GROUPS SPEND BIG … ON THEMSELVES
In the pantheon of political labels, “Tea Party” is just another clever bit of nomenclature waiting to lose its meaning.
You know … like “conservative.” Or “Republican.” Seriously … you want a primer on the meaningless of those terms? CLICK HERE.
Since its emergence in 2009, the once-acephalous assemblage of justifiable anti-government outrage has been organized, splintered, re-organized, co-opted, praised, pilloried … you name it. The Tea Party has gone through the ringer, in other words, and while the conditions which led to its emergence remain in place … the effectiveness of the groups that are seeking to channel the resultant outrage is debatable.
Seriously … a bunch of retirees forwarding emails from various groups arguing with each other over which one hates Obamacare the most is not a “movement” (and trust us, we’re all about exposing U.S. President Barack Obama’s socialized medicine monstrosity for the fraud it is).
Anyway, there was a story in The Washington Post a few days ago highlighting another problem with the Tea Party – its overhead.
“When the Tea Party Patriots threw its support last month behind Matt Bevin, the underdog conservative challenger trying to unseat top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, President Jenny Beth Martin vowed the group would be ‘putting our money where our mouth is,'” reporter Matea Gold of the Post wrote. “So far, its super PAC has mustered just $56,000 worth of mailers in Kentucky on Bevin’s behalf — less than half the amount it has paid Martin in consulting fees since July.”
Yikes …
That’s anecdotal, though. Ready for the big picture?
Using data from The Sunlight Foundation, Gold’s analysis revealed that “out of the $37.5 million spent so far by the PACs of six major tea party organizations, less than $7 million has been devoted to directly helping candidates.”
Again … yikes.
Achieving victories on behalf of pro-free market, pro-liberty ideas and candidates is going to require a lot more than just clever labels – it’s going to require principled votes and the embrace of specific, common sense fiscal policies.
It’s also going to require groups that invest in an actual movement as opposed to investing exclusively in themselves …
59 comments
You left out the worst part: Jenny Beth Martin is on track to make almost $500,000 for a year’s worth of “work.” I’m all for people makin’ dollaz, but 6 years ago she was bankrupt and cleaning houses for a living, and now Liberty and Cruz and The Constitution need her skills so badly she’s a 3%-er? Many groups, including hers, allow the people at the top to set their own salaries, all while taking in $20-$40 donations from everyday folks. The faster that teat runs dry, the better.
Beware of a woman who calls herself “Jenny Beth”. As much of a grifter as Nookie Haley.
You have hit on the money — grifter.
One of the biggest is SC’s favorite, Newt Gingrich, although Sarah Palin is running the same scam with SarahPAC.
Actually, I am not opposed to such shenanigans, since dullard’s dollars diverted to grifter’s pockets are dollars that have no political impact.
Do you think Obama has EARNED his salary and expense account?
Of course he has, he ran TWICE to be THE PRESIDENT of the Unites States despite all the Republican Party’s TREASONOUS SABOTAGE, and TWICE the voters of the Unites States ELECTED him to the PRESIDENCY, he did not elect himself, the people elected him, TWICE, I’d say he has earned his salary, TWICE.
I’ll let you off, because you are obviously shell-shocked.
He might be shell-shocked, T, but I guarantee you he’d kick 100% of your ass. Hell, you wouldn’t even show up to get in OWB’s face when he called you out..
That is how the corporate pay structure works my friend. She’s the non-profit sector equivalent to the “Jamie Diamond” private sector benchmark.
Wall Streeters are playing all of us (including their own employees) for dupes and rubes.
And Obama is the TOP Wall Streeter, as long as they keep funneling money to him…right???
T has a point, Obama definitely paid out to companies like Goldman Sachs, giving plenty of advisor seats to their peeps.
If T wants to be honest, though, I hope he doesn’t try to pretend that Romney wasn’t in the same boat, with the very same donors, and then some.
Romney is NOT the President you F*#king Dumb@$$….
