This is such a good thing to hear. Finally, these two idiots are going to have to pay the piper fortheirstupidity.
Via The Detroit News, which is, by the way; A Conservative/Libertarian leaning newspaper here in Detroit. (For the out of state people that read here.)
Lansing — Attorney General Bill Schuette said Friday warrants have been issued for the arrest of former state Reps. Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat for felony charges of misconduct in office related to their failed attempts to cover up an extramarital affair that rocked the Capitol last summer.
If convicted on all counts, Courer would face a maximum of 30 years in prison. If found guilty, Gamrat could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
The charges for these two turkeys are as follows:
The accused: former state Reps. Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat
Courser, a Lapeer-area Republican, will face four felony charges, Schuette said. They include:
■ A perjury charge for lying under oath while testifying before a special House committee about letting an aide forge his signature on a bill he wanted to file before other representatives could.
“Only legislators sign legislative proposals,” said Schuette, a former state senator.
■ Three counts of misconduct in office for allegedly lying to the House Business Office, which investigated the two lawmakers; instructing his staff to forge his signature on bills and asking House aide Ben Graham to send a fake email to Republicans across the state, which Graham refused to do.
Gamrat, R-Plainwell, will be charged with two counts of misconduct in office, punishable by up to five years in prison or a $10,000 fine for each charge, Schuette said.
Gamrat’s misconduct charges are for giving false information to the House Business Office and instructing a staff member to forge her signature to speed up the filing of draft legislation, Schuette said.
And that is not all:
Courser and Gamrat face other legal troubles.
Schuette said he will refer to Secretary of State Ruth Johnson “potential evidence of campaign finance violations involving doing political work on state time.”
The House’s expulsion charges included the use of House employees by Courser and Gamrat of House for political tasks.
Schuette also said he will notify the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission of the charges against Courser, a Lapeer attorney.
“They will potentially review the status of his law license as this case proceeds through the judicial system,” the attorney general said.
Some might say that this is nothing more than a political set up. I call B.S.; the guy was having an affair with this woman and he tried to use his office to cover it up. Now, he is going have to face the music and that could not be a better thing to happen. The Republicans have always been painted by the liberal left, as dishonest, corrupt people. Well, now that little narrative is going to be challenged by this right here.
May these two get the maximum punishment allowed by law. They used the Tea Party Movement and rode the wave all the way to the statehouse here in Michigan and then, to beat all; they got there and became drunk with power and began an affair. Then, on top of that, they tried to cover it up. Sorry, that does not wash with me. Let them pay for their crimes.
Evan Alvarez – Leaves the College GOP federation of MS, because he’s not an icky tea partier. Screw him! we don’t want RINOS in our Party anyhow! Idiot…. Go join the Devil’s Party you GAY BLADE CUBAN INTERLOPER POS and take that idiot Ted Cruz with you!
I over the last 48 hours or so, I have been in deep thought about the future of MFCR and of the Republican Party. I have come to the conclusion that I no longer want to be the leader of the Mississippi Federation of College Republicans. I refuse to simply let people break the rules and think they don’t have to answer for their actions, admit they were wrong, or even apologize. When I ran for Chairman in the spring, I ran to be Chairman of the Mississippi Federation of College REPUBLICANS, not the Mississippi Federation of College “Tea Partiers”. Also, I believe that the Republican Party has allowed these groups of extremist to have too much of a voice and because of that, the platform of the Republican Party has shifted too far to the right in my opinion. For example, the drastic cuts on needed federal funding that these groups of Republican extremists support would leave society weak and crippled. Secondly, their far right stance on immigration is not only ignorant, but it is cruel. After all our country is a nation of immigrants and should welcome immigrants from every country. My father was an immigrant from Cuba and came to America in 1959 because of the freedom that this nation offers. This freedom should be available to each and every individual that wants to come work hard and pursue his or her goals in America. Finally, I believe the Republican Party has not done enough to put a stop to the hatred and cruel words and actions of the far right extremist in the party. The Republican Party consistently says they are trying to appeal to minorities, but this will never happen when we allow members of party to say cruel and ignorant things about Women, African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities in our country. I simply cannot be apart of organization that have members who support these far right extremist views, much less be the Chairman of the organization. So in conclusion, I, Evan Alvarez, am hereby resigning my position as Chairman of the Mississippi Federation of College Republicans, as well as my membership at the Mississippi State Chapter of MFCR. This change is effective immediately!
