[mattduke]

"We hear it day in and day out: the government sucks, federal employees are lazy and their positions are redundant," said march organizer Steve Ressler, founder of GovLoop, a social networking Web site for public servants.

"It's time to turn the tables and remind the world that government employees just happen to be people -- people that don't suck," Ressler said in a message sent to The Federal Eye on Sunday announcing the march. Government workers "are a lot of cool cats" who work hard, listen to good music and watch Stewart's "The Daily Show," "but that's all after they've spent a whole day keeping the country running," he said.

Goons on parade. The comments are hilarious!
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federa ... rch_p.html

[PrestonSturges]

Undermining the people's faith in government is essential for a totalitarian takeover. Although this is not exclusively a Fascist tactic, Hitler spent years ridiculing representative government, elections, and his opponents (mainly the Social Democrats).

Notice the similarities with the GOP, which hates government, but also believes that every time they lose it is due to election fraud. Lots of them believe that they lost in 2008 because the Dems somehow stole 8,000,000 votes. So they don't believe in government and they don't believe in elections. And the Tea Party doesn't believe in the Consitution either.

[mattduke]

Undermining the people's faith in government is essential for a totalitarian takeover. Although this is not exclusively a Fascist tactic, Hitler spent years ridiculing representative government, elections, and his opponents (mainly the Social Democrats).

Notice the similarities with the GOP, which hates government, but also believes that every time they lose it is due to election fraud. Lots of them believe that they lost in 2008 because the Dems somehow stole 8,000,000 votes. So they don't believe in government and they don't believe in elections. And the Tea Party doesn't believe in the Consitution either.

How can you say the GOP hates government? They expand it every chance they get.

[PrestonSturges]

Undermining the people's faith in government is essential for a totalitarian takeover. Although this is not exclusively a Fascist tactic, Hitler spent years ridiculing representative government, elections, and his opponents (mainly the Social Democrats).

Notice the similarities with the GOP, which hates government, but also believes that every time they lose it is due to election fraud. Lots of them believe that they lost in 2008 because the Dems somehow stole 8,000,000 votes. So they don't believe in government and they don't believe in elections. And the Tea Party doesn't believe in the Consitution either.

How can you say the GOP hates government? They expand it every chance they get.

That is sort of the point of a totalitarian system - they campaign on their total hatred of government, then they expand it to control everything, minus that whole pesky checks and balances of democracy nonsense, which was what they really hated.

[mattduke]

The entire point of the Tea Party is to dramatically shrivel the government to the point where it can no longer hurt us. At least I'm glad that you understand that the larger a government grows, the more tyrannical it becomes.

[dinopello]

Undermining the people's faith in government is essential for a totalitarian takeover.

That does seem to be the motivation. No worries though, if we lose faith in government, we'll still have religion !

I know many in town for the dual "Resore Sanity" and "Keep Fear Alive" rallies. Being so close to Halloween, those are likely to be a giant party. I found my handcuffs, so now I can go as Joe Miller

After a long hard day dismantling the Government,
It's Miller Time, Baby !

[Oakley]

This thread shows the fundamental division in this country, and it really is not Democrat vs. Republican or liberal vs. conservative.

The division is between anarchy (total freedom) and totalitarianism (complete subjugation). Neither extreme is achievable but clearly we have been on a long march away from the freedom end of the scale toward the subjugation end of the scale. The road to totalitarianism is paved with laws that give government more power; one would need to be asleep to not recognize that government has been in a very long expansion period.

Revolution has already begun; just as there was a crisis period leading up to the 1775 violence, and a crisis period leading up to the 1861 violence, we are in a pre violence crisis period. Some people are already calling this peaceful prelude the Ron Paul Revolution. Those hoping for a peaceful scaling back of government power will be disappointed when the 2010 and 2012 elections are over and no matter who wins government continues to expand; the Republicans and Democrats are in reality just different wings of the Big Government Party, the Party of plunder and control.

The revolution point is reached when the pain from going along with the present system of plunder and control exceeds the pain from the fighting back.