I didn’t think you would take the chance to be honest to Smirks for once, T. That is what makes you such a fucking waste of space. A one-trick pony. Or ass, I should say.
Obama is a millionaire and the B@*t@$d has never had a job where he actually contributed. As a matter of fact, Obama has harmed his employers more than helped. He said he gave away ice cream, was the enemy of the law firm that hired him, was absent a lot form the US Senate and he has driven the country into the ground as president…and cost us Trillions because of his incompetence…
So you might need to STFU about this woman. Lest you look ignorant…
They need someone they know will do whatever they want, best way to do that is to find a broke sap willing to do just about anything for money. Sounds like they found a good sap.
“Grassroots.” Just needs
a littlea truckload of billionaire-backed fertilizer.Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain !!!!
Don’t know if the lady pictured is a member of the Tea Party but I would let her bite me
I told you that Liberal-Tarians like Allen Olson and FITS tried to co-opt the Tea Party. Remember how they opposed a tax cut, because it was to a job-producer (Amazon) not to pay for more social programs…???…
Liberal-Tarians (FITS) also hate Boeing, just like Obama…and the Liberal-Tarians duped some Tea Party members into that liberal activist move….
Be a CONSERVATIVE. Read the GOP Platform. Be it the Tea Party or Liberal-Tarians… liberals will infest your movement, and try to get more democrats elected, since they have no other way to feed their greed, and supplement their party.
This article sounds a lot like the RNC. Rotting from the top. I have quit giving to any party in any great amount and started giving and helping individual candidates that I feel reflect my beliefs and values. If we would all do likewise maybe the big dogs would feel the movement. The basic concept of a party apparatus is to take in money and give it out to their candidates, taking only what it costs to run the operation. When the “leaders” start taking the cream off it is time to change the leaders or stop giving to the party. That time has long come for the RNC and not far behind SCGOP now it looks like the Tea party is next.
AMEN!!!!!….Not to mention Consultants – like FITS- construct LARGE fund-raising operations. They take our Disgust for Horrible Gov’t, like Obama, and fatten themselves representing Conservatism…
But in the end, they turn around and sell themselves back, and any ideals, to the highest bidder (see FITS-see Sanford – see Graham)….
They have no core, no morals. And we have no oversight of how they use OUR money. It’s just like another layer of the government that has already burned us…
It’s why I expose FITS for his railing against what he actually IS…Only the stupid buy his show…
Equal airtime!
http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2014/03/24/Creationists-want-equal-airtime-on-Cosmos/5881395675954/
“Be a CONSERVATIVE”
…………..
No thanks.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/04/kkk-leader-caught-with-a-black-male-prostitute.html
They’re all established as “for profits.” There’s no secret to understanding why. And no illegality in spending the money on themselves.
And there’s nothing illegal about fleecing well-meaning or salt-of-the-earth types in the name of God, Reagan, and Amerkka. Just ask Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, and Jenny Beth Martin.
And nothing better than seeing a foaming at the mouth redneck from Laurens accompanied by an equally mad uppercrust from Greenville get shorn like sheep.
Baaaaaa…….black sheep….
You know the “wool”…!
LOL….
Classic. You take a bunch of 50+ angry white people who feel like the world is against them, promise to protect their interests and “take back Amerika” (from whom – I dunno), to support their candidates who share their views (white, Reagan spouters who stand up along Sarah Failin’) and ask them to send in $40 every quarter and then – pocket $35 of the money into your own account – and spend the $5 on mailings – and say you’re all for grass roots. What a sham and – a shame. In the end, the disenfranchised voters of the right will find they’ve been ripped off by – wait for it – their very own leaders.
Nailed it. Sadly, my dad and mom are in that group and are basically preyed upon by Fox and Rush who pump a constant stream of panic and fear into their brains that ‘Merica is crashing down around them (only since 2008 mind you) and the only way to possibly fight the onslaught is to give money.
