Rachel Maddow reviews the many ways the conservative movement is rife with scammers who are more interested in making a buck off the fear and paranoia of conservative media audiences than they are in crafting a cogent political arguments.
Tag Archives: Dick Armey
Rachel Maddow: Conservatism Riddled With Scams And Rackets (video)
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Filed under Right Wing Folly, Right Wing Scams
Rachel Maddow Rips Conservative Media For Scamming Donors
Rachel Maddow has no qualms about exposing the underbelly of the Right-Wing Super PAC scamming business and the Right-Wing media’s compliance. This woman is awesome. No wonder she’s beating brain dead Hannity in the ratings.
The Huffington Post
Rachel Maddow tore into members of the conservative media on her Monday MSNBC show for what she called “scamming” gullible members of their own party who donate to various Super PACs.
Maddow discussed how watchdog group Media Matters recently looked into conservative pundit Dick Morris’ Super PAC and found that some of his key expenditures included renting his own email list, which is operated by Newsmax Media.
“So your money … goes to Dick Morris, who apparently then pays it to Newsmax to send emails, and then Newsmax maybe just pays it back to Dick Morris to pay for the email addresses to which they just sent all of his emails,” Maddow said. “What these financial reports seems to indiciate is that donations to Dick Morris’ Super PAC substantially end up just going to Dick Morris.” She added that Morris’ Super PAC has been around for a couple of years “so maybe it doesn’t always look like a scam,” but that more and more “scammy-looking” arrangements have been coming to light — as in the case of the well funded Tea Party group Freedom Works.
Dick Armey, the man who helped build the conservative group, recently left and arranged an $8 million golden parachute for himself upon his departure, which raised some eyebrows. Then news broke that Freedom Works president Matt Kibbe allegedly used the group’s staff and funds to write part of his book. “So if you think about it, anyone donating to Freedom Works was effectively paying for the staff time and the resources to produce a project that just personally profited one of the people who works there,” Maddow said. “A scam.”
Maddow likened the situation to what she called Newt Gingrich’s “direct mail scam,” where he would give businesses fake awards, which gave them the opportunity to donate $5,000 to meet him. “Congratulations to you!” Maddow quipped. “Where is your check to me?”
She also compared the situation to what she called the “scammy campaign” where Mike Huckabee asked supporters to donate $2,500 to “help fund the battle” against Obamacare, which also went towards helping to keep Huckabee on TV to repeal Obamacare.
“Will having Mike Huckabee on TV repeal Obamacare? I’m checking with the constitution, but I don’t think so,” Maddow said. She later added, “If you are a person who has long been fascinated by how similar the conservative ‘be afraid’ direct mail that asks for money looks to the kind of direct mail that tries to scam your grandmother out of her savings … it is amazing to see, if you have been watching this over time … is how persistent this is.”
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- With Sean Hannity Getting Stomped In the Ratings Fox News Attacks Rachel Maddow (kaystreet.wordpress.com)
- A Super PAC Scam? (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
- Right Wing Rip Off: Dick Morris Made A Fortune Off His Own SuperPAC (addictinginfo.org)
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Filed under GOP PAC Scams, Right Wing Internet Scams, Right-wing disinformation campaign
Texas Rep. tells crowd Obama impeachment ‘needs to happen,’ but fails to say why
This guy is representative of the dysfunctional GOP psyche…
Raw Story
A Republican congressman from Texas recently told a gathering of tea party supporters that the impeachment of President Barack Obama “needs to happen,” but when queried as to why, he could not say.
The comment comes from Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX), a women’s doctor who took office in 2003, stepping into the seat held by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R). Amid a recent grilling over his vote to extend the U.S. debt ceiling, Burgess rebuffed tea party members, insisting that allowing the nation to default would have been much worse than a credit ratings downgrade, according to The Fort Worth Star Telegram.
“I didn’t want the country to go through what it is going through right now,” Burgess reportedly said. “It’s not the president’s downgrade. The downgrade affected the whole country.”
That vote shouldn’t have come as a surprise to tea party Republicans. In times of less dire financial straits — namely when the Republican party controlled Congress and the presidency — Burgess was in favor of raising the debt ceiling every time he was asked, voting yes in 2003 and in 2004, and additionally voicing support for increases in 2006 and 2007, though official votes were not taken.
