided to withdraw my support from President Obama's proposal for a military strike against Syria. I have heard from many of you in Staten Island and Brooklyn, and it is clear to me that their [sic] is strong opposition to the strike. As your voice in Washington, I will continue to listen and take a stand for you,"….  "Will you stand with me in opposing President Obama's plan with a donation of $25 or more right now?"

Whether it is to save face, ego, politics, self-aggrandizement, posturing for upcoming elections, fundraising, what we are witnessing are politicians playing games and nothing of real thought as to what end is this ‘surgical strike’? What do
we expect to accomplish and how realistic is our expectations? What are the unintended consequences and who will it hurt?

VIDEO: Why Americans Are Against War On Syria
Published on Aug 30, 2013  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJYuViS-XVI

In this video Luke Rudkowski documents an anti-war protest on August 29th 2013. He asks the protesters why they are  protesting, what people should know and what they hope to happen:

Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) said “it will be heavy lift” for the president, but it is a heavy lift for the American people. I implore the president and Congress to cut the ego (red line) crap and pivot back to home. Two or three of the 189 countries who signed on to the 1993 Chemical Weapons treaty have indicated they will go along with any strike,
most are not buying into it. Has somebody died and left America god? Why are we playing World Police?

1. America cannot deal with its own weapons of mass destruction and get gun control enacted.  Why does 
    the President and those who support this strike think the country has the gonads or the moral authority to 
    singlehanded (without the input of UN or other member countries) to stop Assad from using his WMD? Explain it to 
    me because there must be a plausible explanation to this puzzle.

2. Why don’t we have funds to give 30 million additional Americans healthcare, to pay teachers, to fund schools, to 
    fund school feeding programs to nurture poor kids who might be heading to mal-nutrition, to … BUT we can, from 
    out of thin air decide to launch missiles which cost $1m apiece and an estimated $60,000 an hour for planes that 
    drop bombs on targets? Yet there are cuts galore at home to feed the very persons who voted these lawmakers in to 
    run their lives. $40m cut from food stamps, cuts in education, cuts in police, fire department and housing and 
    no funds for infrastructure upkeep.  

3. When Iraq and Afghanistan were entered, there was money in the coffers which was used to fund these non-wars at 
    the expense of all other things. Now Mr. President, there are no funds… where is the money coming from to support 
    this ‘invasion’, ‘surgical strike’ or whatever innuendo we wish to attach to this planned war.

4. What is happening to the inequities in unemployment of blacks sitting at 13%, for Hispanics ticking up to over 9% 
    while never even equating to the national average while white unemployment sits at 6.0% never ticking above the 
    national average.

5. What of immigration reform, the budget, sequester, public service employee layoffs?

6. Shouldn’t you Mr. President and Congress be putting this level of energy and effort to addressing these domestic 
    problems rather than seeking to go it alone to invade a country on a problem which, by your own admission, is a 
    world problem - a world majority of whom seem not to give a damn because they themselves are trying to build their 
    own country? There is wisdom in the thinking that you can only truly help someone else when you have the strength 
    and wherewithal to help yourself. And I dare say America is not showing that capacity to help itself-
    not now.                    
 
Charity---It Begins At Home...

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S04/E01: "Emmanuel Morel for Congress 2014 (And More On Syria)" 
Show Date: Thursday, September 12, 2013 
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By David A. Franklin, Jr.

I have watched and listened to the deliberations, debates and discussions between lawmakers, analysts, specialists, experts, commentators and gurus on networks, on the radio and on local television channels over the past days on the subject of Syria. Every utterance, every reaction reeks of the stench of ego and the essence of politics. Neither of
these is good reason for any type of interference in a country’s civil affairs.

You hear about the President’s Red Line ad nauseam and to such deafening and utter annoyance. The media has been fueling a strong current of impatience with President Obama, some mockingly so, for not living up to their interpretation of the actions indicative of a red line. Strike now and if the strike does not happen, not only the President but the country will be viewed as ‘chicken’ and the delicate egos of the male dominated self-appointed group of experts will be irreparably bruised in the eyes of the rest of the world.  After all, the modus operandi is for brute force to be applied by the all-powerful United States of America as seen in likes of Viet Nam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. No due diligence is necessary; no lessons learnt to be recognized – just strike because the country will be viewed as losing its humph, its strength, its face. I have heard some evoke justification of an attack under the United Nation’s “responsibility to attack” doctrine which gives the green light for foreign countries to attack where people in other countries are being abused by their government. Here again, the egotistical interpretation is being applied and the full and fair appreciation of the UN’s doctrine is being circumvented. As a matter of fact, there need not be any interpretation since the wording is plain enough for a child in kindergarten to understand “any such action must be through the security
council in accordance with the charter”. To attack then under this umbrella would be illegal because the elements that qualify are missing. 

But I invite these pundits and politicians alike to consider this: it takes a huge dose of pluck and mettle to recognize and
accept that sometimes there is little or nothing people/countries on the outside can do. This is one such case and we must examine what is that little in the interest of human lives and the untold suffering that is apparent in the Syria issue and other such cases.

My comments must not be interpreted as a lack of concern for the human wretchedness and suffering that Assad has inflicted on the people of Syria. The Syrians, I am sure only wish to live a life of normalcy (whatever their culture and religion(s) define as normal). Call me paranoid but I am certain that this push from some politicians and media houses to strike and not only on the restricted to the surgical method as is suggested by President Obama is nothing but stoking the fire to bump up viewership and listenership, to satisfy the Military Industrial Complex whose lobbyists are in the shadows urging a fight and to the politicians who need to keep the mill of discrediting the President well-oiled and
running. He is damned if he does – “See you have started a war with no due diligence examined as to what happens after the strike and what can be the resulting post-strike consequences”. He is damned if he doesn’t. This is a weak President. I have heard comments (and not on Fox who is the President’s nemesis) “Is this the 3:00 am call and will he be able to answer it?” 

The use of the expression “red line” by the President was unwise and includes him in the group of egotists. The more
elevated we are, is the more exposed and scrutinized we are. It is therefore imperative that we constantly exercise a conscious level of caution and be guarded and be diplomatic with our utterances. President Obama must recognize and accept that indeed there are sometimes and in some cases there is little that can be done from the outside and he
must explore what that ‘little’ might be and how to best execute that ‘little’.

What magnitude of efficiency would a limited surgical attack achieve? Could it deter future chemical attacks and are we so sure that this would scare Assad to the extent that he would stop the carnage whether by use of chemicals or other means. The answer is a resounding “NO”.  

There is a battle cry from some quarters to “do something” and in my opinion doing something would only serve to
stoke the egos of the US and some western allies and almost certainly ignite a regional war in the Middle East.  

Correct me if I am wrong. Where are the voices of the neighboring Arab countries that would be mostly affected by
Assad’s and Iran’s accelerated aggression? It seems to me that they are too non-vocal on a matter of their own safety…. But no… we need this attack to punish Syria but let the bully America go out in front who have little but
“feel good” to gain from such an action. The US always buys out and owns conflicts – they are the big brother and we feel comfortable to cower behind them even though it is our business that is at risk. Then if it is successful, we can say we supported the actions and if it fails we say we did not give it our blessings. Heads they win, tails the US loses. That is what I call international politics. 