This is a wake-up call to the Republican Party establishment. The business of “Business as usual” in D.C. among the Republicans on the hill is over. Much of this about illegal immigration; as Cantor was in favor of passing amnesty and that simply did not sit well in Cantor’s district.
Quite simply, the American people are sick and tired of politicians who say one thing, when they are running for office and then, once elected, talk about bipartisanship and working with people on the other side of aisle. Cantor is someone who did that; and he paid the price for it.
Update: I went and thought about this a bit more and more thoughts came to my mind. One of the biggest things to come out of this upset is this: The upset is a message from the voters of Virginia to people who run on a platform of “Tea Party” Republican: “Do NOT B.S. us!” Cantor ran on the platform of the Tea Party and rode the wave all the way to the House of Representatives. The problem is that once Cantor got up there, he started sounding and acting like an establishment Republican. Sorry, but the line of, “I will work with my colleagues and my colleagues across the aisle” is not going to cut it with Conservative grassroots anymore.
The American people are sick and tired of the people on the hill, in both parties; blowing smoke up their butts and telling them that it is good for them. The days of the political shuck and jive are over and the American people; since about 9/11 and especially with the recent advent of social media —- are much more tuned in to what is happening in Washington D.C.
In short: Cantor’s defeat is simply a message to the Republicans; stick to your principles that we elected you on or you might just find yourself out of a job in a real quick hurry.
I happen to read on Populist Jim Hightower’s website about this one here and I went and looked it up and sure enough; there it was in black and white:
The story:
WASHINGTON –– To Wall Street, this town might seem like enemy territory. But even as federal regulators and prosecutors extract multibillion-dollar penalties from the nation’s biggest banks, Wall Street can rely on at least one ally here: the House of Representatives.
The House is scheduled to vote on two bills this week that would undercut new financial regulations and hand Wall Street a victory. The legislation has garnered broad bipartisan support in the House, even after lawmakers learned that Citigroup lobbyists helped write one of the bills, which would exempt a wide array of derivatives trading from new regulation.
The bills are part of a broader campaign in the House, among Republicans and business-friendly Democrats, to roll back elements of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the most comprehensive regulatory overhaul since the Depression. Of 10 recent bills that alter Dodd-Frank or other financial regulation, six have passed the House this year. This week, if the House approves Citigroup’s legislation and another bill that would delay heightened standards for firms that offer investment advice to retirees, the tally would rise to eight.
Both the Treasury Department and consumer groups have urged lawmakers to reject the bills, warning that they could leave the nation vulnerable again to excessive financial risk taking. The House proposals stand little chance of becoming law, having received a much chillier reception in the Senate and at the White Ho
You believe those greedy bastards? Jim Hightower is not amused and rightly so:
Audio:
[podcast]
Partial Quote:
On the day before Halloween, the ethically-challenged members of our lobbyist-haunted House of Representatives did a perverse imitation of “Profiles in Courage,” turning that body into “Profiles in Spinelessness.”
In particular, they cravenly caved in to an outrageous and dangerous demand by Wall Street whiners. Such financial powerhouses as Citigroup just hate having their profiteering recklessness restrained by the regulatory reforms passed after their 2008 financial meltdown. Even though the shockwaves from that Wall Street collapse continue to devastate America’s middle class, the banking elite have completely recovered – including recovering their swaggering arrogance and ability to sway money-hungry congress critters with rich campaign donations. — Read the rest at Jim Hightower’s site
I am shocked that more Conservatives are not swinging from the trees on this one here! To their credit, there are some Democrat Party house members that are opposed to this bill and rightly so. This is the same idiotic crap that brought down the stock market and killed our economy; thank goodness there is some semblance of sanity up on the hill.