All told, Burgess has been in favor of raising the debt limit over $3.3 trillion to finance everything from foreign wars, massive, budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations and an unfunded prescription drug benefit plan that prohibited the government from negotiating for lower prices. Had he come to Washington just two years earlier, that figure would likely be closer to $4 trillion, which is approximately how much Republicans added to the nation’s debt limit from 2001-2008.
Related articles
- Tea Party Wants To Impeach Obama, GOP Congressman Agrees (huffingtonpost.com)
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- S&P comes out swinging as Obama disputes downgrade (independent.co.uk)
- Ron Paul: Credit Rating Downgrade ‘Political Theater To Build Up The Fear’ (mediaite.com)
Filed under GOP Cluelessness
“Tell Us What To Say” – Tea Party Group Gives GOP Freshmen Medicare Talking Points
So, what sort of power does a group like the Tea Party have over members of the House and Senate? Could it be Corporate and special interests who are looking for members of both houses in Congress to tow the free market line?
The wealthiest corporations and special interest groups usually pepper politicians with overwhelming amounts of money in hope of influencing the political process.
It’s the same way with the Tea Party which is backed by the likes of Koch Industries and other corporate interests.
Huffington Post
FreedomWorks Gives Freshman Republicans Tips For Dealing With Medicare At Town Halls
The conservative group FreedomWorks has a message for freshman Republicans in Congress: Do not shy away from the Medicare fight.
On May 24, the group run by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey convened one of its regular off-the-record meetings with “communicators from limited-government conservative offices in the House and Senate who have a close relationship with the grassroots,” according to an email from FreedomWorks’ Media Coordinator Jackie Bodnar obtained by The Huffington Post. The email was intended for attendees of the breakfast meeting.
The main topics of discussion, according to notes attached to the email that recapped the meeting, were the debt ceiling and Medicare. The special guest that day was Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who argued, according to the recap, that the “debt ceiling has become a key bargaining chip that can be used to get the BBA [balanced budget amendment] passed.”
Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, focused on Medicare and gave the congressional offices tips for dealing with the hot topic in their districts (emphasis added):
- Get out there and talk to people. Hold town halls at senior centers and other areas where the population is especially concerned about their benefits being cut. Take the lessons of ’94 and ’95 and get out there and explain to people that their immediate benefits will not be affected. Explaining the plan will offset confusion and the Democrats’ negative messaging.
- We need to dispel the myth that if we leave Medicare alone it will stay the same. It won’t. By reforming them we are saving and strengthening these programs for the current and future generations.
- Don’t bury your head in the sand. Republicans must not shy away from this issue. Expect Democrats to attack, but not fighting back will only makes it worse. BOLD action is needed.
- Communicate that Democrats do not have a plan of their own. Hold up a blank piece of paper as a powerful image of their do-nothing approach.
- Stick to your message.
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- Democrats Win Special Election Thanks To Medicare And Phony Tea Party Candidate, But Mainly Phony Tea Party Candidate (rightwingnews.com)
- New York voters pull the plug on Republicans and Ryan – Washington Times (news.google.com)
- Worries for Texas freshmen after ‘Mediscare’ fuels GOP loss in NY contest – Dallas Morning News (news.google.com)
- House GOP not backing away from Ryan Medicare proposal (thehill.com)
- GOP Freshmen Appeal to Obama for Calm Discussion on Medicare (blogs.wsj.com)
- GOP freshmen share how to handle town hall anger (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
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Filed under Freedom Works, Tea Party, Tea Party Agenda, Tea Party Caucus
The Koch Brothers & The Tea Party
Dylan Ratigan Makes It Official: Mark Ames & Yasha Levine Broke The Koch Brothers’ Takeover Of America
- From the time they founded the Tea Party in 2009 to today, their wealth shot up from 28 billion to 44 billion, nearly 60 percent;
- They led the campaign against health care;
- The Kochs spend more fighting climate change than anyone or any company in the world;
- The Kochs bankrolled Scott Walker;
- The Kochs wrote Bush’s environmental policies;
- Cato wrote the Republican Congress’s 1995 legislative agenda, acting as the think-tank for Tom DeLay and Dick Armey.
- The Kochs control up to 35,000 miles of pipelines in the US and Canada, enough to circle the globe 1-1/2 times.