Israel, another country to which these upheavals bring at very least uncertainty and unease expressed shock at the President’s postponement of the attack to seek Congressional approval. “There is the concern that this will be seen in the region as the US president hesitating to enforce his red lines and that that will send the wrong messages to other regional powers” according to an Israeli official. I hope the American people and  government will learn from these experiences that it is hard to please everybody and uneasy is the head that wears the crown – the crown of big brother and of ‘police of the world’ – a position which was self-assumed and should be revisited to see if it is worth the effort.

Then there is the home grown politics. There has been the deafening cry that the President needs to bring the matter for congressional support or rejection; yet when he accedes to that route versus going it without such debate, the
pundits opined: “The move places the president’s Syria policy on an unknown course subjecting it to a certain showdown on Capitol Hill where lawmakers are deeply divided on the issue and even more so over Mr. Obama himself. By agreeing to a congressional debate, Mr. Obama faces some amount of risk that he will be handed a defeat by
legislators, like that suffered by British Prime Minister David Cameron over Syria this past week”. Obama to Seek Congressional Vote on Syria Strike, The Wall Street Journal, August 31, 2013.

Hello-o-o-o-o! Why is everything a battle? I would think that putting it to Congress for its input is the democratic thing to do and not deemed a personal Obama “risk that he will be handed a defeat” Are we not all in this thing together?

These lawmakers, pundits and the media sit comfortably on the side of the Syrian columnist who says:
‘Why won’t Obama tell Assad how long the attack will last so he can book his vacation after it?’ 

Whose side are we on? Are we on the side of what is best for America and the American people? Why do we continue to feed and fatten the pockets of paid pundits, the Military Industrial Complex, and boost the ratings and the bottom lines of the media houses? 

The American people continue to speak their wishes – they are war-weary, they are suffering from a lack of jobs, good education, healthcare and opportunities and I dare say that the attention that is given to these issues pale in comparison to that which is afforded the Syria issue. Eighty percent (80%) of the American people want congressional approval on Syria but there is harsh criticism of the President taking this route and going with the will of the
people. 

But then, when have the opinions of the American people been taken into serious consideration? Never! But Americans should not relent and they must keep speaking up especially at the polls on election-day. Someone will hear – eventually.

By David A. Franklin, Jr.

If this condition (dry-eye) is left untreated it leads to pain, ulcers, scars on the cornea and definitely some
degree of vision loss. I kept wondering where is the vision of the GOP leadership because everything they do
or say is for the here-and-now and for one reason… to undermine President Obama and his progressive plans for
the country, as a result they take the country hostage. Their gazillion attempts at repealing the Affordable Care Act and finally to shut down the government so as to defund this Act which is the law of the land. They oppose every bill and
plan that would project into the future, with wide-eyed, dry-eyed stupidity, call for impeachment where there is no
impeachable action by the President.  And… they have not one single alternative plan…. Not even a bad plan. For the G-NO-P, the word is “NO” to everything. Now I know why there is no vision on that side of the fence - Ted Cruz has given me the full explanation “Republicans do not blink”.  

At his town hall meeting this Tuesday, Cruz pontificates:  "A significant amount of Republicans  assume, with an impasse, that President Obama will never ever give up his principles, so Republicans have to give up theirs. If you have an impasse, you know -- one side or the other has to blink. How do we win this fight? Don't blink." He sees the country’s wellbeing a personal fight to win. And by the way, what is the “Republican principle”? 

On gun control, abortion, the environment, Immigration Reform, Healthcare Reform, Voter suppression, “Entitlement” spending accurately defined as any spending that does not funnel money directly in the pockets of their all-powerful corporate rulers. On almost everything Cruz’s politics is repugnant, detestable and distasteful to say the least and with that attitude he charges his flock that like him, they must not  blink… win this battle of “Obamadom”  at all cost or rather – no matter the cost. One of his fellow “Mad Hatters” Steve Fincher (R-TN) justifies the need for entitlement spending cuts as follows: "The role of citizens, of Christians, of humanity is to take care of each other," the congressman concedes, but quickly adds "not for Washington to steal from those in the country and give to others in the country."

Cruz’s sharp elbow tactic has annoyed not only fellow senators on both sides, but also significant parts of the populous
on whom he and the Republican Party must depend to fulfill his Presidential ambitions and the party’s hopes to occupy the White House ever again. 

The Party has many leaders, a small subset being members of Congress the rest are activists, governors, interest groups, fundraisers and big donors and more. What we see within this large group of leaders is unanimity on at least one thing for better or worse. These people do not blink on anything. Blinking means compromise and compromise would most likely benefit the country but the only ones they need to benefit are their personal agendas. And this dry eye syndrome that has overtaken the leaders of the GOP serves nothing but destructive purpose to the country and also for the personal aggrandizement of each of this group of vultures.

Health professionals caution that “If symptoms of dry eye persist, consult an eye care professional to get an accurate diagnosis of the condition and begin treatment to avoid permanent damage.” But indications are that this condition has existed since 2008 and has worsened beginning with the injection of an overdose of the “Mad Hatters” - the Tea Party in 2010. It is apparently too late these loony rightwing extremists have brought the party to a stage where it is suffering permanent damage.

Again one advice is "to determine if the disease is the underlying cause of the dry eye since there might be an underlying disease which needs to and must be treated before correction of this loss of vision can begin.”
And indeed there is or are underlying cause(s).  Extremism, self-glorification, demolitionist mentality (bring the government to a standstill, forfeit in the national debt), political terrorism. 

It is reported that Cruz gave the impression to his peers in college that he has nothing to learn from anyone else. This, according to Erlic Leitch who lived in Butler College with Cruz. Leitch said Cruz argued over anything and nothing just to argue and that his only reason for talking with you was to convince you of his (Cruz’s) rightness. Can this college
boorish, ignorant and crude attitude work in politics? Yes and no. It has worked so far in his political career since it sits so comfortably in the Tea Party paradigm; but I predict we are looking at a schooled version of Sarah Palin. The behavior of the Republican Party continues to reflect the Party’s identity crisis and so we continue to witness first-hand the demolition derby.

In March of 2012, Ryan Lizza, a New Yorker correspondent in his piece “Life of the Party” pointed out what was obvious then as it is now “the
Republican base has become more conservative. The good news for the GOP is that their "intense policy demanders" are energized; the bad news is that their involvement means Republicans have moved farther away from the American mainstream. To win at the national level, the GOP needs an actor to both unify their base and bring in Independents. At the moment, they don't have one”. Isn’t it the same condition that exists … no persists to date? 

Dry eye syndrome can be associated with immune system disorders, defined as causing “abnormally low
activity or overactivity of the immune system. In cases of immune system overactivity, the body attacks and damages its own tissues (autoimmune diseases). Immune deficiency diseases decrease the body's ability to fight invaders, causing
vulnerability to infections”. 

The GOP is both attacking and damaging its own ‘tissues’ and is causing vulnerability and has opened itself to lunacy.  Moderate Republicans say they are not on board with this over-riding psychosis that prevails in their party but they do nothing to fix it and at the end they come together and go down with the ship with the mentally ill segment of
the Party.