They’ve got my Aunt and Uncle too. Every time I talk to her she asks – “You aren’t being impacted by Obamacare are you?” I explain I’ve had an ACA compliant policy from my employer since 2011. Explain my premiums increased $75 a month then, but got huge expanded coverage. Since then annual increase have been about $15 – $25 annually. Hugely lower than 2002 – 2008. She doesn’t get it – ’cause Fox said……
I’ve got a relative that sits and listens to Rush everyday – no joke. He doesn’t work – still lives at home and is in his mid-40’s. He honestly believes that Rush is “the savior” and is the answer to this country’s problems. Makes my BP go up every time I go by there and see him just sitting and listening, whining, bitching, and complaining. Get your butt up, get a job (if it’s nothing but flipping burgers) and be a productive member of society.
Wow: The free market makes your blood pressure go up. I’m sure you’d want the gov’t to FORCE him to stop listening, and MAKE him listen to programming that you, and Obama approve of. Hitler is likely smiling, knowing you, and Obama, are up here carrying on where he left off.
Just my opinion – whether it’s right or wrong, who knows? However, it’s mine!
The problem is YOUR opinion has been forced on Good people, by Barack Obama, and it’s F*#ked up the country…but you Bash Limbaugh, because someone may want to try something that works….
You people have the media, and almost all major institutions… and you HATE anyone who has a different opinion….That should P!$$ off any true American….
Suck on this big, brown cigar, Bud.
Again, read closely – it’s my opinion. I said absolutely nothing about the country being screwed up, just stated what I’ve seen over the years. Thank goodness that we live in a country where we can speak our mind.
Wow, Bo, lay off that mornin’ coffee. Let’s get to work, like you said!
Can you tell me who your healthcare provider is? So I can check into to getting that plan myself. Or tell me how you got hooked up. I may be able to publish a news article about it. Your story is rare…especially if you live in SC, You can PM if you don’t want to go public w/ your info.
I live in Florida now. Insurance through my employer. We receive our health insurance through one of the big 3.
Hmmm…through your employer…and you’re telling me that you pay the WHOLE premium yourself. There is no subsidy from your company? …
And even so: sounds like you’re paying $900 more a year and you had to change companies…..that means Obama LIED to you…
Wow… Freedom of choice…what a dastardly plan. Hitler would not approve. He’s like Obama. They want to FORCE you into their failure…to have a choice of who to support goes against the religion of Liberalism, doesn’t it?
Go to work already…oh, sorry, this is your job.
You Hate when reality talks back…Hahahahaha….or should I say Slaps the P!$$ out of your Ignorant @$$…LMAO…
I hate to break it to you…those people arn’t your friends, Tango…it’s the mailman and utility readers doing their job.
Have you seen the video of Hitler getting all cattywumpus over his Obamacare changes? I’m an Obamacare fan, but it is really, really funny.
Do you like the term “Bigot” or “Racist” better to describe what you are?
Because both fit. And don’t fool yourself. Hate based on skin color is WRONG, no matter what the media, Obama, Rev. Wright and the DNC feed you simple-minded pawns….
“.Since its emergence in 2009, the once-acephalous assemblage …”
Hehhehhehehheh! You said ASSY-PHALLUS!
he meant anencephalic
anencep…?? whatever. not a beauty queen but definitely nice jugs
my grandson can find better porn than that using his mother’s cell phone.
The only groups that actually stand behind what they say and spend are Freedomworks and Americans For Prosperity. These two Tea Party groups actually have stayed true to their libertarian, fiscal conservative roots.
Their conservative, libertarian roots? You mean the Koch brothers? The “libertarian when it suits us, big gubmint when it lines our pockets” billionaires buying the GOP?
Even weeds have roots, I suppose.
DERP DERP DERP KOCHTOPUS DERP DERP DERP
It’s a racket…like Newt Gingrich…Herman Cain…Sarah Palin…Fox News…Clear Channel…Glenn Beck…it goes on and on…a bunch of con men and con women and their rackets.
