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Everyday I get more and more befuddled by the mess that we call the news. I am shocked to see so many people attack science, intellectualism and education. I am shocked to see so many people cling to pre-modern beliefs that are bad ideas. I am not talking about beliefs such as religion or morality; those are for individuals to choose on their own.

An example of the ideologies I am writing about could be found in the Tea Party or Libertarian movements, as well as in the Republican Party. I find no problems with most of the followers of these movements. But a number of them are fanatical, criminal and are promoting practices that will damage the United States.

One of the ideologies that are strikingly ignorant is that we must abolish government, or maintain a government only for defense. Please take a moment to realize that I am someone who advocates a smaller federal government. I think government should be a lot weaker, but I also understand that it is necessary.

Private enterprise cannot take the place of such services as police, fire, or military. Similarly, these enterprises cannot keep up the repair on our infrastructure, fund scientific research or direct the energy of our whole nation towards one goal. Like the space race or the World War Two.

I am also someone, as maybe you know, that promotes rational and logical thought that is based on evidence. I am not someone who is going to base a belief or my opinion on a ‘feeling.’ I am also a skeptic. When Obama had garnered a strong following during the 2008 campaign, I became concerned that a personality cult would develop around him. Many other people had this concern as well, even though it was largely unfounded. Just because he is popular and articulate doesn’t mean he is evil.

Again, my suspicions have arisen to a higher level of awareness due to the popularity of the Tea Party Movements and some of their fanatical ideologies. We now have people with almost no political knowledge claiming to know the truth. Many of these people claim that we have to strengthen our defense, eliminate our social safety net programs and significantly decrease taxation.

Ezra Pound, the American poet, once wrote; “The only chance for victory over the brainwash is the right of every man to have his ideas judged one at a time. You never get clarity as long as you have these packaged words, as long as a word is used by twenty-five people in twenty-five different ways. That seems to me to be the first fight, if there is going to be any intellect left.”

These very same people who argue against the traditions of government and the social contract are now rallying against Obama because of his proposed 3 year spending freeze. Please note that a spending freeze is pretty much the exact legislation that many of these Tea Party followers and GOPers want. Does it seem hypocritical to you?

Now, this is not new ground I am breaking. Many people have called these folks out on their many hypocritical remarks.

Check out to see what Stephen Colbert had to say here.

The main problem that I see with the current Tea Party movement and this new exclusive Republican Party is that their arguments are based in hate and fear. No matter what happens with Obama or how he behaves, he is attacked by these people.

They use fear to scare the American people by saying, Obama is not a citzen, Obama is a socialist, Obama wants to have a dictatorship, a personal army, there will be death panels, universal healthcare will bankrupt the US and one of my favorites, Obama’s social programs are bankrupting the US.

Now, the problem with these arguments, besides the fact they are based in fear and hate, is that they are wrong. These are not rational arguments to make.

I could go through and refute every one of these arguments, and maybe for another article I will. But, for now, I am more inclined to bring to light some of their recent behavior rather then argue with their perverted thinking too much.

See Michelle Bachman leading a Tea Party Rally.

See Michelle Bachman talking about the future of the Tea Party.

From Startribune.com:

The videos, which caused some liberals to distance themselves from ACORN, were praised by conservatives, who said they confirmed their suspicions about the group.

A third suspect, Stan Dai, 24, served as editor of his university’s conservative paper and once directed a program aimed at getting college students interested in the intelligence field after 9/11.

And the fourth suspect, Robert Flanagan, 24, wrote for the conservative Pelican Institute and had recently criticized Landrieu for her vote on health care legislation. O’Keefe was a featured speaker at a Pelican Institute luncheon days before his arrest. Flanagan is the son of the acting U.S. Attorney for northern Louisiana.

Basel lists O’Keefe and Dai as friends on his Facebook page.

All four suspects were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

O’Keefe, Basel and Dai returned to the courthouse Wednesday morning for private appointments with the pretrial services department, which handles arrangements with defendants before trial. The three were carrying suitcases. None would comment as they entered and were met by two court officers.

According to the FBI’s affidavit, Basel and Flanagan arrived at Landrieu’s office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building about 11 a.m. Monday, saying they were phone company repair technicians. O’Keefe was already in the office and positioned his cell phone to record video of the pair. Basel picked up the handset of the main telephone at the reception desk of Landrieu’s office and tried — or pretended to try — to call it with their cell phones. Saying that they could not complete the calls, they were directed to the telephone closet, so they could work on the building’s telephone system.