The party is totally subjugated and directed by its far right extremist minds. With the injection of this extremism Republicans have melded radicalism, bigotry, heartlessness and raw partisanship resulting in dysfunction that is exceptional and unparalleled. The wanton and immoral use of filibuster, the 2011 scare tactic with the debt limit (and they are planning another round of this later this year), consistent action to undermine the economic recovery by saying ‘no’ to any plan to stimulate the economy, the decision in the House to only bring to the floor for a vote bills that can guarantee the majority of the majority; a feat which is unattainable since the majority party is populated with 
obstructionists whose interest is far removed from governing the country. 

This dry-eye syndrome and its underlying diseases are rendering total blindness to a party that could and used to provide constructive opposition to keep the country on the right track.
  
The titles of the ‘greatest democracy on earth’ or ‘the beacon on a hill for the world to follow’ I am sure evoke a chuckle from the rest of the world! 

The likes of the school yard bully Ted Cruz together with the Tea Party Fraternity and those groupies who have no personal conviction but to jump on whichever bandwagon that might be popular at whichever time is sinking the GOP ship.

The few reasonable souls within the party are like lone voices in the wilderness and they cannot be heard over the din of the mad dogs.

By David A. Franklin, Jr.

What seems like 100 differing and varying factions within the party each spouting at very least 2 or 3 ‘strong’ and
opposing views on the same issues cause the heads of the American public to spin. Heads twirl in disbelief, with skepticism, in confusion, in perplexity, and bewilderment.  The actions of these well-paid (with taxpayers’ money) juveniles reflect the chaos, turmoil and mayhem which exist in the thinking of the leaders of the Republican Party and if the public is not careful it gets absorbed into this disorientation!  But time and again, the American people have demonstrated that they have the ability to sift through gunk and grime and know what is sense and what is pure unadulterated bull fertilizer. No one, not even the Republican Party members can say or understand what the Party stands for. 

As Peter Marshall, the US Senate Chaplain in 1947 and then pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC said, the American people is currently saying to the GOP “Give us clear vision, that we may know where to stand and what to stand for - because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.” Of course the Republican voters are falling for everything: 

-   From a “Birther” that they continue to say that Barak Obama is not American since he was born in Kenya. These   
    silly-heads include not just persons of limited educational exposure but none less than Donald Trump. This is a man 
    whom it would seem has some exposure in business, and a leader in his own right but his stupid and unrelenting 
    utterances on the topic  belies his perceived good sense. The irony of this “Birther” issue is highlighted now that the 
    Republican Party is viewing Ted Cruz (R-Texas) as a possible 2016 candidate for the Presidential   elections.  We 
    see them justifying Cruz’s eligibility for the same position that Obama is not qualified to hold! If we accept that our 
    President was born in Kenya then that quits out with Cruz being born in Canada. But no! That is one of the major 
    disqualifying points.  Or…… is it that the pigmentation of the inhabitants of each country weighs heavily positive in 
    favor of the one and heavily negative to the other? Talk to me. The point that is being belabored and underscored in 
    the justification for Cruz’s eligibility is that his mother is American. Laugh out loud….. Let me see you haters get 
    out of this one because so was the President’s mother. Republican haters of the President in and out of Congress 
    have always hidden their heads in the sand talking lies so often that they convince are true. They believe their own 
    lies!

-  To the unyielding effort to repeal Healthcare even when these schooled gentlemen and ladies know this is an 
    exercise in futility they continue to bring it to the vote at the expense of doing some real work for the pay they 
    are collecting!  And I deliberately use the word “schooled” versus “educated” since it would be an insult to those of 
    us who are truly educated to include these crazies in the category of the educated. Some of these persons claim Ivy 
    League education and to whom much is given, much is expected but they contradict this idiom. We have grown to 
    expect nothing from these Ivy Leaguers. It was the Republican Heritage Foundation’s preferred choice that 
    healthcare reform in the 1990s included the individual mandate to buy health insurance. But now again their 
    rabid opposition to their own brainchild is obviously a diseased one. Here is another instance where the 
    pigmentation of the Healthcare ambassador putting forward this same solution has poisoned the fruit of good 
    sense? Conservatives have painstakingly renounced its own position because it has now emerged as 
    the centerpiece of Obama’s health care reform. Answer me this other question – ‘Are Republicans aware that they 
    are there to see to the progress of the country or to live and ride their ideology bandwagon to the death of 
    the country?’

The results of the electoral vote were certified by Congress on January 4, 2013:

CANDIDATES                            Party            Pop. Vote   Pct.(%)    ECV                                                                           
Barack Obama/Joe Biden       Democratic    65,915,796  51.06%    332
Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan             Republican    60,933,500  47.20%     206
Gary Johnson/James Gray        Libertarian       1,275,971    0.99%         0
Jill Stein/Cheri Honkala             Green                 469,628    0.36%          0
Virgil Goode/Jim Cylmer           Constitution        122,388    0.09%          0 
Roseanne Barr/Cindy Sheehan Peace/Freedom   67,326    0.05%          0
Rocky Anderson/Luis Rodriquez Justice                43,018   0.03%           0
Tom Hoefling/Jonathan Ellis        America's            40,628  0.03%           0 
OTHER                                                                  217,669  0.17%           0
                                                    TOTAL        129,085,403   100%        538
NEEDED TO WIN                        270

POPULAR VOTE                        Pct. %       Electoral College Vote (ECV)      
Barack Obama (Illinois)               51.06%                  61.71%
Mitt Romney (Massachusetts)     47.20%                  38.29%
Gary Johnson (New Mexico)         0.99%                     ---
Jill Stein (Massachusetts)              0.36%                     ---
OTHERS                                        0.38%                     ---
TOTAL                                       100.00%                100.00%                                                                          

For the nine months since the thorough whipping at the 2012 polls the Republican Party is still trying to come out of their stunned state of being.  
 
1. They have had postmortems - Although they had record amount of money to spend on attack ads 
    especially in swing states, Romney lost 8 of the nine of these states, and they lost the election! Was the 
    Tea Party correct to say Romney was not conservative enough or were the moderates correct in saying 
    he was too conservative? Was it his ‘self-deportation stance, the 47% comment or his outsourcing of 
    his personal wealth and deposits and investments in foreign countries? Daah! The simple reason is that the party is 
    seen to be anti-good sense. 
 
2. They discussed, but to date have not fully accepted that they did not connect with Latinos and African-Americans.  
    These are two groups representing the country’s largest minority population. Immigration policy, deportation, path to 
    citizenship for undocumented workers, Voter ID Laws, and so on and so on. It seems then, as it shows now that no 
    antidote can cure their disease of pigmentation. 
 
Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) as recent as Thursday morning (8/15/2013) on CNN stands by his offensive statement "For everyone who's a valedictorian, there's another  100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert,".  You know it is bad when Mr. Ineffective himself John Boehner said that King’s comments were “wrong” and that "There can be honest disagreements about policy without using hateful language".  But therein lies the diversity and disparities among
the differing factions of the party. One might be tempted to laud Mr. Boehner’s courage to be as bold as to oppose but then like the 5 year old boy you wait with uncomfortable anticipation for the shoe to drop – again – from the Speaker’s non-action and cowardice. 
 