SO….nitrat, what steps should be taken to inform all voters on how to “See” the racket in real time.
Millionaires Unite to Defeat Minimum Wage
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) — A broad-based coalition of millionaires converged on Washington today to defeat a bill that would have increased the minimum wage for American workers to $10.10 an hour.
Leaving behind their mansions and yachts, the millionaires were motivated by what they saw as an existential threat to the country, Mitch McConnell, a spokesman for the millionaires, said.
“This was an extremely diverse coalition,” McConnell said, noting that everyone from the rich to the very rich to the super-rich united to vote down the bill.
McConnell hoped that today’s vote would burnish the millionaires’ reputation as “people who get things done.”
“Folks who have tried to pin a ‘do nothing’ label on us are dead wrong,” he said. “When it comes to stopping workers from being paid more, we spring into action.”
Nikki Haley finally makes her witchdoctor change DSS policy after children are dead and only because its an election year.
Latest child death prompts DSS policy change
Read
more here:
http://www.thestate.com/2014/04/30/3418773/sheriff-lott-dss-could-have-prevented.html?sp=/99/205/&ihp=1#storylink=cpy
The S.C. Department of Social Services announced late
Wednesday it was changing its policy and will now require its workers to
get in touch with law enforcement within 72 hours if DSS can’t locate a
family or child.
The announcement came after Richland County
Sheriff Leon Lott held a news conference with Richland Coroner Gary
Watts to say that DSS waited seven weeks before contacting the medical
professional who provided the tip to DSS employees that the life of a
now-dead 5-month-old might be in trouble.
Lott said the death of
the Richland County boy likely could have been prevented if DSS
employees had acted more quickly. They couldn’t reach the boy’s mother.
But they should have tried to call the next-best person who would know
what the boy was facing – the medical professional who was concerned
about how the mother was treating the boy and had called DSS.
Bryson
Webb died April 22 in the back seat of his mother’s car in a Family
Dollar store parking lot on Broad River Road, Lott said. The
heart-monitoring device he was supposed to wear each day to alert people
when he was struggling to breathe was in the car’s trunk, Watts said.
The mother, Jennifer Coles, 28, is facing a felony charge of unlawful conduct toward a child.
“DSS never followed up with the person who made the complaint,” Lott said. “I wish they would have done more.”
Lott
announced the arrest of the dead child’s mother. Watts said DSS was
notified March 3 of a “life-threatening” situation the child was in.
Lott
said that notification that Bryson was in danger came from a person in
the medical field who was familiar with the child’s situation and could
have easily provided DSS with the address of Coles, now being held at
the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center under $10,000 bond.
But for
whatever reason, Lott and Watts said, DSS didn’t get back with the
medical worker until 49 days later – on April 21, the day before Bryson
died. At the time, Coles was in the store, and a friend was in the car
with Bryson, Lott said.
DSS also did not contact his sheriff’s
department and ask its deputies to hunt for Coles – despite the fact
that DSS frequently asks the sheriff’s department to find people, and
his department always responds, Lott said.
Lott said when his deputy went to track the mother down a few days ago, “We found her. It wasn’t impossible.”
On
Monday, a DSS spokeswoman told The State that DSS had tried five times
to find Coles after getting the report from the medical worker on March 3
but was unsuccessful. DSS did not provide details of its efforts to
make contact.
In recent months, DSS has been the target of
increasing criticism about children who died while under its oversight.
The matter has become a topic of controversy at the State House and in
the S.C. governor’s race. Gov. Nikki Haley is resisting calls to fire
DSS director Lillian Koller.
Late Wednesday, DSS released this
statement from Koller, stressing that the agency had just changed its
policy and will now contact law enforcement for assistance within 72
hours if its workers can’t locate a child or family:
“The
Department of Social Services began investigating this case immediately,
which involved having a caseworker physically attempt to locate this
family five different times, including at night and on the weekends.
