The Tea Parties Now Have Their Man

Chuck Baldwin
Infowars.com
April 30, 2011

After I wrote my last column, several Tea Party activists contacted me to let me know that they had not been “neoconned.” They made it plain in no uncertain terms that they would never support establishment neocon Republicans such as Newt Gingrich for the office of President of the United States. Most assuredly, I was glad to hear from these folks; I only wish my mail box had been swamped with such correspondence–it wasn’t!



See my column at:
http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?p=3425

At this point, it may be helpful if I give a little history lesson. The Tea Party movement began in 2007 as a grassroots effort to support the 2008 Presidential candidacy of Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. I am proud to say that I was part of that effort. In fact, I actively campaigned for Dr. Paul in at least four states during that election cycle: Alabama, Florida, Iowa, and South Carolina. I was even honored to represent Dr. Paul in a major South Carolina GOP banquet, in which sitting US congressmen and senators were selected from around the country to represent most of the other Republican Presidential candidates. (I wish readers could have been a fly on the wall to witness the goings on at the speaker’s table during the banquet as these GOP congressmen and senators tried to figure out who I was, and what the heck I was doing there. It was quite a sight!) I well remember that, as I came down from the speaker’s platform, one US Senator told me that my promotion of Dr. Paul’s candidacy that night was the best presentation on behalf of the Texas congressman that he had ever heard. Since then, I have spoken at numerous Tea Party events and appeared on both local and national media outlets (and numerous private videos and recordings) discussing the merits of the Tea Party movement and promoting the candidacy of Dr. Paul.

We need to get this straight: the Tea Party movement was never about electing Republicans–especially neocon Republicans! The Tea Party movement began as a grassroots effort to reduce the size and scope of the federal government; to rid America of the oppressive tax burden under which it currently groans; to eliminate the Federal Reserve; to return America to sound money; to stop the federal government’s obsession with foreign entanglements and wars; and to return America to constitutional governance. And there was only one man within the two major parties that was going to bring about those changes in 2008: Congressman Ron Paul, which is why the Tea Party was birthed as a grassroots extension of his campaign.

Since then, however, many GOP shills and toadies have jumped on the Tea Party bandwagon and have attempted to redefine its goals and objectives, including many of the talking heads on FOX News. In truth, many Tea Party activists regularly look to Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and other “conservative” celebrities to champion their cause.

Need I remind everyone that Hannity has hardly ever met a Republican that he didn’t gush over. And I couldn’t count how many times we’ve seen Mr. Neocon himself, Newt Gingrich, on Hannity’s show. And as much as many people will cringe to hear this (and as much as I appreciate many things that Beck has to say), it was Glenn Beck who literally sabotaged a legitimate Tea Party candidate, Debra Medina, on his show. I would even dare say that Medina might have been elected Texas governor had it not been for the hatchet job Beck did on her. And as much as I like Sarah Palin for her fervent pro-life and pro-Second Amendment convictions, when it comes to foreign affairs, she is just another shill for the pro-war, military-industrial complex that has dominated US foreign policy since the days of Lyndon Johnson.

In 2008, the Tea Party movement supported one candidate: Ron Paul. He was the only Presidential candidate who had the guts to say the Federal Reserve was corrupt and needed to be eliminated; he was the only candidate (with the exception of Dennis Kucinich) who said the war in Iraq was unnecessary and unconstitutional; he was the only candidate who sponsored the Sanctity of Life Act, which would recognize the right of the states to nullify Roe vs. Wade; he was the only Republican candidate to speak out against the USA Patriot Act, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and other draconian police-state-type legislation and departments; and he was the only man from either party who had the guts to say the US should stop sending foreign aid to all countries–even Israel.

