Amazing letter to the editor (Times-Picayune) in regard to the "Tea Party".

[pacalo]

This was a response to a letter published recently which denied accusations from another letter to the editor, expressing that the "Tea Party" is a "hate" organization.

http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2010/07/lets_move_the_nation_forward_n.html

I would disagree with Eliska Plunkett (Your Opinions, July 20) that the tea party is not defined by hate. Its leaders hate and openly mock America's desire for progress as "hopey changey." They must then stand for the opposite, which is despair and stagnation.

The tea party's inception was spurred by a so-called news organization that hates facts. If Fox bore false witness against Jesus Christ as it has Shirley Sherrod, ACORN and others, it could make him look like a monster. Propaganda hates the truth.

That her family supported civil rights back in the day is no indication of their current views being correct. The obnoxious Westboro Baptist Church that pickets our military personnel's funerals is headed by a former civil rights lawyer. Its website contains the word hate. Check out tea party images or videos online. They appear to hate our very language by equating socialism and fascism, showing that they do not own a dictionary or care enough for their mother tongue to understand the difference. Their anger at the miserable condition in which conservatives have left this is misdirected toward those who are working to fix it.

As long as the tea partiers insist on "taking our country back," I see that as hating the improvements America has made over time. They hate that their middle class lifestyles are dwindling, yet they support the failed conservative ideologies that eroded the middle class. I love this country. I don't want to take the country back; I want to take it forward.

Susan R. Kagan
Metairie

[Captain Boomerang]

1. I like it.

If you keep poking holes in their t-bag boat, it won't float.

[bjobotts]

13. Just refer any T-Bagger/Partier to Sen Bernie Sander's letter on taxes posted at DU to shut them up.

[bjobotts]

14. I post it here without comment so copy it and hand it out to educate TPs

Today, because of stagnating wages and higher costs for basic necessities, the average two-wage-earner family has less disposable income than a one-wage-earner family did a generation ago. The average American today is underpaid, overworked and stressed out as to what the future will bring for his or her children. For many, the American dream has become a nightmare.
But, not everybody is hurting. While the middle class disappears and poverty increases the wealthiest people in our country are not only doing extremely well, they are using their wealth and political power to protect and expand their very privileged status at the expense of everyone else. This upper-crust of extremely wealthy families are hell-bent on destroying the democratic vision of a strong middle-class which has made the United States the envy of the world. In its place they are determined to create an oligarchy in which a small number of families control the economic and political life of our country.

The 400 richest families in America, who saw their wealth increase by some $400 billion during the Bush years, have now accumulated $1.27 trillion in wealth. Four hundred families!  During the last fifteen years, while these enormously rich people became much richer their effective tax rates were slashed almost in half. While the highest-paid 400 Americans had an average income of $345 million in 2007, as a result of Bush tax policy they now pay an effective tax rate of 16.6 percent, the lowest on record.

Last year, the top twenty-five hedge fund managers made a combined $25 billion but because of tax policy their lobbyists helped write, they pay a lower effective tax rate than many teachers, nurses and police officers. As a result of tax havens in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and elsewhere, the wealthy and large corporations are evading some $100 billion a year in U.S. taxes. . . .

But it's not just wealthy individuals who grotesquely manipulate the system for their benefit. It's the multinational corporations they own and control. In 2009, Exxon Mobil, the most profitable corporation in history made $19 billion in profits and not only paid no federal income tax—they actually received a $156 million refund from the government. In 2005, one out of every four large corporations in the United States paid no federal income taxes while earning $1.1 trillion in revenue.-Senator Bernie Sanders

[KT2000]

2. Very nice..

thaks for posting it

[Martin Eden]

3. "I don't want to take the country back; I want to take it forward."

Pretty damn good slogan ... K&R

[cilla4progress]

4. LOVE it --

wish the DNC could / would light on it!

[progressoid]

6. Yep, that would be a great bumper sticker.

[BobTheSubgenius]

12. You bet!

That's one of the best phrases I've read in ages. It should be a bumper sticker.

[PatrynXX]

17. love the slogan

I want to take the country Forward. Perfect answer

[pleah]

5. K&R

[formercia]

7. I love it.

K&R

[Chubb Rock]

8. Love it!!!

K&R

[bobburgster]

9. Well said!

K&R

[laughingliberal]

10. K & R nt

[beac]

11. K&R! n/t

[garthranzz]

15. She will be blasted, trust me

And the Times-Picayune, with its Jindal-love, will print 20 letters attacking her and missing the point.

[notheyrejustwrong]

16. Yes, amazing letter

FYI. There IS a candidate that's been using the "move my country forward" line as part of his stump speech for quite a while:

Dr. Manan Trivedi, running in Pennsylvania's 6th District.

trivediforcongress.com