“Despite
the very best efforts of DSS, there are tragic cases where the system
as a whole is not able to prevent a child from being harmed by their own
parents.
“We are always looking for ways to improve our policies
to protect children and families in the best and most effective ways
possible – which is why effective immediately, we are adding a
requirement that if our staff cannot locate a child or family within 72
hours, they must contact law enforcement for assistance.”
A DSS
spokesperson also said Wednesday that after getting its initial report
March 3 from the medical professional, the report was sent to a
caseworker so an investigation could begin.
A Richland County DSS
caseworker began investigating on March 4, 2014, using the address that
the medical professional had given and going to the home “at least 5
different times,” the spokesperson said. DSS economic services records
confirmed that address.
On several home visits, the caseworker
left contact information and this contact information had been removed
upon returning to the residence, suggesting the parent had retrieved the
messages, the spokesperson said.
DSS investigation is ongoing,
the spokesperson said, and it indicates the family might not have had a
permanent address and that there was “an unsettled family situation.”
The
spokesperson and Lott said that included the father’s arrest in a
domestic violence incident in which he was charged with assaulting the
mother.
Lott said whatever efforts DSS had made weren’t up to the
standards people should expect if that agency is notified of a
life-threatening condition that a child is in.
“I would hope that anybody that works for me would go and do as much as they could to protect someone’s life,” Lott said.
Watts
said that after the baby was born prematurely in November, its heart
and lungs would sometimes shut down – causing the baby to fail to
breathe. The condition is known as apnea, he said.
Before Bryson
left the hospital, Coles received training in how the heart monitor
works – it is taped on the body – and was given firm instructions that
it was a matter of life and death to keep it on him, Watts said.
The
monitor sounds a loud alert if the baby stops breathing or his heart
stops, at which point the caregiver is supposed to step in and do some
simple resuscitation measures, Watts said.
“These episodes can
happen at any time,” Watts said. “It’s critical the monitor stay on the
child. …The doctor’s order said, ‘24 hours a day, seven days a week’.”
Watts
said an autopsy didn’t show any overt signs of how the child died.
There were no signs of trauma, he said. “This child was just not treated
medically the way he was supposed to be treated,” Watts said.
Lott went further.
“(The
device) had not been hooked up to him since March 28,” he said – about
three weeks. Investigators know that because the monitor can be hooked
up to a computer, which then can download a record of when the monitor
was used.
“She was not going to go out of her way to hook that
monitor up to her son,” Lott said. “The mom knew what to do, knew how to
do it, she just did not do it, and this child is dead because of that.”
Lott
said unlawful conduct toward a child is a felony that carries a 10-year
prison sentence and added, “There is a strong possibility the charges
will be upgraded.”
Bryson is dead, but law officials are working
to seek justice for him, Lott said. “Myself, the coroner, we have to
speak for him.”
Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts fired the head of his state’s CPS agency today and put a lawyer from the MA transportation department in charge in the interim.
Given the sycophants – new and long term employees – that Koller has up her butt – and, the number of lawyers Trikki appoints – I guess we will end up with something similar…by the end of the week?
oops
http://www.thestate.com/2014/05/01/3419306/graham-challengers-getting-no.html
Years down the road, when historians and students look back on the short lived Tea Party movement, they will both agree that it was one of the stupidest, willfully ignorant group of useful idiots to ever grace the early 21st political scene.
“Seriously … a bunch of retirees forwarding emails from various groups arguing with each other over which one hates Obamacare the most is not a ‘movement'”
I almost fell over reading that. That should immediately be inducted into the annuls of classic literature.
Helping yourself to the money of others is a good old-fashioned American stunt. Both parties do it. Churches do it, promising salvation. Goodwill pays its struggling workers below minimum wage, while the directors and bosses reap hundreds of thousands. They say that the quality of life workers “enjoy” at Goodwill makes up for the low wages. Whattacrock…….
Teabuggers. That says is all. Hardly worth our Funding Editor’s time to mention them