Now, here we are four years later. And, once again, the man who was responsible for the Tea Party movement coming into existence has entered the 2012 race for President. See the story, as it is reported in the National Journal:
http://tinyurl.com/3c67url

Coinciding with his announcement that he was establishing an “Exploratory Committee” for his Presidential bid, Dr. Paul also launched his campaign web site, which is located at:

http://www.ronpaul2012.com

So, once again, the Tea Parties have their man. Will they support him in 2011 and 2012, as they did in 2007 and 2008? If they have not been “neoconned,” they will.

Chuck Baldwin’s article first appeared on his blog. 

SA@TAC - The Tea Party vs. Washington

Betrayed! Tea Party Politicians Vote for Patriot Act

The American Dream
February 17, 2011

For a moment, imagine that you are awakened one night by a heavily-armed team of federal agents dressed in all black breaking into your home.  As you confront them, they hand you a piece of paper that says that your son has been identified as a “terrorist” and that they are there to take him away.  They pull your son out of bed, they throw him on the floor and the use a taser on him repeatedly.  Then they handcuff him and haul him away without telling you a thing about where they are taking him.  Your son suddenly has no rights because the Patriot Act supersedes the U.S. Constitution.  That’s right – because your son has been identified as a “terrorist” because of something that he has said on the Internet he no longer has any constitutional rights.  Your underage son is held indefinitely and is subjected to “enhanced interrogation” because he has been identified as a “threat”.  You are not able to get your son back for years even though it turns out that he is completely and totally innocent.  If you think that such a thing cannot happen to you then you are a fool, because this kind of thing is happening over and over across the United States and it is all legal because of the Patriot Act.

America is rapidly turning into a horrible Big Brother police state and most of our politicians are fully supporting this transformation.  In fact, the U.S. House of Representatives gave us quite a Valentine’s Day gift the other day when it voted to once again extend provisions of the Patriot Act that allow for domestic surveillance of American citizens, wire tapping of American citizens and warrantless searches of the homes of American citizens.


What was perhaps most disappointing was that a large number of “Tea Party politicians” cast votes in favor of renewing the Patriot Act provisions.

The majority of Americans were absolutely disgusted when the Bush administration instituted the Patriot Act and many other police state measures and they voted for Barack Obama hoping for something different.

Well, it turns out that Barack Obama has been even worse.

Have you been to an airport lately?  Yeah, those “naked body scanners” and “enhanced pat-downs” are a lot of fun, aren’t they?

Many Americans voted for Tea Party candidates during the last election hoping that they would be willing to stand up for liberty and freedom.

Well, it turns out that many of them caved when it came time to vote on the extension of Patriot Act provisions.

So is there anyone out there that we can vote for that will stand up for liberty and freedom?

The truth is that this is not a conservative issue and it is not a liberal issue.
This is an American issue.

But doesn’t the Patriot Act keep us safe from terrorism?
No.
Just the other day Dr. Vahid Majidi, the FBI’s assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, admitted that even with all of our “security measures” the chance that the U.S. will be hit a weapon of mass destruction is 100 percent….

“There’s a probability of 100 percent that a WMD event will happen.”

But even if the Patriot Act could keep us “safer”, is that any reason for us to live the rest of our lives as “cattle” in a Big Brother police state that is becoming more like George Orwell’s 1984 every single day?

Are we willing to forever renounce being “the land of the free and the home of the brave” just so that we can feel a bit more secure?

The truth is that the U.S. government is not really protecting us anyway.  Our border with Mexico is wide open and millions of people have been pouring across it unchecked.  It would be ridiculously easy for any potential “terrorists” to smuggle dangerous weapons into this country.

So please don’t try to tell me that the U.S. government is actually serious about national security.  Until the U.S. government is willing to do something about the border they should not be asking the American people to give up a single ounce of liberty or freedom for the sake of “security”.

But instead of securing the border and doing other practical things that would actually keep this country safer, our government has become absolutely obsessed with watching us, tracking us, listening to us, “assessing” us and controlling us.