3.  Then there is the issue of women’s rights. During the 2012 election campaign season, they doubled down against 
     women – abortion rights, contraceptive rights, equal pay for women. Might I be allowed to express my harrow that 
     the equality in the workplace for women being bantered about is nothing short of a mockery. I cannot wrap my mind 
     around the fact that it is only since 2012 that this has been brought up for discussion/acceptance in the greatest 
     country on earth when in a small country which is deemed “third world” this was implemented decades ago! 
     “Jamaican women are accorded full equality, and the 1975 Employment Act guarantees them equal pay for the 
     same work.” 

Sometimes I think I have stepped back into the past – this is the law in a third world country for close to four decades!! 

And then there is the Maternity Leave Act of 1979 which gives pregnant mothers 12 weeks leave with pay and just
citing one in the list of goodies included in the Law “Where a worker who is entitled to return to work in accordance with subsection (1) has complied with this section but is unable to return to work by reason of redundancy, she shall be treated for the purposes of the Employment (Termination and Redundancy Payments) Act 

- (a) as having been continuously employed by her employer until the notified day of return;” Meaning that she enjoys 
       the benefits of any redundancy payoffs although she was not actively working. Read  more - Database of Labour 
       Legislation http://www.ilocarib.org.tt/projects/cariblex/jamaica_act10.shtml 


IBM, one of America’s best and most successful companies says that their people “are their greatest and most valuable assets” an edict they live and breathe and one that obviously this third world nation lives. Is there the time when Republicans will come to their senses, be enlightened that their wives, mothers, aunts, daughters and grand-daughters are not stuck in a time zone and that this is the 21st century? 

Stars keep rising and falling in the Republican Party – It was Bobby Jindal, it is Marco Rubio and Chris Christie and Ted Cruz and the rise and fall continues.  Marco Rubio for one, is one whose stardom was transparently ascribed because of his race and an obvious attempt to say “see we have others in our group of leaders!” So were Governor Jindal and Michael Steel with his short stint as RNC chairman. This disingenuous action continues with their current push for “Rising Stars Amid Calls For Solutions.” 

Among these ‘stars’ are:
Karin Agness, founder and president of the Network of Enlightened Women. But Republicans continue to defund and close facilities that give free/affordable care for women including cancer screening and they object to women getting equal pay for equal work.

Scott G. Erickson, a San Jose, Calif., police officer for 15 years and a writer for The Foundry, the blog of the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation.

Marilinda Garcia, a Hispanic and New Hampshire state representative first elected at 23. Now in her fourth term, she serves on the executive board of the immigration reform group Americans by Choice. But their attacks on Hispanics is
unyielding and remorseless, likening them to drug mules as Peter King is convinced they are, calling them ‘wet backs’; demeaning them over and over again.

T.W. Shannon, an African-American and speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. The Lawton native is a business consultant and an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation. But they defund the already under-funded education in schools which primarily serve African Americans and other minority groups. They implement Voter ID laws that are reminiscent of the poll tax days which disenfranchise African Americans ensuring that they have no voice in
the running of the country of which they are citizens.  When as recent as 2 days ago students of Elizabeth City State University, black college in North Carolina rights to vote are taken from them under the pretext that the college’s address is not accepted as their address. Montravias King, a student of that very college was barred from running for a city council seat for that very reason although he is a citizen of Elizabeth City and of North Carolina.

I confidently predict that these stars would have fallen from the Republican skies before 2014 just as Rubio has and Jindal did, and the others have - unless this new crop of ‘stars’ stick to the vitriolic directives of a party of lost souls. 
The GOP have not been listening to the likes of Bill Kristol and other level heads in the party who are telling them – government shut-down would be a mistake, that it is preferable to delay parts of the Affordable Care Act than to implement and not adjust as necessary, that comprehensive immigration overhaul is good for the country.

Why spoil the sick fun of these mad dogs of the GOP with simple and level-headed thinking?

S03/E29: "OPEN MIC NIGHT" 
Show Date: Sunday, August 18, 2013 
Time: 6pm EST
Telephone: 619-789-1959 
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/kitchenpolitics123/2013/08/18/s03e29-open-mic-night

The stark differences among and between Republicans inside and outside of Congress are so many and varied and seem to be multiplying by the minute it makes your head spin. Not to mention that these differences are down to the micro level. 
By David A. Franklin, Jr.

The one person has several and varying personas depending on the day of the week, or the direction of the wind. Today John McCain is a Tea Partier…. but not tomorrow …. but later that same afternoon he will be a sensible sounding individual calling his party colleagues names which relegate them to crack pots.

Government shut-down advocates versus those Republicans who say it is a bad idea, and this threat of sending the government of the great US of A and its economy into a tail spin is for no other reason than to defund – you guess it! To defund ObamaCare which they have voted 40 times to repeal knowing full well they do not have the requisite number of votes to get the Healthcare Law of the land repealed. And we must remember it is the same House with the same ineffective, useless, feeble, unproductive Speaker/Leader who refuses to spend time to bring other worthwhile bills for the vote.  And they must remember that the tax payers continue to having to cough up their fat salary, their excellent health coverage for them and their families while as they sit to repeal the Healthcare Law, their college children are benefiting from the very law!

Voting against anything that looks like, sounds like, smells like the President has become such an obsession for the Republicans that they have become lunatics. Maybe not become since they might have been lunatics all along just that the President brings out the worst in them. Neurosis, phobia, insanity, mental illness all compounded in one big ball of a useless, non-productive group. 

They are divided on spending, on foreign policy on just about everything. One question to themselves is do they need to be all inclusive in their appeal to the electorate? Yes, no, maybe - this minute yes because and only because they realize their open bigotry in the 2012 election campaign cycle cost them the White House…. This is what they think but why they lost 2012… let me educate them that as long as their Democratic opponent was Barack Obama, that he was the reason they would not set foot in the White House. But let us go along with the bigotry theory. The reason is so openly and transparently self-serving and has no truth in it; a reason spoken in public by these Republicans but one that is not coming from the heart.  The pendulum swings daily on this “all-inclusive path” from yes to no and back to yes then no. 

Then there are the low personal levels as seen with the most recent Rand Paul/Chris Christie saga. Name calling being hurled back and forth and like true school yard wrangle with two grown men who are thought of as being capable of running (or is it ruining) the country! Here I must confess that I found some pleasure in watching from the ringside. Not only that Republicans are at each other’s throats but Rand Paul needs to know with whom to pick a fight; and for his own good should not be with my favorite Republican.

Coming from the mouth of a Republican who classified as “stale and moss-covered" his colleagues in the persons of Senator McCain and some of McCain’s like-thinking Republicans of the old guard. This is a classification championed by Rand Paul.  Paul reminds me of the wimpy kid who goes around picking on bigger and stronger boys who will whop him anytime and every time. He has a penchant for embarrassment. Then there are the “wacko birds” among them; loud mount, ‘bag of wind’ Ted Cruz being the chief of the wackos among the bird species in the party. Don’t forget that Mr. Ted is also being touted as one of the wackos capable of ruining… running the country!

There is always a Jamaican proverb to fit just about every occasion, issue and situation. The one that fits this perfectly reads like this “If shark come from river bottom and say the river deep, it deep, believe him”. If the Republicans say there are birds of the wacko kind among them, believe them; if the say some are stale and moss-covered, believe them. Because they are coming from the bottom of the river of stupidity in the GOP and they know. 