It is interesting that the federal government was formed at about the same time as the industrial age was born. Over this 200+ year period, with some cyclical setbacks, the US economy has expanded, driven by energy and the exploitation of other resources that this facilitated. As the economic pie expanded, a progressively greater percentage has been taken by government and those who manipulate laws to favor themselves, the end result being the present large government and present skewed distribution of wealth in favor of special interests. But enough of the expanding economic pie was left over so that even on his reduced share of the pie, the average person has seen an improvement in his standard of living, thus preventing a revolt against the inequity of this plunder and control system.

But now things are changing. The accumulation of restrictions on freedom is killing productive capacity. The redistribution of wealth in favor of those in power has moved more and more people into poverty. The monetary system, which was created to allow banks to fleece the public and allow government almost unlimited credit, has inherent flaws that ultimately cause it to collapse. And the elephant in the room, the peaking of energy production is shifting us into a long term period of economic contraction, so that the lives of the majority will increasingly become more and more painful. This is the formula for violent civil conflict.

The Tea Party is a reflection of the anger that people are feeling toward the system, just as Obama's election was an expression of this anger and frustration. It is just that bias and indoctrination influence thinking about how to deal with the increasing pain, and one group sees less government as the answer, while the other sees more government as the answer. As the pain increased the division will grow and violence will erupt. The unfortunate part is that we are all just people wanting to live, but it is we who will be killing one another. Civil conflict is fought among people, not between people and the "government". Juxtapose civil conflict on the struggle to survive coming from the end of the industrial age, and you will add considerable intensity to the violence.

[PrestonSturges]

But now things are changing. The accumulation of restrictions on freedom is killing productive capacity. ........The Tea Party is a reflection of the anger that people are feeling toward the system, just as Obama's election was an expression of this anger and frustration. It is just that bias and indoctrination influence thinking about how to deal with the increasing pain, and one group sees less government as the answer, while the other sees more government as the answer.

Production has not decreased, nor does industry want "freedom." Industry went to China.

Of course the right wing scream "socialists" while they ship everything to China.

Don't get lost in corporate generated right wing mythology, or you'll start believing the American Revolution was won by Speedy Alkaseltzer, the Quaker Oats guy, Aunt Jemimah, and Pop-N-Fresh.

The libertarians of today want us living in 19th century company towns, a Dickensian nightmare patrolled by Blackwater.

[Ludi]

The entire point of the Tea Party is to dramatically shrivel the government to the point where it can no longer hurt us.

Except by making your uterus a slave of the state.

And insisting you adhere to the state religion (Christianity).



"Pro-Life
Pro-States’ Rights
Pro-Second Amendment
Pro-Constitutional, Limited Government
Against- illegal immigration and open borders
Against- U.S. policy being dictated by the United Nations
Against- undeclared unconstitutional wars (such as Iraq and Afghanistan)
Against- free trade and all international trade agreements such as NAFTA & GATT
Against – SPP and the North American Union
Against – Patriot Act
Against – Real ID Act"

http://texasteaparty.org/whythecp.html

http://texasteaparty.org/christianheritage.html

[Ludi]

And if Tea Party don't like what you have to say, they'll hold you down and stomp on you.

So much for freedom of speech.

"While the Kentucky Senatorial debate on Monday night was markedly more cordial than usual, a fight that broke out before the event was anything but.

A female MoveOn.org activist was stomped on by a supporter of Kentucky GOP candidate Rand Paul after she attempted to approach him before his final debate with Democrat Jack Conway, Lexington police told the New York Daily News."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politic ... ay_de.html

[Plantagenet]

In just two years Obama and the democrats have expanded the government from ca. 20 to 24% of the economy. For 60 years both dems and repubs kept US government spending at about 20% of GDP, and the economy chugged along. It took the incompetent Obama administration and a democratic Congress to expand the goverment to the point that it is damaging the private sector and inhibiting job creation.

Government doesn't suck, but too much government sucks big time.

[PrestonSturges]

That wasn't a fight, that was a petite woman being wrestled to the ground by several guys.

Read the comments with that article or any other related article - the Tea Partiers are all saying that she got what she deserved and the whole thing was a conspiracy.

There has always been an overlap between the Ron Paul crowd, the militias, the black helicopter nuts, and white supremacists.

