If Tea Partiers really care about "the future of our children", why do they want to fire their teachers now?

If Tea Partiers really want to reduce unemployment, why are they turning down federal funds for high speed rail projects that would create jobs and put people back to work?

If Tea Partiers are really about "We The People", why does it seem like they are backed by and jump to the tune of "Us  The Corporations"?

If Tea Partiers are opposed to "Obamacare". why do they want to make sure so many uninsured Americans  wind up with "Nobodycares"?

It Tea Partiers really think that they are a populist movement of everyday working people, why do they oppose unions and support "right to work" laws that create third world states with businesses that offer jobs paying just above minimum wage? Speaking of that, why do they oppose minimum wage laws?

If Tea Partiers are really "patriots", why do they support "free" trade policies that offshore American manufacturing to China, give away American jobs and give Chinese manufacturers OUR trade secrets?

Solidarity, my Union brothers and Sisters!

Trust me, you don't want to be invited to this party. Find out why by visiting the Listen Here! page.

As we approach the mid-term elections, it becomes apparent that many of our elected officials from BOTH parties, have taken a condescending, we know what's best for our constituency approach.  The Republicans want voters to forget everything that happened during the eight years of the Bush administration, the greed and the get rich quick schemes that were allowed to run wild in the financial sector.  They want voters to forget how they encouraged Americans to run up a credit tab to give the illusion of a middle class lifestyle.  They want voters to forget that they ran up a huge deficit.  Yeah, it's tough trying to finance an expensive war and give tax breaks to the rich at the same time!  You have to make many references to 9/11 in your speeches to keep something like that going! 

Bush's party had and has the nerve to blame all of those deficits and everything else on President Obama.  They even blamed him for a bailout that started during the Bush administration when, even Bush finally realized that his policies brought us to the brink of financial Armageddon!  The Republicans spent almost every minute of President Obama's term trying to derail every bit of meaningful Democratic legislation that came before Congress and the Senate.  Never mind that, especially in these economic hard times, America needs meaningful health care reform to protect it's population.  Never mind that we have massive unemployment partially because the private sector is fond of outsourcing it's manufacturing and jobs overseas and gets tax breaks to do that.  The Republicans back and endorse all that as being part of "free" enterprise!  They even had the nerve to try to block unemployment extensions for the casualties of their economic policies!

The Tea Partiers talk a good game but are about as populist as the Fortune 500.  How can a "grassroots" movement that is purportedly bankrolled by the wealthy, represent the wants and needs of John and Jane Q. Public?  Now onto the Democrats who were compromised from within by their blue dogs who were in reality, wannabe Republicans.  They just kept on trying for "bipartisan" solutions that hindered their ability to be true agents of change.  Translation, someone needed to remind them that they won!  Because of that, almost every piece of legislation that would have brought meaningful, indisputable positive change to our country was diluted beyond recognition.  If every Democratic legislative initiative was passed as originally written, the results and benefits to the average person would have been indisputable and every Democratic Congressman and Senator would have probably gotten a ticker tape parade in his or her home district instead of having to worry about where each vote is coming from.

For the above reasons, plus the massive lobbyist influence in Washington, we didn't get the change that we were promised, we got SMALL CHANGE.  Nonetheless,  as working people, we have to make the only choice that will preserve what's left of the American dream, we have to vote Democratic and after they are elected, hold them accountable!

At one point in my career, I was a DJ.  Since old habits die hard, I want to make this dedication:  This one's going out to any working person who thinks that the Tea Party, or the Republicans will look out for his or her interests.
Hi there bunkie, I'm I working person who feels that I must reach out to you if for no other reason than to try to stop you from making the biggest mistake of your life, a mistake that's so big that it may not only take you down the drain, but it could also take the rest of the country down the drain with you.  That mistake is voting Republican and bringing back the crew that helped to make a lot of people in Wall Street rich, but brought you this recession.

Look, I know that you think that everything in this country is spinning out of control and you are feeling helpless and powerless.  I share those feelings and can point to some causes of our problems that you may not have considered. 
Remember when Ronald Reagan fired those union Air Traffic Controllers who were on strike?  That sent a signal to corporate America that it was open season on unions and began an era of corporate union busting. 