Ted Cruz (Texas), Mike Lee (Utah) and Marco Rubio (Florida) think that not voting spending that includes money for ObamaCare is the way to go but others think this would be a windfall for Mr. President and his party. Make up your minds guys…can you print a hymn book and decide which hymn you will be singing and cut down on the babble coming from your party? Or is it they cannot hear themselves?

Out of North Carolina came a lone voice of Senator Burr: "I think it's the dumbest idea I've ever heard". "Some of these guys need to understand that if you shut down the federal government, you better have a specific reason to do it that's achievable." Mr. Burr seems to be one of the “stale and moss covered” of his party who remember full well when this strategy was approached against the Clinton Administration and the negative public opinion which played against the Republicans. When will these upstarts such as Paul and Cruz realize that the moss covered do have some use!

Some are for immigration reform and others are not these latter expressing fear that there would never be another Republican President within this century if all these 11 million immigrants are given the right to vote eventually. Student loan legislation, foreign policy, national security, government surveillance are just a few; and don’t get me wrong, there needs to be differences of opinions  but when these differences are centered on ideology, personal aggrandizement, and buffoonery it might present as fun for the opposing party but it is totally dangerous to the American people.

My message to the Republicans “Continue with you Tom foolery and it will not be the Healthcare Law, or the Foreign Policy which you think is flawed or the surveillance that you think is illegal that will bring this great country down, it is you who will with your divisiveness and self-serving ways and your one-up-man-ship that is bringing down the party. Every democracy needs and deserves a good opposition party to keep government on their toes for, and on behalf of the people and for the good of the country. What you are doing is wrong and will not only cause your downfall as a party but have untold repercussion for the country you profess so eloquently that you are proud to be a citizen of.

It was Trayvon Martin who was on trial and he was tried by a “jury of his peers” in the courts of justice and was found to be deserving of the sentence he was served for daring to think he was free and that he could have had the audacity to be brave – death at the hands of a man who decided that he was a criminal and that he was “not going to get
away this time”.  Vigilante justice!

I watched closely the case and early in the game I viewed the prosecution as either incompetent or was on the side of the defense. The case rested in the fact that Zimmerman came out of his car, stalked the child and killed him but
the prosecution was “wishy washy” in presenting this. After Zimmerman was told by the police not to follow the child he cannot explain why if he sat in the car as he was told and as he claimed. The Prosecutor did not during the presentation even indicate that Trayvon had a right to stand his ground. Not until the dramatic last hour of the wrap up that this was
mentioned in passing. All the way the prosecutor asked open ended questions rather than driving home the points. 

Trayvon was profiled as someone not belonging in this neighborhood because the presence of a black youth means one thing – “a criminal is among us!” What is the message to black youths? If you are followed by a strange white man in the night what should you do?

Where have I in my lifetime heard of, seen and/or observed similar scenarios?        
 
1.      New Year’s Day 2009 in Oakland, California, Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old, unarmed black man who was 
         shot in the back by a white Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer.   Oscar Grant, on his way home from 
         celebrating New Year’s Eve with friends in San Francisco, was shot in the back by a white BART policeman for 
         reasons that remain unclear. (On trial, the cop claimed he had mistaken his gun for his Taser, resulting in a 
         reduced conviction and sentence).

2.     Florida in particular: In 2006, Laurie Lynn Bartlett alleged her boyfriend was drunk and tried to sexually assault 
        her. She killed him by stabbing him with a knife. She got 10 years in prison for the act. 
 
In 2007 Ernestine Broxsie killed her ex-boyfriend. She alleged her ex "snapped" and began choking her, so she shot him. She went free.

Similar but different – In the case where the victim was white, (the Bartlett case) the justice system imposed a 10 year sentence while in the case of the black victim the defendant went free. A Tampa Bay Times analysis of about 200 cases examined the role of race in "stand your ground" and observed the following facts - when a black person is killed the defendant walks free 73% of the time while in cases where a white person is the victim the defendant is freed 59% of the time. 

3.     Statistics on all-white juries: The Tampa Bay Times’ analysis is supported by numerous studies 
        showing differences in the way whites and blacks are treated by the criminal justice system in this country. 
        Studies show that all-white juries are more likely to convict black defendants. Someone who murders a white 
        person is more likely to get the death penalty than someone who kills a black person. Is there any correlation here 
        in the George Zimmerman’s case? I am just asking a question; not stating a fact.

4.     Application of the Stand-your-Ground Law in Florida 
        -“If Zimmerman had been black, would authorities in Sanford have been so quick to accept his claim of self-
          defense? Are black defendants less likely to walk free than people of other races in "stand-your-ground" cases?” 
          The Times’ article asks.  The verdict is yours and the proof is in the statistics. 

5.      Florida Courts on May 11, 2012 sentenced Marissa Alexander of Jacksonville a black woman to 20 years 
         in prison for firing warning shots insider her home so as to deter her abusive husband. She was escaping 
         from one of her husband’s brutal beatings; she had a protective order against him. The system did not afford her 
         the “Stand Your Ground” defense.

6.     Another case of “same but different”: In Suffolk County New York in 2007 a jury found 54 year old John White, 
        a black man guilty of second degree manslaughter for defending his home and his son. Daniel Cicciaro, a 17 year 
        old unarmed white youth was shot point-blank in the face on Aug. 9, 2006. Daniel and several friends had left a 
        party, went to Mr. White’s house in the dead of night after 11 p.m. to challenge Mr. White’s 19 year old son to a 
        fight, hurling threats, expletives and racial epithets. This was a black man who defended his home and his son 
        against an angry white mob outside his Suffolk County, NY home and ended up shooting one of them. This is 
        reminiscent of the mob lynching of the historic South but this picture is cast in Mr. White’s home in Miller Place, a 
        predominantly white hamlet on Long Island. The jury did not consider that Mr. White and his family were scared to 
        death and he had a right to stand his ground in his own home.

“The trial’s racial overtones were obvious from the start, suggesting that the tension associated with the Deep South was alive in a New York suburb with good schools, high property values and privileged children.”
New York Times, By COREY KILGANNON Published: December 23, 2007.  
 
It is now 8:18 am on the morning after George Zimmerman was acquitted for the murder of an unarmed black teenager trying to get home in the rain and already the case is listed among “Notable Cases” of “Acquittals of white defendants”. The case sits with and among others, the murder of Emmett Till in Sumner, Mississippi in 1955. 
 
Emmett Till, 1955 a black Chicago youth was 14 years old
– He was visiting his mother's family in Greenwood, Mississippi and accused of mumbling "Bye, Baby" while wolf whistling at the white wife of the general store's owner upon leaving a store, the teenager became marked for death. The following Saturday night, rousted from sleep, Till was taken by a posse of white men seeking to avenge the "honor" of the woman Till spoke to in the store. They castrated him and beat him to death before tying him to the propeller of a cotton gin, submerging him in the swampy waters of the Tallahatchie River. When his body surfaced and was transported back home to Chicago for the funeral, Emmett's mother, Mamie Till, insisted on an open casket so that the whole world could see what they had done to her baby. The black press covered the story, which was eventually picked up by the national press, and across the country white and black Americans saw the boy's bloated corpse. 

