Tea Baggers spit on Democratic member of Congress and call others 'nigger' and 'faggot' at the Capital

As thousands of tea bagging protesters descended on the Capitol to protest the passage of health care reform prior to President Obama's speech to House Democrats, their demeanor quickly devolved into a shocking display of hostility, resulting in abusive heckling and some mild physical abuse of members of Congress as they passed through Longworth House office building.

A staffer for Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) had been spat on by a protestor. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a hero of the civil rights movement, was called a 'nigger.' And Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was called a 'faggot', as protesters shouted epithets at him and the others.

Rep. Clyburn said he had not witnessed such treatment since he was leading civil rights protests in South Carolina in the 1960s.

"It was absolutely shocking to me," Clyburn said, in response to a question from the Huffington Post. "Last Monday, this past Monday, I stayed home to meet on the campus of Claflin University where fifty years ago as of last Monday... I led the first demonstrations in South Carolina, the sit-ins... And quite frankly I heard some things today I have not heard since that day. I heard people saying things that I have not heard since March 15, 1960 when I was marching to try and get off the back of the bus."

Fellow Conservative charges Fox host Sean Hannity's Freedom Alliance charity with unethical fundraising

Conservative blogger Debbie Schlussel has charged Sean Hannity's Freedom Alliance charity with unethical fundraising practices. She says that less than four percent of Freedom Alliance's earnings in 2006 went to college funding for children of fallen soldiers and care for wounded veterans which were the nonprofit's listed aims. She has accused them of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on private planes and limousines for Fox host Hannity's family and friends, with very little going to soldiers and their families.

Media Matters for America backs up the accuracy of Schlussel's numbers analysis, but does not fully endorse all of her claims because the Freedom Alliance does not state on its Web site what percentage of raised funds will go to their specific programs.

DebbieSchlussel.com posted the following: Despite Hannity's statements to the contrary on his nationally syndicated radio show, few of the children of fallen soldiers got more than $1,000-$2,000, with apparently none getting more than $6,000, while Freedom Alliance appears to have spent tens of thousands of dollars for private planes. Moreover, despite written assurances to donors that all money raised would go directly to scholarships for kids of the fallen heroes and not to expenses has begun charging expenses of nearly $500,000 to give out just over $800,000 in scholarships.

Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley criticizes wife of Justice Clarence Thomas for her Tea Bagger activism

On Monday George Washington University professor and Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley criticized the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas for her ever-increasing role in Tea-Bagger political activism.

"It's, in a word, injudicious," Turley,, said on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. "The fact that this is news is an example of the self-restraint used by most spouses of Supreme Court Justices previously." He said it's not much to expect for spouses to try to refrain from direct political activism, particularly to start a group like this so far into her husband's tenure."

Turley noted that neither Justice Thomas nor his wife are violating any ethics laws, but asserted her actions were rather unseemly and could raise questions about the impartiality of the Court's justices, whose only role is to uphold the constitution.

The Los Angeles Times brought the story to the nation's attention on Sunday:

In January, Virginia Thomas created Liberty Central Inc., a nonprofit lobbying group whose website will organize activism around a set of conservative "core principles," she said.

The group plans to issue score cards for Congress members and be involved in the November election. Thomas said the group would accept donations from corporations, as allowed under campaign finance rules recently loosened by the Supreme Court.

Thomas's group will benefit financially from the Citizens United ruling, which her husband's vote helped secure. Liberty Central pledges on its Web site to "preserve freedom and reaffirm the core founding principles" as well as help citizens "make a difference in the fight for liberty and against the liberal Washington agenda."

Republican National Committee is providing campaign signs for Tea-Baggers in Washington this week

The Republican National Committee is paying for signs and political buttons used by Tea Party groups despite widespread disagreement among the conservative, grassroots activists on whether the movement should work to elect candidates within the Republican Party or steer clear from it.

The campaign items, paid for by the RNC, were on full display at a Friday press conference of tea-bagger activists who were in Washington D.C. for the “Take the Town Halls to Washington” project.  Red-white-and-blue buttons and signs emblazoned with the words “Listen to Me!” were passed out to attendees. At the bottom of the signs read: “Paid for by the Republican National Committee.”

Michael Patrick Leahy, a “Take the Town Halls to Washington” project organizer who is bringing tea-baggers to the capital to lobby Democrats on their proposed health-care bill, admitted that the RNC did provide the signs and buttons, but said he didn’t know the details of the arrangement with Republicans and couldn’t explain how the signs got there. “They just showed up,” he said.

An RNC official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the signs were given to the group at its request.

The buttons and signs were visible both at the press conference and inside “the war room,” a small area inside the hotel where the “Take the Town Halls to Washington” project is headquartered.  

RNC chairman Michael Steele met with tea-bagger activists in Washington several weeks ago in an attempt to keep them from supporting third-party candidates. Recent polling shows that Republicans will not fare well in November the tea-baggers support third-party candidates.