Sure enough the Bill passed the house, But it is not expected to make it through the Senate and the White House has said that they would veto the thing, if it made it to the President’s desk. Which in this instance is a very good thing. However, this is not the point. What is the point is this: Those same bastards who caused the great meltdown of 2008, are now lobbying our Government to put things back as they were, so that this sort of thing could happy again. That my friends is enough to make an economic populist, like myself, to want to bite a nail in two! 😡
The people that caused the Wall Street meltdown and downturn in our economy ought to be brought up on treason charges, and lined up against a wall and shot! 😡 But, instead, they are trying to buy their way back to lawlessness. This my friends, is an outrage.
The problem with Derek Hunter is, that he is an idiot.
At the link above this idiot goes on a rant about libertarianism and how it’s no longer truly defined and how they don’t seem to change policy. Which is true in some respects, but then he proceeds to compare the Libertarian Party to the Republican establishment and blames them for the loss in Virginia. Which in my opinion is quite stupid.
Reason why the guy up in Virginia lost is because not everyone is down with the extremist wing of the GOP which is represented by Ted Cruz. Some people believe that causing the government to default on its debt obligations is not always the smart idea.
Furthermore, why the guy up in Virginia lost is because he was a social conservative and now in the GOP social conservatism is not a real big priority.
One of the biggest mistakes I believe that the GOP could make now is to go off on a tangent of social conservatism. Folks whether we like it or not we lost that battle. The 1980’s as Dr. James Dobson correctly observed was simply a holding action and in the internet came in and killed any chances of that actually succeeding.
Not to mention that George H.W. Bush came in with his new world order and went soft on taxes and destroyed the Reagan Revolution.
So,I think we really need to get off of the social conservatism kick and concentrate on what’s truly important and that’s the financial state of the United States.
Not everyone thinks like the Tea Party and furthermore not everyone thinks that Ted Cruz is some sort of a rock star. There are some of us who actually believe the Ted Cruz is done more to damage the brand of the GOP then he has done to help it.
Update: Just thought I would let everyone know. Mr. Hunter wrote me on twitter and posted a link to my blog entry with a rather condescending and sarcastic remark. Well, I am all for political discussion; but I am not for ad-hominem attacks. I posted a legit criticism of his column and he responded with a personal attack. So, for this; I blocked him on twitter. Therefore, I am shutting off the comments and trackbacks on this blog entry. Because Mr. Hunter wants to turn this into a spit ball contest and I am a bit old for that sort of a thing. So to Mr. Hunter I simply say this: Grow up. If you cannot handle dissenting opinions; then stop writing on TownHall.com. Furthermore, stop writing whining columns about how your candidate did not win.
Update #2: I think this speaks for itself:
@Americanist313 can't bring yourself to write the word "asshole" but you're compelled to tell me I'm blocked like I'm supposed to give shit?
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Tuesday that he is considering running for another term in 2016, when he would be 80 years old.
“I’m seriously thinking about maybe giving another opportunity for you to vote for or against me in a few years from now,” McCain said on KFYI-AM in Phoenix. “I’m seriously giving that a lot of thought.”
Asked by host Barry Young to clarify if he was saying he might run again, McCain said: “That would not be wrong.”
The New York Times’s Mark Leibovich, who is in Arizona following McCain, first tweeted the news.
McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, is in his fifth term. He has never taken less than 56 percent of the vote and easily dispatched a primary challenge in 2010 from former congressman J.D. Hayworth.
If he runs again, McCain will likely find himself targeted by tea party groups.
I really do not know much about Arizona politics and so, I cannot comment on whether John McCain would win or not in a primary. So, I will refrain from commenting on that one. However, I do believe that this might be an indication of the panic of the Republican Party establishment towards the Tea Party House members like Ted Cruz. As it is right now, we have the chamber of commerce and business groups wanting them out. This might be an extension of that.