The trial and the verdict - A trial commenced back in Mississippi, significant not in its verdict (all of the men were
found not guilty by an all-white jury,) but in the witnesses who testified. Black witnesses came forward and in open court pointed out the guilty men, despite the risk to themselves that such action would entail. 
Infamous Lynching http://www.americanlynching.com/infamous-old.html#post-civil 

Michael Vick was sentenced to prison for promoting dog fights that endangered the lives of animals and rightly so. George Zimmerman was freed after taking the life of a human being. 

For those who sympathize and those who empathize this is what I say to you “It’s a black thing…. But I know you understand”. Because you are mothers like myself, you are fathers and sisters and brothers – kinfolk related by ethnicity. But I would not wish for you to understand completely because to understand fully you would have had to experience altogether all the gut wrenching encounters that the victims of these atrocities, their relatives and the race have gone through and I would not wish it on my worst enemies. 

 I sat in a one-on-one with a white State Representative in March of this year in his office and he confessed to me that he had first heard of “DWB” Driving While Black where black men are profiled by law enforcement if they are driving an
expensive car. It is believed, like Trayvon Martin that “they do not belong” in an expensive car and if they are “a criminal is among us”.  The Rep. had only within recent weeks heard the term and understood its meaning and was appalled and sick to the stomach – he was outraged and confessed he would not know how he would act if that piece of prejudice would be imposed upon him and his 'folks'. I witnessed genuine emotions coming from this gentleman and "DWB" is one of the simplest and less dangerous harassment that is meted out every day!  I know like him and others who joined the Civil Rights Movement in the distant past and in current times there are millions who are willing to contribute to the cause to right the continuing wrong of a country that claims the identity of the words of the Star Spangled Banner not as a cliché but as the fact that America is truly the “Land of the free and the Home of
the Brave” and in the words of the National Pledge of Allegiance – “One nation under God, Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Clear Goulbourne is the Managing Editor of KitchenPolitics123 Blog.  She is of the old guard who sees the fight for justice as a continuum.  She is a co-founder of an Issues PAC in Florida, the Florida Legal Initiative Project (FLIP) with a mission to apply a preventive model to minority youth development which will see to their education, awareness and progress.

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In the United States of America, the history of oppression, persecution, repression, and discrimination against the
people’s rights to vote is a continuum.  It might appear to have stopped but it never did, there was not even a pause – it continues and not in a subtle way! The benchmark set by those who struggle against these societal ills, is found in the fact that the persons affected were not passive victims, they fought back! Indeed some laws were eventually passed
over time that eased the grip at the throat of fairness and civility from those who ruled the roost. Don’t ever be mistaken though; none of these laws were as a result of goodwill or magnanimity on the part legislators or of noble judges ruling against discrimination. The ‘rulers’ had to respond to the voice of the people – vox populi!

“My people, my people open your eyes
  And answer the call of the drum…”  (Song “A Luta
Continua” by Miriam Makeba)

Rev. Al Sharpton said that the Supreme Court has “Cancelled Martin Luther King’s dream” but I have long thought that
we who are alive MUST own that dream and in the absence of Dr. King’s mortal  presence carry on the dream on his and our own behalf because if we do not inject continued activism into that dream, it dies. There are more than enough ‘dream-slayers’ around to make that happen – in Congress, in State legislatures, in gubernatorial ranks,
in conservative groups and sadly in the Supreme Court, a body that should be non-partisan in their ruling but are nauseating and blatantly and selectively biased, parochial, narrow-minded and sometimes even showing nuances of bigotry.

In the over two centuries of struggle for equality, liberty and justice for all, for every oppression there were multiple forms of resistance and as history has shown, it involves blood, sweat and tears. Americans have no place to call home but here therefore they have to be brave and know that they have to fight the forces of evil called the GOP.
 
“And to those who have given their lives
Praises to thee Husband and wives, 
all thy children Shall reap what you sow
This continent is home”  
(Miriam Makeba “A Luta Continua”)

1.      Disagreement on the future of Americans
-      Full Citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The system works them at slave labor conditions and 
       subsistent pay.

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s sought to end segregation under the then “Jim Crow” system and to gain the rights of blacks to vote (all people of color included). I say the “then” Jim Crow system because Jim Crow is alive and well to this day and the right to vote is a battle being waged to this minute, to this day. Some might argue that there has
been change but this situation underscores the cliché “the more things change the more they remain the same”

Women Rights
 It has been 237 years – almost two and a half centuries since 1776 when Abigail Adams (wife of John Adams, the first Vice President, and second President, of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States) asked the Continental Congress to support women’s rights. Her macho husband ridiculed the thought and pledged to fight what he called the "Despotism of the petticoat”. 

To this day, this struggle continues!

The rights of women are still being trampled by the Republican Party.
 
Religious Restrictions
In the 1700’s the constitution of states boasted language such as ·        

 "No person shall be eligible to sit in the House of Representatives unless he be of the Protestant religion." 
         
“..do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration."

And although in 1787 when the new US Constitution was adopted and in Article VI prohibiting religious restrictions "... but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." 
 
To this day, this struggle continues!

President John F. Kennedy’s Catholic Faith was an issue; more recently Representative Keith Ellison’s Muslim faith was almost a hell fire situation and as recent as 2012 presidential election the Mormon faith of Mitt Romney was danced around in public but abhorred in the privacy of the hearts and souls of
conservatives. 

REPUBLICANS - THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY... 

The Right To Vote And The Sick Sardonicism Of Racism
The “slave-states” of yester-years retain this categorization in current times. What happened then continues to happen now. They insisted that only white males have the right to vote but at the same time included the black slave statistics
in deciding how many members of Congress the states are entitled to. This was in 1787. The then Constitutional Convention could not come to a consensus on national voting rights standards so it became the prerogative and of the whim and fancy of individual states. So, while the Federal Government decides who can be a citizen of the US, each state has its individual right to decide which of these citizens can vote. Don’t be fooled, the redistricting Texas style will affect not only blacks and Latinos but also poor whites and most of whom are women. 
 
I repeat!!!!!! This was in 1787… I am not saying this is June 25th 2013…… but it is. A total reversal to over 200 years
of the rights of the citizenry to exercise their rights to vote.

The struggle continues!

1820 to1865 Abolition movement to end Slavery COMPARED TO 2013  – Modern day Republican Machinery
   
1.  Disagreement on the future of freed slaves 
-          Full Citizenship for freed slaves who were the  undocumented immigrants of the 1800’s? The system worked 
           them at slave labor conditions with no pay

1a. Disagreement on the future of Americans in 2013
-         Full Citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The system works them at slave labor conditions and subsistent 
          pay.
      
2.  Right to vote for these freed human beings called slaves
2a. Provide the right to vote to bona fide Americans who have been “freed”  having paid their debt to society and been to prison and back

3.   Second-class citizen without the right to vote (slaves)
3a. Currently Americans are relegated to second-class citizenship, stripped of their right to vote, the right to a good job to education post-incarceration

4.  Expel slaves and send them back to Africa although most of the slaves by then were born in the US
4a.  Expel the undocumented workers back to their homeland after they have been used and abused to feed the pockets and the bellies of the modern day plantation owners(the Prison Industrial Complex). Even those who are Americans by birth must be deported. America does not need them anymore because the Prison Industrial Complex offers wages of US.69 per day versus an average hourly wage of under $5 which the undocumented worker is paid 

5.   In 1836 Texas denied vote to Mexicans – and all non-Anglos even those who had helped and fought for the revolution. Although the Federal Government granted US citizenship to Mexicans if they tried to vote they were beaten, burnt, and lynched
5a. June 2013 Texas is taking away the rights to vote of blacks and Latinos, Mexicans being a large percent of the Latino population in that state. The instrument of bigotry is the redistricting and Voter ID Law. This is psychological beating, burning and lynching

Characteristics of the era of the end of reconstruction and the abandonment of the 15th Amendment linger on and are being experienced in 2013. 