See photos of the signs:

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/149316/TPS-BEFORE.jpg

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/149314/TPS-AFTER.jpg

Rep Alan Grayson calls former Gov. Palin an Alaskan dingbat after her campaign trip to Florida

Below is an e-mail from U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando responding to former less than one-term Gov. Sarah Palin who was in Florida campaigning for his opponent.

On Friday night, Sarah Palin came to Orlando, and attacked Rep. Alan Grayson. This is what she said:

"I got to meet quite a few candidates who are lining up in a contested primary who want to take out Alan Grayson. And I think Alan Grayson -- what can you say about Alan Grayson? Piper is with me tonight, so I won't say anything about Alan Grayson that can't be said around children. [Good one, Sarah!] But thank you, Florida, for allowing candidates in a contested primary to duke it out over ideas and principles and values, all with the same goal, and that is unseating those who have such a disconnect from the people of America. That's what the goal is here in this race against Alan Grayson. Please fight hard, and do this for the rest of the country. Fight hard, and send a conservative to Washington, DC."

Palin, the former half-term Governor, current-nothing and future-even-less, charmed the all-Republican audience with her folksy folksiness and her homespun homespunnery. Atypically, Palin was wearing clothes that she had paid for herself. At the end of the event, she shared her recipe for mooseface pie.

In response to Palin's attack on Rep Grayson, Grayson actually complimented Palin. Grayson praised Palin for having a hand large enough to fit Grayson's entire name on it. He thanked Palin for alleviating the growing shortage of platitudes in Central Florida.

Grayson added that Palin deserved credit for getting through the entire hour-long program without quitting. Grayson also said that Palin really had mastered Palin's imitation of Tina Fey imitating Palin. Grayson observed that Palin is the most-intelligent leader that the Republican Party has produced since George W. Bush.

When asked to comment about what effect Palin's criticism might have, Grayson pointed out, "As the Knave's horse says in Alice in Wonderland, 'dogs will believe anything.'" Earlier, as the Orlando Sentinel reported, Grayson said, "I'm sure Palin knows all about politics in Central Florida, since from her porch she can see Winter Park," which is part of Grayson's district.

Grayson said that the Alaskan chillbilly was welcome to return to Central Florida anytime, as long as she brings lots of money with her, and spends it. "I look forward to an honest debate with Governor Palin on the issues, in the unlikely event that she ever learns anything about them," Grayson added, alluding to Politifact's "liar, liar, pants on fire" evaluation of much of what Palin has said.

Scientists are studying Sarah Palin's travel between Alaska and Florida carefully. They hope to learn more about the flight patterns of that elusive migratory species, the wild Alaskan dingbat.

Rove now denies that Iraq funds would help pay for war costs, opposite of Bush administration statements at war's start

In former top Bush aide Karl Rove’s new book and in recent promotional media appearances, he has been rewriting the history of the Iraq war, predominantly concerning former President Bush’s justifications for going to war because of Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction.

On NBC’s Meet the Press, Rove persisted with his Iraq war history revision campaign. Asserting that the Bush administration had mishandled the war, host Tom Brokaw said that war costs had skyrocketed  from the beginning, and there were no oil revenues used to offset costs as had been promised. In response Rove emphatically rejected that the Bush administration said Iraqi oil revenues would help pay for the war:

ROVE: “No, no. Tom with all due respect that was not the policy of our government that we were going to go into Iraq and take their resources in order to pay for the cost of the war.”

Rove’s assertion is blatantly untrue. In the days after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told a congressional panel that Iraqi oil revenues would help pay for rebuilding the country, significant portions of the cost of the war. “The oil revenue of that country could bring between 50 and 100 billion dollars over the course of the next two or three years. We’re dealing with a country that could really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon,” he said.

One month before the war, then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Iraq “is a rather wealthy country. … And so there are a variety of means that Iraq has to be able to shoulder much of the burden for their own reconstruction.”

Since the start of the Iraq war, the U.S. has spent tens of billions of dollars in reconstruction costs.

Watch Rove on Meet the Press: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6lJjFPNv1s

Unemployment rate at 21.1% for young Iraq and Afghanistan war combat veterans

A recent Associated Press article reveals that the unemployment rate last year among young veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars was at 21.1 percent. This according to a U.S. Labor Department report released last Friday which indicates tough employment difficulties that combat veterans face as they make the transition home from war.

The number was well above the 16.6 percent jobless rate for non-veterans of the same ages, 18 to 24. The 2010 figure was much higher than the 2008 unemployment rate of 14.1 percent among veterans in that same age group.

Joseph Sharpe, director of the economic division at the American Legion said that many of the unemployed combat veterans are members of the National Guard and reserves who have deployed multiple times. Sharpe said many have come home to find their jobs had been eliminated because of companies downsizing their workforce all across the nation. 


He also noted that other companies might not want to hire a veteran who might deploy again or will have many medical appointments because of war-related health problems.