This is where you really see the Tea Party morphing into a fascist organization complete with brownshirts to beat up the "socialists." In Alaska, you have Joe Miller has private security provided by active military and militia types who handcuffed a reporter, because you know how scary those small town public libraries can get.

[dinopello]

There's that Libertarian quote that goes something like "when the government's boot is on your throat, it matters not whether it is the left boot or the right boot"...

Note, that it doesn't mention private citizen's or corporate boots. Stomp away !

[Outcast_Searcher]

"It's time to turn the tables and remind the world that government employees just happen to be people -- people that don't suck," Ressler said in a message sent to The Federal Eye on Sunday announcing the march.

It's unfortunate if typical hard working government employees feel that the concern many folks have about the size and scope of government is a slam against them. I suspect that for most folks, it's not.

There are bad (lazy, etc) employees at any decent sized outfit - private or public, (so citing the occaisonal sloth at the post office or the DMV likely isn't fair).

Often when I watch C-SPAN, and see some really bright, enthusiastic, knowledgable federal employee testify about some fiasco that the organization they work for is embroiled in, I think: "Damn, we should elect people like THIS for the key government positions, like senators and the folks that run the screwed up outfits themselves".

OTOH, the bosses (who tend to look good in suits but be complete idiots who only say "it wasn't my fault") that RUN the government institutions which are in the controversy due to incompetence or ineffectiveness -- well, that's a whole different kettle of fish. That can also be said for senior management at many corporations, BTW.

It would be nice if we didn't pay completely unreasonable benefits and pensions to federal employees compared to the private sector -- but again, that's about financial solvency and overall government effectiveness, not the individual workers.

So march away people, and have fun. It's the expansion of govt. from 18% to heading towards 25% in recent years. It's the overall lack of credible and effective programs and regulations. It's the lack of respect for taxpayer's income which most of the folks protesting "government sucking" are concerned with. And most of all, it's the growing mantra of, if there is a problem, "more government will fix it - we just need more taxes".

[Ludi]

What did she do to deserve being assaulted?

[Cid_Yama]

Less Government is a corporatist euphemism for Less Regulation for industry.

The Less Government argument is nonsense. It's purpose is to hide the real argument, less regulation vs more regulation.

The role of government is to protect the people from rampant corporate excesses.

We need more regulation not less. Which should be obvious to anyone.

[careinke]

Except by making your uterus a slave of the state.

Lets make a deal, you can keep your uterus, and I can keep my money.

By the way, you Democrats are racists.

http://yeson19.com/node/260

[Ludi]

Lets make a deal, you can keep your uterus, and I can keep my money.

Money is a part of your body?

By the way, you Democrats are racists.

I'm not a Democrat.

[Outcast_Searcher]

Less Government is a corporatist euphemism for Less Regulation for industry.

The Less Government argument is nonsense. It's purpose is to hide the real argument, less regulation vs more regulation.

The role of government is to protect the people from rampant coporate excesses.

We need more regulation not less. Which should be obvious to anyone.

If regulation were sensible OR effective, there might be a sliver of truth in the above statements. However, it almost never is sensible or effective.

But I know, your answer is we just need a LOT more (and a lot more taxes to go along with them) and then everything will be dandy.

Try watching CSPAN (which is neutral) coverage of a senate investigation when some agency like the EPA, the FDA, the Post Office, the BLM, the SEC, etc. explain what happened when they completely missed something or are running up giant deficits with no end in sight. I have watched a BUNCH of these in the past couple of years. I'll summarize them all:

Some clown in a suit that runs the outfit gets in front of the senators. They look nice in their suit. They say "it wasn't my fault". They claim they need lots more funding. They admit their organization doesn't really do anything, that they let "industry regulate/police/test itself". They can't answer almost ANY question of substance about the organization they run (without consulting a lackey) or the strategic plans to fix the problem.

Yeah Cid, let's have LOTS and LOTS more of this. It will be Nirvana!!!

Have you considered applying for a punditry job at MSNBC?

[Serial_Worrier]

I wonder if Cid Yama is Ed Schult'z alter ego?