1.     Supreme Court decisions are decided in favor of the Republican Agenda or in recognition of the personal legacy 
        John Roberts and his cohorts want to leave behind. Nothing to do with being fair and balanced. Of note is that 
        back in the day of reconstruction (1877), vote-count was suspect and Florida was the chief culprit. In 2013 Florida 
        remains the proud perpetrator of this dishonest practice

2.     Civil Rights enforcement is removed in the 1800’s and currently is suffering the same dare or by best watered 
        down 

3.     The Voter ID law is but modern day poll tax and literacy test of the 1800’s

4.     Present-day US education system is nothing but the exact equivalent to the separation of the races in schools. 
        The lack of resources for schools in black and Latino neighborhood engender this inequity. There are many ways 
        to skin a cat and the American education system is using all those ways to skin the ‘minority cat’ through providing 
        poor education.

5.     Back then blacks were removed from voter registration rolls. Now it is blacks, Latinos, Asians and all people of 
        color. Just check Florida that is again the bastion state of modern day slavery and of everything that causes dis-
        enfranchisement (the right to vote for not only the naturally ‘free’ citizens but the ‘freed’ who have paid their debt 
        to society and released from prison).    

Modern Day Reconstruction
Back in the days of reconstruction, the voice of the people was deafening and they use the instruments available to them to be heard and to effect change.  

·        They speak out  
·        They petition  
·        They lobby  
·        They sue
·        They protest
·        They march
and even 
·        Engage in civil-disobedience for the right to vote. 

They suffered beatings, they risked life and limb. They were attacked by mobs, raped and jailed and suffered other forms of unimaginable indignities but they fought for their rights of citizenship and for all the privileges that come with
being a citizen of this great country. 

These tools and others are even more accessible in this modern society. Social media for example added to all mentioned above and the easier right-of-passage to address lawmakers prove as indomitable cache of tools at our
disposal. Let us be brave and use them because the voice of the people always gets the attention. 
  
My brothers and sisters stand up and sing,
Martin Luther King is not gone
His eternal flame
Has shown us the light of dawn

 “All of the above negate America’s claim of superiority in the world in the areas of liberty and justice for all, civil inclusion, and being the beacon on the hill providing light to its own people and to the other nations of the world.  The current reality of civil history is nothing short of barbaric!” ~ KitchenPolitics123 
4/24/2012 - "Myth or Reality: Racism in the 21st Century America"
 
It is therefore our imperative – our obligation to keep the images, ideas, emotions, and  sensations and the dream alive. There are no other hands but ours to materialize that dream. The struggle continues….we must not give up; we  cannot even afford to pause.  

PLEASE CLICK ON TO THIS LINK:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/kitchenpolitics123/2013/06/29/s03e14-once-upon-a-time-not-long-ago
S03/E14: "Once Upon A Time Not Long Ago"                   Show Date: Friday, June 28, 2013 
Time: 11pm EST                                                                                  Telephone: 619-789-1959 

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If you live in a glasshouse
Don't throw stones

And if you can't take blows brother
Don't throw blows. 
 
You build your world on lies and illusions
But you never know that This is the conclusion
No chance no hope for those Who kept it a goin'
'Cause you never know that The truth was showing
Peter Tosh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aujvc3SVKpc

I will venture to think it that per capita, the outrageously bizarre and senseless eccentrics are in the minority of
Republican administration, so my question is “Why are the sensible, honest, reasonable and levelheaded human beings not speaking out on behalf of sanity to preserve the integrity of the party?” I am led then to equate the madness being exhibited to a disease where infected persons are in two categories – you either have the fully blown infection
or you are a carrier. Cruz, Issa and the others listed below fall in the “fully blown” category and all other Republicans are carriers of the disease. It is only a matter of time for these “carriers” to become delirious and display symptoms of the full blown disease. Is this what we should conclude that most, if not all Republicans will in a matter of time and given
the opportunity succumb to the ravages, the devastation of Stupid Idiocy Dishonest Syndrome (SIDS).

ROLL CALL OF THE REPUBLICAN CRAZIES
1.      Darryl Issa – the flavor of the month in Republican lies and deception 

2.     Ted Cruz – Threw out blatantly unfounded accusations in the Benghazi investigations which has earned him the    
                           brand as modern day Eugene McCarthy

3.     Michelle Bachmann – The unintelligent Republican who sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence

4.     Christine O’Donnell – “I am not a witch” lady who said she “dabbled in witchcraft’ and who said that one of her 
                                              first dates with a witch was on a satanic alter 
 
5.     Glenn Beck- King of all conspiracy theorists. Fuels the right wing lunatics with Obama: 
        “He hates white people and a devout Marxist-Socialist hell  bent on destroying America.”

6.     Rush Limbaugh – Too numerous to mention – and too stupid

7.     Ann Coulter – Not worth the key strokes to document

8.     Sarah Palin- (a.k.a. M.I.L.F. meaning Moron I’d Love To Forget)

9.     Rev. Pat Robertson – who floats in a different stratosphere and he gives Christians a bad name

10.  Rand Paul – One of the most whacky of the whackies. 

11.  Chuck Winder (R-ID): “I would hope that when a woman goes in to a physician with a rape issue, that physician  
                                             will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage, was this pregnancy caused by normal 
                                             relations in a marriage or was it truly caused by a rape. I assume that’s part of the 
                                             counseling that goes on.” - March 2012

12.  Roger Rivard (R-WI): “Some girls rape easy.”-October 2012

13.  Richard Mourdock (R-IN): “I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape that is something that 
                                                    God intended to happen.” – October 2012

14.  Todd Akin (R-MO): “If it’s legitimate rape, the female body has ways of shutting that whole thing down.”
                                         - Midway his failed 2012 Senate Campaign

15.  Mitt Romney (R-MA): “As president, I will create 12 million new jobs.” 
                                            – October 16, 2012 in the second presidential debate

16.  Mitt Romney (R-MA): “Government does not create jobs. Government does not create jobs. 
                                             – 45 minutes later in the second presidential debate (October 16, 2012)

17.  Rick Santorum (R-PA): “I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created – in the sense of rape – but 
                                               nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has 
                                               given you…rape victims should make the best of a bad situation.- January 2012

 And the above list shows only a few of the Republican crazies. 

Darrell Issa and “moral authority”
Darryl Issa, the Republican Crazies and the term moral authority should, under no imaginable condition stand comfortably side by side in the same sentence so I am inflicting grave injustice on the term by doing so in this
article.  And this is only because there is no better or effective method yet invented to highlight contrasts without the visuals afforded by side by side comparisons.