As Ron Paul pointed out, when it came to America’s occupation of foreign lands; there is a simple thing called “Blowback.” Which is a negative reaction to someone’s actions. In this case here; the Tea Party House members overreached and had a horrible strategic plan. Ted Cruz, and House members shut down the Government. However, they did not have a plan; and they played the wrong game. Which, of course, put the establishment Republicans in a dire panic; not to mention the rest of the House.
So, now, you have establishment moderate Republican types, like John McCain; who put in a good lifetime of service and was ready to call it a good run and shuffle off to retirement —- actually rethinking that a bit, and wondering if he should stick around least the Tea Party crazies try and strike again.
This is why, if you are going to try and play a political game like the one Ted Cruz did; you need to have a real game plan in place and it is quite obvious to this writer and many others; that Ted Cruz simply did not have that sort of a game plan in place. It was massive overreach and screw up on his part. Furthermore, it very much could have hurt his standing for the 2016 election.
This is not, from my vantage point, a particularly healthy approach to politics or one moored to reality. You can believe, as I do, that President Obama is doing great harm to America, that his agenda is having an enervating effect and that we face deep and serious challenges.
But some perspective is also in order. We are actually not on the verge of collapse and ruin. This period is not comparable to the Great Depression or the period leading up to the Civil War or the collapse of Ancient Rome. And tyranny is not just around the corner.
This is, rather, a difficult time in some important respects – one that requires sobriety and wisdom, public officials of courage and good judgment who are willing to act boldly but not recklessly. The truth is that our afflictions are not beyond our ability to address them, that our society is a complicated mosaic that eludes simple, sweeping characterizations, and America’s capacity for self-renewal is quite extraordinary.
Beyond that is the importance of understanding that the life of a nation, like the life of an individual, includes ebbs and flows; that almost every generation feels as though the problems it faces are among the worst any generation has ever faced; and that setbacks are inevitable and that progress is often incremental.
A final thought: There is no question that a great deal of repair work needs to be done. But the growing sense among some on the right that a curtain of darkness is descending on America is both unwarranted and can lead people to act in ways that are self-destructive.
Without understating our challenges for a moment, I rather hope a figure will emerge from within the conservative ranks who is not only principled but also winsome, who possesses an open and flexible mind and has not learned the art of being discontent. A person who doesn’t find fulfillment in amplifying anxiety and anger. Who doesn’t dwell in the lowlands because he’s too busy aiming for the uplands. And who knows that this fallen world is not a world without hope.
You see up there, where I underlined, that is important. We can be fiscal conservatives, but we do not have to be reckless about it. We want to slow down socialism, but we don’t want this to happen:
The biggest mistake the house Tea Party Conservatives made, was picking this fight so close to a debt ceiling deadline. Wrong battle, wrong strategy, wrong methods. This is why it failed. I wrote this before, but it does bear repeating again.
Anyhow, this pretty much sums up my opinion of the Republican establishment:
The Republicans in the House are largely more conservative than at any time since Wilson left office. One would expect them to understand the intent of the voters who sent them there and thus say no to more taxes, no to more spending and no to more borrowing. Instead, we have Republican leadership in the House that actually proposed raising more revenue by eliminating deductions on income taxes. They somehow claim that they are being faithful to their stated mission of fiscal conservatism by making you pay more money but at the present tax rates. They, too, have failed economics 101.
Any significant movement of wealth from taxpayers to tax consumers will not enhance prosperity; it will crush it, and it will breed dependence on a government that is fiscally out of control. The recipients will no doubt vote to re-elect those who gave them these payments.
Amen and Amen. Big Government sucks and taxing the job creators is beyond stupid. If the GOP plays surrender monkey on this; you can kiss that party goodbye. Because the grassroots will not vote for a party that says one thing and does another.
I will also say this: If the Republican Party thinks for one lousy second that the Tea Party is dead and that the movement has ended, they will be in for a huge shock come 2014. I believe that there well a huge ground swell of voter discontent come 2014, especially after when taxes go up on small businesses.