In the process, the America that we all once loved is rapidly being destroyed.  Because of laws like the Patriot Act, our country now more closely resembles East Germany during the Cold War than the nation that our founding fathers originally established.

Government whistleblower Susan Lindauer, who has been arrested under the Patriot Act for protesting the Iraq war, recently authored an article in which she described why Americans should be much more frightened by the Patriot Act….

The American people are not nearly as frightened as they should be. Many Americans expect the Patriot Act to limit its surveillance to overseas communications. Yet while I was under indictment, Maryland State Police invoked the Patriot Act to wire tap activists tied to the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, an environmental group dedicated to wind power, solar energy and recycling. The DC Anti-War Network was targeted as a “white supremacist group.” Amnesty International and anti-death penalty activists got targeted for alleged “civil rights violations.”

Lindauer is speaking from experience when she talks about the Patriot Act.  Just hope and pray that you never have to go through what she had to go through because of the Patriot Act….

I cannot forget. I cannot forget how I was subjected to secret charges, secret evidence and secret grand jury testimony that denied my right to face my accusers or their accusations in open court, throughout five years of indictment. I cannot forget my imprisonment on a Texas military base for a year without a trial or evidentiary hearing.

I cannot forget how the FBI, the US Attorneys Office, the Bureau of Prisons and the main Justice office in Washington — independently and collectively verified my story— then falsified testimony to Chief Justice Michael Mukasey, denying our 9/11 warnings and my long-time status as a U.S. intelligence Asset, though my witnesses had aggressively confronted them. Apparently the Patriot Act allows the Justice Department to withhold corroborating evidence and testimony from the Court, if it is deemed “classified.”

I cannot forget threats of forcible drugging and indefinite detention up to 10 years, until I could be “cured” of believing what everybody wanted to deny— because it was damn inconvenient to politicians in Washington anxious to hold onto power.

At least there are a few members of Congress that attempted to oppose the renewal of the Patriot Act. For example, Senator Rand Paul recently explained why he opposes renewal of this freedom-killing law….

“The Senate yesterday proposed a three-year extension of the PATRIOT Act, a move that would not have allowed for any hearings, amendments, or debate. I objected to this deal. I realize that I might not have the votes to stop this bill, but we should at least discuss this in public as adults.

“We should have the opportunity to explain why the Constitution is being violated. We should talk about how we do not have to give up who we are in order to fight terrorism. It is not acceptable to willfully ignore the most basic provisions of our Constitution—in this case—the Fourth and First Amendments—in the name of ‘security.’”

Unfortunately, most of our other politicians have stood by and have done nothing to stop the horrific abuses that are taking place under this law.  A good friend of ours, Charlie McGrath, recently lamented this fact in a recent video….



What in the world is happening to this country?

One of the worst things about all of this is that Christians are actually some of the strongest supporters of the Patriot Act.

The mainstream media has brainwashed many of them into believing that the Patriot Act is “conservative” and that it is going to keep us safe from terrorism.  Somehow Christians have been duped into believing that the more power Barack Obama and his minions have to control our lives the safer we all are going to be.
But the truth is that laws like the Patriot Act are transforming this nation into a totalitarian regime.  We are becoming more like North Korea, Communist China, the USSR and Nazi Germany every single day.

As a Christian, I deeply oppose laws such as the Patriot Act.  The Scriptures warn us of a time when a future world government will attempt to brutally dominate all the nations on the planet.  Just read the book of Revelation some time.

Any law that takes our liberties and freedoms away is another step in the direction of totalitarianism.  Every time another new law like the Patriot Act gets passed we get closer to the time when government completely dominates and controls every single aspect of our lives.

Christians should be loudly denouncing any attempt to strip our liberties and freedoms away.  Christians should be loudly denouncing the destruction of our constitutional rights.

Transforming our government into a hardcore socialist police state and handing it all kinds of extreme “Big Brother” powers is not going to make us safer.

We were sold a pack of lies by the Bush administration and now the Obama administration is trying to cram even more lies down our throats.