 Rep. Issa’s deceitful, deceptive, self-serving behavior caused some digging or rehashing of his checkered past- “the higher the monkey climbs the more he exposes his ass”. His actions are not based on genuine concern but is nothing but an obvious (and transparent I must add) attempt to tie these trumped up issue to the President. Not surprising since all these so-called “scandals” are just that, attempts to undermine President Obama’s good name, his
sterling achievements and the legacy he is building. We are also fully aware that Issa and others of his party continuously hurl charges against the Attorney General Eric Holder. This kind of behavior continues to produce
only one victim – the country. 

The hind part of Darryl Issa’s anatomy exposed:  
I for one, and I am sure many Americans either could only vaguely recall that there was a little unsavory ‘something’ in Issa’s past; majority didn’t know or suspect anything at all. Here is where Peter Tosh’s advice is critical to the Congressman: 
 “If you live in a glasshouse Don't throw stones
And if you can't take blows brother
Don't throw blows.” 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aujvc3SVKpc 

1.     Issa cannot be happy about the scrutiny on his personal track record as a result of his stone 
        throwing – but what did he expect? His charges against the Obama Administration are weak and connived but 
        public record is there as proof of his criminal past. “Issa has become a vocal advocate for investigations into the 
       Obama administration, including the Troubled Assets Relief Program, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, 
       corruption in Afghanistan, WikiLeaks, and the Food and Drug Administration, among other issues. In 2010 he told 
       the press that he wanted the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to hold investigative hearings 
       "seven hearings a week, times 40 weeks." "Darrell Issa plans hundreds of hearings".
       Politico. November 8, 2010. 
 
His relentless witch-hunt continues and he is only one of the leaders of his embittered and angry party that does not see winning national election any other way than escalating nasty and vicious lies. "Naturally, this is the man the Republicans vested with total power to investigate the Obama administration for any reason at any time.
You don’t appoint someone with actual ethics to do your dirty work, because, well, that wouldn’t work. “Now that he had been given the power to subpoena, investigate, and harass the Obama Administration, Issa was being
described as a future leader of his party—and the man most likely to weaken the President before the 2012 election…”  “Darrell Issa’s Lies Create an Uncomfortable Scrutiny of His Criminal Background”
By: Sarah Jones, May 16th, 2013 Politicus USA
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/05/16/darrell-issas-lies-create-uncomfortable-scrutiny-criminal-background.html

2.    His amassed wealth of over $700m is partly a result of his car alarm company and in the mix somewhere he was   
       indicted for stealing a car (a red Maserati) and was arrested in a separate incident for carrying a concealed 
       weapon (a .25 Colt) and 44 rounds of ammo and a tear gas gun and two rounds of ammo for the tear gas gun. Not 
       only is this rank of unfairness that a man of such unsavory past can be in Congress and is Chairman of the 
       Committee on Oversight and Government Reform while youths caught with one marijuana cigarette are thrown in 
       Jail some imprisoned but all of whom their rights and their lives are taken from them – they cannot vote, they 
       cannot get grants to go to school, no loan, not meaningful jobs. Inequities of the greatest magnitude!! This is the 
       quality of leadership the Republican Party is putting forward – a party depraved of morals, honesty and integrity. A 
       party which stands for vigilante justice through the NRA. A party where persons of quality, who are honest are 
       extinct. 

3.    And there is that little thing about the “accidental fire”; allegations of arson in a factory this paragon of virtue and 
       bastion of honesty (Mr. Issa) owned. An accident which occurred uncomfortably close after he raised 
       his insurance from $100,000 to $400,000

4.   The man’s words are worth absolutely nothing. He claimed for example that he was always given “highest marks” 
      by the Army and boasts that he provided security for President Nixon a claim which was easily exposed for the lie it 
      is, since records show that the President was not in attendance at events that Issa claimed he provided 
      this security. It was Lance Williams of the San Francisco Examiner in May of 1998 who exposed the fact that Issa 
      did not always receive the “highest possible” ratings in the Army as he claimed and records showed that Issa 
      “received unsatisfactory conduct and efficiency ratings and was transferred to a supply depot.”

 Darrell Issa called Eric Holder a “bad witness” and held the Attorney General in criminal contempt which was the first contempt charge ever of a sitting attorney general.  All I can say of Darrell Issa “the unmitigated gall!” that he, with his rancid past can think that with the passage of time and the fading of memory he is now washed clean of his 
rotten, putrid actions and has acquired the authority to flex his muscles as he is doing. Not so Mr. Man…not so!

Darrell Issa - The paragon of Purity and the IRS “scandal”
I must pause to call out the press for their support for all these unfounded accusations. Every last one of the news media – print and electronic is guilty of labeling these malodorous lies as ‘scandals’ and each one of these have been
disproven but the putrid taste of the scandal label lingers in the memories of the listener/viewer/reader.  After there is clarification that these so-called scandals are nothing but lies and a waste of the country’s time and money the word scandal is the one that is retained in people’s memories. Media action is nothing shy of prostitution, each trying to
out-prostitute the others for ratings and the media is omnipresent, pervasive – you can barely ever switch to a channel or turn the pages of print media and find any varying view point. Boooooooring! 
 
Let’s turn to Mr. Purity Issa and the IRS “scandal”. He published excerpts of the transcript of interview carefully
selecting portions to give the desired interpretation and impact to support his and his party’s devious agenda. All of us know and fewer of us will admit that if the total pieces of a puzzle are not in place and visible, the picture is
distorted, unclear and will depict something totally different from the truth.  

When Rep. Elija Cummings(D-Georgia), the Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of which Issa is Chairman offered to release the entire transcript so that clarity and honesty can
prevail, Mr. Issa objected saying “…..your (Cummings) push to release entire transcripts from witness interviews while the investigation remains active was reckless and threatened to undermine the integrity of the Committee’s investigation."

However, it is the same Chairman Issa who only a week prior to this utterance of concern on CNN’s “State of the Union” who told the host that the full transcripts would be released while at the same time on the same program he presented several pieces of the transcripts organized and designed to suggest that directive to screen tea party groups came from officials in Washington. 

Rep. Cummings being averse to allowing Issa to perpetuate his lies by releasing only parts of the transcript and hence having these as the only evidence in the public record, has released segments of interviews. In a memo to his colleagues on the oversight committee, on Sunday Rep. Cummings echoed the manager in the IRS Cincinnati office who oversaw the nonprofit screening. This manager confirmed that no one in Washington ordered him to employ the practice of targeting tea party groups.

Rep. Cummings said "Although the Committee interviewed a self-identified ‘conservative Republican’ who denied any White House involvement or any political motivation for screening Tea Party cases, Chairman Issa now appears to be going back on his promise to release the full interview transcripts of IRS employees," said Cummings, in a statement. "Chairman Issa changes his mind so fast that even when I agree with him, we’re not on the same page. I fully support responsible oversight, but cherry picking transcript excerpts to fuel partisan and unsubstantiated claims is not a credible or effective way to investigate." Cummings has also promised that he will release the full transcripts if Issa does not. 
 
I ask, “What is new?” Remember the 2012 Republican Presidential Primaries, all candidates would change their stance and the facts at a speed that made the heads of the American people spin. The “Head-spinner in chief” was Mitt Romney who was picked as the best of the bunch to represent this ignoble party! May God really and truly bless America… I don’t want to concede and say these people have caused American to be ‘gone to the dogs’ but if this type of behavior is not stopped and if it continues America is certainly heading to the
dogs!

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