Filed under Koch Brothers, Koch Industries, Tea Party, Tea Party Agenda, Tea Party Nation
Dick Armey Wants To Completely Eliminate Any Federal Funding For Higher Education
Image via Wikipedia
Last night, FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey appeared on CNN’s Parker Spitzer to advocate for his conservative views and the tea party. Armey explained that he wants to inject tea party values into mainstream American political culture and wants its politics to define the modern Republican Party.
At one point, Spitzer asked Armey a series of questions about what he thinks the government should and should not be involved in funding to try to “add texture” to what the FreedomWorks chairman believes. During this question period, the CNN host asked Armey if he would “have the federal government pay for higher education?” Armey bluntly responded, “No, I would not.” He then went on to say that the university system of his home state of Texas has “not been made any better by federal money involvement:”
SPITZER: Would you have the federal government pay for higher education?
ARMEY: No I would not.
SPITZER: You would not have any funding?
ARMEY: No. I don’t think the federal government’s involvement in education has benefited the students of America.
PARKER: Wait a minute, finish that thought if you don’t mind.
ARMEY: The federal government has the military academies and it’s an important thing they should continue to do that. But the education of our young people oughta be under the jurisdiction and auspices of the state governments. The state of Texas has a great university system that has not been made any better by federal money involvement.
SPITZER: So you would rip out all the money that goes to the universities and say let the states increase their taxes to pay for it.
ARMEY: Let the states manage the education of their young people. Continue reading…
Watch it:
Think Progress » Dick Armey Wants To Completely…, posted with vodpod
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Filed under Freedom Works
More On Koch Bothers Insidious Role In Crafting The Modern Right
This morning, the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer published an explosive investigative piece detailing the role of the Koch family in orchestrating not only the Tea Party movement, but much of the modern right-wing infrastructure. The brothers David and Charles Koch, heirs to the oil and chemical conglomerate Koch Industries, have founded or funded dozens of conservative or libertarian publications, think tanks, and attack groups. Their father, Fred Koch, similarly fueled the paranoid right-wing movements of the fifties and sixties through his financing of the John Birch Society.
Mayer’s piece builds off the original reporting conducted by ThinkProgress since the very beginning of the Tea Party movement. Here’s a review of what we’ve reported:
– In April 2009, ThinkProgress revealed that Americans for Prosperity, a group founded by David Koch, was helping to plan dozens of the first national Tea Party rallies. Americans for Prosperity staffers organized events, from making reservations, to providing talking points and signs, to calling activists to encourage them to participate.
– In August 2009, ThinkProgress obtained an exclusive memo from a Tea Party group supported by Koch’s Americans for Prosperity. The memo outlined various ways for Tea Party activists to intimidate Democratic lawmakers and disrupt their town hall meetings on health reform. ThinkProgress published half a dozen articles exposing the role of Koch-funded groups like “Patients United” in encouraging opposition to health reform. For instance, in Virginia, a Koch-funded operative Ben Marchi assisted a birther who followed Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) around, yelling at him at town hall meetings.
– The Wonk Room reported on thirty years of Koch Industry environmental front groups. The timeline showed how Koch tried desperately to smear the cap and trade system set up to address acid rain with a “grassroots” group without a single grassroots member.
– At Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) “House Call” rally, ThinkProgress produced a video report exposing Koch for paying for dozens of buses for anti-health reform activists to reach DC. We also captured the picture of a large banner comparing health reform to the Holocaust.
– The Wonk Room investigated Koch Industries’ role in the effort to repeal AB 32, the landmark California climate change clean energy law. The Wonk Room’s video report revealed how Koch Industries’ reliance on high-carbon Canadian crude would become less profitable if similar laws like AB 32 are enacted around the country. Coninue reading…
Filed under Koch Industries, Uncategorized
Granholm calls out Armey and Ryan for wanting to ‘effectively dismantle’ the social safety net.
First Rachel Maddow puts Dick Armey in his place, now Michigan Democratic Governor, Jennifer Granholm gets her turn…
As ThinkProgress noted, former House Speaker Dick Armey laid out a plan this week that would effectively dismantle Social Security and Medicare “as you know it” by privatizing a large portion of these critical social safety net programs. On Meet the Press today, Armey and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) discussed a different Republican plan to privatize and dismantle the social safety net, Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) “Roadmap for America’s Future.” Granholm calls Ryan’s plan “far outside the mainstream,” noting that 85 percent of Americans don’t want to cut Social Security to solve the deficit.” Armey responds by laughing, claiming that “no one is talking about dismantling these systems:”
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Filed under GOP Leadership Quagmire
Sharron Angle Flees Local TV Station Questions (VIDEO)
First, Dick Armey tells Tea Party candidates to avoid the “Tea Party” label. Then he tells them to avoid the national media, but that it’s ok for candidates to be interviewed by “local” media.