Ronald Reagan was also strongly in favor of "free" trade and laid the groundwork for the outsourcing of jobs overseas. He reduced and eliminated many tariffs on imported products that were in place to protect American industries and jobs. This pro-corporate/anti worker philosophy is the cornerstone of the Republican ideology and Reagan was and is the Republican idol and ideal.  Years of this nonsense caused a reverse Robin Hood effect that lowered middle class salaries and, in some cases eliminated their jobs entirely.

The Republican ideal of an unregulated "free" market had a solution to the problem of stagnant middle class wages and a growing economic disparity between the wealthy top 2% and the rest of us.  The banks could let the middle class run up a tab, so they can have the illusion of a middle class lifestyle.  This reached a crescendo during the Bush administration when working people were encouraged to run  up their credit cards and use the "equity" of their homes to take out secondary mortgages.  The unregulated "free" market that creates "wealth" out of thin air also creates poverty out of thin air when the bubbles it's Wall Street gamblers create pop.   When the bubbles burst, the pain isn't shared, exploding bubbles usually hit the little guy or gal the most, especially in his or her 401K. The bursting housing bubble was the straw that broke the camel's back and launched our current depress... er, recession.

Tea Party Movements are usually corporately backed and about as populist as the boardroom of a fortune 500 corporation.  They espouse a turbocharged "free" market ideology that will not help the middle class one iota.  They believe in trickle down economics which translates to let the corporations do whatever they want, cut taxes on the rich and somehow that will provide jobs for the unemployed.  They call themselves "patriots", but have no problem with American manufacturers closing their factories and sending your job to China and other countries.  Destroying America's manufacturing infrastructure, American jobs and American families isn't patriotic, it's being an economic traitor!

I know that we were promised CHANGE, but got bipartisan SMALL CHANGE instead!  I know that we still have a serious level of unemployment.  I know that Wall Street and the banks were bailed out first.  All of that was done to placate the Republicans.  Think about what would happen to our country if they actually got the majority?

We have to make some election day choices that could literally determine the future of our families and our country:
If you want a return to the corporations come first economic policies that cost America jobs, vote Republican or support a Tea Party candidate.   If you want to repair the damage the pro-business, anti working class conservative policies of the Republicans caused, vote Democratic and support unions!

On this Labor Day weekend, in the midst of the highest unemployment levels since the great depression, record amounts of underemployment and corporations that use invidious hiring standards like pre-employment credit checks that make the hiring process seem like a reality show, we have to take stock and determine the real causes of our problems then fix them.  We have to ask ourselves several questions: How could conservatives and the Tea Party, with corporate financial backing  brainwash working people into going against their own best interests and oppose a national health care plan?  How could they get working people to support politicians that are in favor of globalization and "free" trade when that is the real cause of our current unemployment problems? How can working people be conned into thinking that unions are a bad thing? Their weapon of mass disinformation is - -  P A T R I O T I S M!

The conservative/Republican/Tea Party brand of patriotism usually involves the invocation of a few chants of "family values" plus some references to God and our founding fathers.  They throw in some innuendos that being pro-health care reform is "socialist", union people are "thugs" and that the unemployed who collect unemployment insurance are living off the rest of us.  To top it off, they say that retired people who collect their Social Security benefits are sapping the life blood of future generations.

For people who profess their "patriotism", they support some decidedly unpatriotic things like globalization and "free" trade agreements which have decimated our country's manufacturing capabilities, sent countless jobs overseas and have built up the manufacturing capabilities of China. The last time I looked, China was a Communist country. How is it patriotic to encourage manufacturing and create jobs over there when it causes reduced manufacturing capabilities and unemployment here?   What kind of "family values" starve families out by opposing Unemployment Insurance payments and abuse retirees by trying to reduce Social Security payments, privatize it or raise the retirement age?  The answer of course is UN-AMERICAN, AMORAL and UNETHICAL, corporate family values, because corporate cash finances that brand of "patriotism".

We ask ordinary American citizens to do some extraordinary things for our country. We ask our brave military personnel, our sons and daughters to give up their lives under the most horrifying circumstances, if need be.  As Americans, we expect American corporations to do THEIR patriotic duty by bringing manufacturing back to the USA.  We also ask them to stop using their cash to finance sock puppet special interest groups who buy propaganda ads that interfere with our electoral process.  One last thing, we insist that they stop buying our elected officials via their lobbyists.

Happy labor day! Solidarity Forever!