So, if the GOP wants to cave on this; feel free — but the clock is ticking and you have basically blown through your political capital, Mr. Boehner. If you believe that punishing true Conservatives is going to do you any good. Think again. Oh, it will help you on the short-term, so that you can play nice with the President. But, in the long-term, you are toast. You will be out of job, because I tend to believe that the Republican grassroots and the Conservative grassroots —- you know, those who actually vote for you? — are not going to stand for this at all.
I have to laugh about this little news story here.
A well-known so-called “Conservative” talker and Femi-Nazi, who said some rather nasty things about me on Twitter and also told her paternal Father, who pulled two tours of duty in Vietnam; that she wished that “your name was on that wall.” (real quote by the way…) supposedly got her twatprobed at a TSA stop. I say supposedly, because I do not happen to believe a word that this opportunistic charlatan even says.
This is the same woman, who rose from being a utter nothing to the media person that she is, with the help of the St. Louis Tea Party. Once she was established, she kicked the St. Louis Tea Party to the curb and lent her support to an establishment candidate. Another thing about her so-called Conservatism; don’t be fooled, ask her if she spanks her children; her answer will shock you.
Furthermore, this woman; I will not mention her name, because I really do not need her and her brain-dead followers over here trolling my blog. Just like the two hens that work for Twitchy did once, before Malkin hired them — one of them left a comment, that I traced the IP back to North Carolina, where she lives, said, “lick me where I pee.” Gross. —- this woman is one of the many, many, Wilsonian Conservatives that believe that war on terror should continue on forever and that Muslims ought be subjected to special screening and that other should not; in other words, segregated lines at the airport, by race. How ironic is it, that when she is treated like a terrorist herself, she takes to twitter and screams, “They are violating my rights! ” The irony there is amazing.
Furthermore, she is one of the many wilsonian conservatives who believe that torture of terrorist suspects is perfectly fine and urinating on dead Taliban fighters is perfectly fine too. So, as far as this writer is concerned, she gets what is coming to her. That is, if she is even telling the truth about what the TSA even did to her. I suspect that her ratings for her pathetic little show are getting low and this is some sort publicity stunt to get her some ratings.
There is a Christian angle to this too, and I will quote from the Bible:
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. — (Galatians 6:7-8 KJV)
Jesus said of people like her, “They have their reward.” Right now, this woman just got reaped, in a big ol’ way and you know? It could not have happened to a better person, if you ask me.
The real irony here is that this feckless woman tweeted the following:
“Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Ben Franklin
…and those who traffic in hate, bigotry and advocate in the mistreatment of people who did not look 100% like you; and then end on TSA watch lists, ought not to expect special treatment from the Government either! But she does, she thinks that only Arabs should go through, what she supposedly went through and not white people, like her. If we are going to have these sort of searches to prevent terrorism; then everyone should have to submit to them, including little white bread prissy britches like her!
That is not the way you make a funny video! This stupid stuff like this below is why people like this guy here, and this guy here; call people like me racist bigots and why the left calls Republicans/Conservative/Tea Party people racist bigots! 😡
I mean, the thing looked like it was produced by Stormfont’s Don Black or David Duke — minus the offensive language and racial slurs.
Here is the reason I say this: While white people might find this video to be humorous. Most blacks, with any sort self-respect; would find this video to be horribly offensive and blatantly racist. I am sorry, but painting the President of the United States of America, as a black man, who will not leave a White family’s home, is just wrong. Sorry, it’s the way I feel. There are better ways to make the point that Obama’s policies have not be good for the Country. But, not like this.
There is a way to exploit and mock stereotypes of this sort; this is not one of the ways to do it. The cheese factor in this video was just horribly bad. I was about a minute into it, before I had to shut it off.
—- this woman is one of the many, many, Wilsonian Conservatives that believe that war on terror should continue on forever and that Muslims ought be subjected to special screening and that other should not; in other words, segregated lines at the airport, by race. How ironic is it, that when she is treated like a terrorist herself, she takes to twitter and screams, “They are violating my rights! 
” The irony there is amazing. 
But she does, she thinks that only Arabs should go through, what she supposedly went through and not white people, like her. If we are going to have these sort of searches to prevent terrorism; then everyone should have to submit to them, including little white bread prissy britches like her! 