The reasoning behind all of this? Well, it appears that the candidates chosen by “Tea Party” folks are not very smart.
We’ve seen and heard how Rand Paul reacts to media scrutiny. Now the GOP Nevada Senate Candidate, Sharron Angles is avoiding ALL press and media (except Fox news.)
In spite of optimistic predictions by the right wing, that the GOP will recapture the House majority in the 2010 mid-terms, I think that might be somewhat of an exaggeration.
Sharron Angle wants to make sure she does not make the same mistakes that Rand Paul made.
Senate nominee Sharron Angle (R-NV), who has adopted a pattern of avoiding all media except for friendly right-wing radio and TV talk show hosts, had an amusing run-in with a local CBS station’s reporter in Las Vegas — who repeatedly asked her tough questions.
Reporter Nathan Baca asked Angle about past policy position statements on her campaign website about “transitioning out” of Social Security. Angle strongly denied that this meant she wanted to eliminate the program entirely — saying instead that she wanted to save it. “You believe the Harry Reid lie,” Angle replied, also adding that “transitioning out” really meant: “Transition into a personalized account…personalized Social Security accounts that they can’t raid.”
Angle also refused to answer a question about her previous statement that people could potentially seek out their “Second Amendment remedies” if Congress is not reined in — a statement that has been widely interpreted as predicting an armed revolt against the government.
Baca followed Angle through a parking lot, repeatedly asking what she meant by “Second Amendment remedies.” Angle ignored him.
As Baca reports: “The reaction from the Angle campaign was swift. Their spokesperson called this reporter ‘an idiot’ — and another term that cannot be repeated on television.”
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Filed under Sharron Angle
Dick Armey Hates The Fact That Rachel Maddow is Smarter Than He Is
Dick Armey, Chairman of Freedom Works, organizers of the astro turf (as opposed to grass roots) movement called Tea Party Patriots, decided to take a jab at Rachel Maddow today.
Rachel Maddow exposed Armey’s duplicity on her show The Rachel Maddow Show, last August. Armey was not only the chairman of Freedom Works, the organization that sent people around to town hall meetings to disrupt any discussion of health care reform, but he was also…
In addition to being the chair of FreedomWorks, Dick Armey was a senior policy adviser for DC-based lobbying firm DLA Piper, whose recent and/or current clients include “pharmaceutical maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, … health care provider Metropolitan Health Networks, and the pharmaceutical firm Medicines Company,” [15] all entities that might benefit financially from seeing health care reform defeated.
During today’s AFP-sponsored “Code Red” anti-health reform rally on Capitol Hill, one of the speakers — former House Majority Leader and current corporate defender Dick Armey — derided MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Armey was prepared to introduce Sen. Tom Coburn (whom he bizarrely referred to as “Doc Colbin” a couple of times), but Coburn wasn’t there yet. So instead, he told a story that was a shot at Maddow:
ARMEY: The last time [Coburn] and I were together, I had the amazing opportunity to watch him receive a lecture on health care from a woman named, uh, uh, uh, “Maddox.” A television personality. Who I’m told has a Ph.D. in something that doesn’t matter. Who knew she was qualified to lecture the good physician on health care in America because she had actually gone to a doctor once.
For the record, Maddow is a Rhodes scholar and an Oxford Ph.D. in political science. Her doctoral thesis was titled, “HIV/AIDS and Health Care Reform in British and American Prisons.” (Armey has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Oklahoma.) Armey is apparently referring to a Meet the Press roundtable that he sat on with Maddow and Coburn this past August. During that segment, Maddow took Coburn and Armey to task for condoning the “threats of violence” in the course of the heated health care debate.
Here’s Rachel’s smackdown of Dick Armey from her debut appearance on Meet the Press…
Armey’s so-called “payback”…weak…
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Filed under Rachel Maddow, Tea Party Nuts, Untruths
