Tea Party WINS BIG in Texas

The Week reported:

The 2014 Republican primaries have been good for incumbents andthe GOP establishment over Tea Party candidates. Texas is having none of that. In Tuesday’s GOP primary runoff elections, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst lost his bid for re-election to state Sen. Dan Patrick, a former talk radio host backed by Tea Party groups. This is Dewhurst’s second big loss to the Tea Party — he was upset by Ted Cruz in the 2012 GOP primary for U.S. Senate. Patrick will face state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte (D) for the unusually powerful Texas lieutenant governorship.

The Tea Party also won in the race for state attorney general, with state Sen. Ken Paxton beating state Rep. Dan Branch for the GOP nod. And former U.S. Attorney John Ratcliffe, backed by the conservative Club for Growth and Senate Conservatives Fund, unseated 91-year-old Rep. Ralph Hall (R).

Lib Lawmaker Cummings Goes Ballistic at IRS Targeting Scandal Hearing

Sen. Mike Lee Delivers Official Tea Party Response to Obama’s State of the Union Address

Chuck Schumer Calls on IRS to Target Tea Party

Obama’s IRS To Target Conservatives

Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service was caught this year targeting conservative groups with harassment that included invasive probes into the content of prayers and unwarranted delays.

That issue is being worked out in court. But the IRS, nevertheless, remains on the attack, proposing new regulations that would silence the president’s critics.

Mathew Staver, founder and chief counsel of Liberty Counsel, said that after “being caught intentionally targeting conservative groups in the prior two elections, now the president wants his IRS to totally silence the voices of his political adversaries.”

New rules proposed in the Federal Register, Staver said, are “designed to silence and greatly restrict the activities of Liberty Counsel Action and other 501 (c) 4 nonprofit organizations during the upcoming election year.”

Read more here.

Dana Loesch Thrashes Tea Party Critic Richard Fowler on Hannity

University’s Online Newsletter Compares Tea Party to Democrat Created KKK

Campus Reform reported:

The University of Washington’s (UW) Political Science Department on Monday asked its alumni if the modern Tea Party is “like the Ku Klux Klan?” in a widely distributed email newsletter.

The question, which was posed four times throughout the email, was part of a promotional blurb for a new book by UW Associate Professor Christopher Parker entitled Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in Contemporary America.

“Is the Tea Party like the Ku Klux Klan?” asked the newsletter. “Professor Christopher Parker… argues that recent research shows racism is a strong indicator of Tea Party support, stronger even than a preference for small government.”

The email, sent to Campus Reform by an alumnus who asked to remain anonymous, also included a lengthy commentary in which Parker argued that the Tea Party is in fact very similar to the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) of the 1920s.

“Consider the Tea Party,” wrote Parker. “Similar to the Klan, white, middle- class, middle-aged, Protestant men dominate the Tea Party’s ranks.”

“Tea Partiers are motivated by both conservative principles and racism,” wrote Parker, earlier in the piece.

Parker went on to clarify both in the piece, and in an email to Campus Reform that there are “differences between the two right-wing movements” and that his comparison was specifically with the KKK of the 1920s, which lessened its focus on violence in favor of gaining influence in the political system.

“My comparison to the KKK is very specific: the KKK of the 1920s,” he wrote. “This Klan departed from the Klan of the 19th Century and the mid-20th Century in several ways. The Klan of the 1920s was a national movement, not confined to the South. As a result, it was less violent than the other two versions.”

See the President’s Handwritten Letter With the Quote ‘Tea Baggers’ in It

‘First Amendment Rights of Americans at Even Greater Risk’

In the shadow of the scandal over the targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups, the Internal Revenue on Tuesday announced new regulations curbing the political activity of tax-exempt groups.

The new restrictions would prohibit such groups from backing candidates, making political pronouncements 60 days before an election and participating in get-out-the-vote drives.

Advocates for conservative organizations litigating against the IRS’ scrutiny say the new rules are an attack on free speech.

“It is never a positive when the government gets involved in regulating political speech,” Cleta Mitchell, a Washington-based attorney, told TheBlaze. “Remember the first five words of the First Amendment: ‘Congress shall make no law.’”

Mitchell is representing True the Vote and other conservative groups suing the IRS over targeting, which the agency has admitted to.

Mitchell said the rules should be more narrow and defined.

Read more here.

Happy 238th Birthday – US Marines

Happy 238th Birthday, US Marines and to all who have served this country honorably.

There are still those who dedicate themselves to a sense of honor, to a life of courage and to a commitment to something greater than themselves.
Thank you.