Many of us had hoped that Tea Party politicians would be different and would stand up for our liberties and freedoms, but now we can clearly see that many of them will not.

In the past, Americans would ready George Orwell’s 1984 and would think that nothing like that could ever happen in the United States of America.
Well, it is happening in the United States of America.

Are you going to stand up and say anything about it?

Tea Party Anger at Michele Bachmann Explodes over Patriot Act Votes

Tea Party Anger at Michele Bachmann Explodes over Patriot Act Votes

By Jim Cook
irregulartimes.com

Four times in just one week Michele Bachmann, a Congresswoman from Minnesota and self-appointed Chair of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus, voted in favor of the big-government surveillance, search and seizure powers of the Patriot Act. On February 8, Rep. Bachmann voted in favor of reauthorizing Patriot Act with no amendments or committee consideration allowed. On February 10, Bachmann voted to bring Patriot Act reauthorization back to the House floor, despite the fact that it had just been voted down. On the evening of Valentine’s Day, Michele Bachmann rejected a motion to follow House Rules and send the Patriot Act to the appropriate committees so members could propose sensible reforms. A few minutes after that, Bachmann voted YES to support final passage of the Patriot Act’s renewal in the House. All of these votes operated under conditions that permitted no amendments, no compromise, no reform, and mere minutes of debate.
There are a lot of rank-and-file members of the Tea Party who are not happy about this. They harkened to her words last year as she inaugurated the Tea Party Caucus in Congress:

George Washington once said, “The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon.” Sadly, it seems today that the Constitution is no longer at the forefront guiding Congress…. I called for a Tea Party Caucus to bring Members’ attention to the cries of everyday Americans who are asking for a return to the fundamental principles contained within our nation’s greatest document, the Constitution.
Americans from all locations and backgrounds have united through Tea Parties to spread the timeless messages of fiscal responsibility and limited government. And I have talked to many people who felt discouraged because no one in Washington D.C. seemed willing to listen. This caucus will change that sentiment and ensure the voices of the people are carried through the halls of Congress.

Tea Party Americans are asking themselves how the same Michele Bachmann could just months later issue four rapid-fire votes in favor of the Patriot Act, which lets government agents spy on, search and seize the property of people who have nothing to do with terrorism and when there is no probable cause to suspect them of involvement in a crime. “Probable cause” may seem like a familiar phrase to you — it’s the standard that must be met according to the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It’s the same Constitution that Michele Bachmann wrapped herself in last year, the same Constitution that she’s discarded like used toilet paper.

Read the article

Tea Party Caucus Leader Bachmann Votes for PATRIOT Act

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
February 15, 2011

Now that establishment Republicans have managed to steer the Tea Party into the political Borg Hive and run off the real patriots, it is time to get the neocon total war agenda back on track.


Rep. Michele Bachmann: Just another tool for the neocon mass murder agenda.

Minnesota’s Michele Bachmann, like Alaska’s Sarah Palin, likes to pretend she is at the center of the Tea Party movement. She talks loud and long about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Last week Bachmann voted for an extension of the Constitution-busting PATRIOT Act.

“Today I voted for a temporary extension of three legal authorities in the Patriot Act,” Bachmann wrote on her Facebook on February 8. “This vote was not for a full reauthorization of the Patriot Act. As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I look forward to briefings and reports from our intelligence community that will help us develop longer term solutions as we protect our nation against international terrorism.”

“Today’s vote was for a ten-month extension of three provisions that would have expired later this month,” she posted on her House page. “These provisions maintain the flexibility that our intelligence community needs to monitor terror suspects and protect our country against international terrorism. As a mother of five and a foster mother to 23 children, I voted for these authorities so that our laws keep pace with the evolving threats posed by terrorists.”

As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, it is fair to assume Ms. Bachmann is a tool for the CIA and the Pentagon and buys into their phony war on manufactured terror.