Shortly afterward, they were arrested by United States marshals.

The affidavit did not accuse the men of trying to tap the phones, or describe in detail what they did to the equipment. However, it stated that they were “willfully and maliciously interfering with a telephone system operated and controlled by the United States of America.”

“It was poor judgment,” Flanagan’s lawyer, Garrison Jordan, said. “I don’t think there was any intent or motive to commit a crime.”

O’Keefe, Dai and Basel declined to comment when they were released from jail Tuesday.

As he got into a cab outside, O’Keefe said, “The truth shall set me free.”

In an interview published earlier this month, Basel was quoted as saying, “if you effectively articulate conservative or libertarian values on campus and you’re willing to call people out on what they need to be called out on, you’d be surprised how much that changes the dialogue. So, the left is responding to you. The administration is responding to what your publication is doing.

“Now, if you just go into a classroom and spout off, or quote some right-wing hack, they’ll probably laugh you out of the classroom. But if you force them to respond to an issue through publishing something, then you’re setting the agenda.”

Landrieu, who was in Washington at the time, said in a statement Tuesday that the plot was “unsettling” for her and her staff. “I am as interested as everyone else about their motives and purpose, which I hope will become clear as the investigation moves forward,” she was quoted as saying.

Democrats pounced on the incident. Democratic National Committee spokesman Hari Sevugan said Republicans once praised O’Keefe as an American hero, “yet today, in light of these deplorable and illegal attacks on the office of a United States senator by their champion, Republicans have not offered a single iota of disgust, a whisper of indignation or even a hint of outrage.”

Staff writer Mary Lynn Smith and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

From CNN.com

A conservative activist who made undercover videos of the liberal community-organizing group ACORN was one of four men charged Tuesday with attempting to illegally access and manipulate the phone system in a district office of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

Joseph Basel, 24; Robert Flanagan, 24; James O’Keefe, 25; and Stan Dai, 24, were charged with entering Landrieu’s New Orleans office under “false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony,” according to a news release from the local U.S. attorney’s office. The office is federal property.

The four posted a $10,000 unsecured bond and were released, said Kathy English of the Department of Justice. According to CNN affiliate WWL, the next court date in the case is set for February 12.

O’Keefe is the same activist who dressed up as a pimp last summer and visited ACORN offices to solicit advice on setting up a brothel, among other scenarios, law enforcement officials confirmed. He secretly recorded the visits on videotapes that were posted on the Internet, leading to a media firestorm.

Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, the acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, his office said.

Articles on conservative Web sites connect O’Keefe to a man named Joe Basel, describing them as conservative student activists and filmmakers.

“This is a very unusual situation and somewhat unsettling for me and my staff,” Landrieu said in a statement Tuesday night. “The individuals responsible have been charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purposes of committing a felony. I am as interested as everyone else about their motives and purpose, which I hope will become clear as the investigation moves forward.”

Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Michael McHale, in a separate statement, called the case a “Louisiana Watergate.”

“Louisiana families are shocked and outraged that these men would break the law to carry out their political agenda with this Watergate-like break-in and attempted wiretapping,” McHale said in the statement, which also claimed Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter has “ties to some of the players involved” and called on Vitter to “immediately denounce” the suspects and anyone else involved.

According to the news release Tuesday and an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Steven Rayes, who is based in New Orleans, Basel and Flanagan attempted to gain access to Landrieu’s office Monday while posing as telephone repairmen.

The two men were “each dressed in blue denim pants, a blue work shirt, a light green fluorescent vest, a tool belt and a construction-style hard hat when they entered the Hale Boggs Federal Building,” the release noted.

Read the affidavit (PDF)

After they entered the building, the two men told a staffer in Landrieu’s office they were telephone repairmen, according to the release and Rayes’ affidavit. They asked for — and were granted — access to the reception desk’s phone system.

O’Keefe, who had been waiting in the office before the pair arrived, recorded their actions with a cell phone, said the affidavit by Rayes.

Flanagan and Basel later requested access to a telephone closet, claiming they needed to perform work on the main phone system, the release and affidavit stated.

According to Rayes’ affidavit, the two men went to a U.S. General Services Administration office on another floor and requested access to the main phone system. A GSA employee then asked for their credentials, and the two men said they left them in their vehicle, the affidavit said.

All four men have admitted their roles in the operation to federal agents, Rayes’ affidavit said.

If convicted, the four men would each face a possible maximum penalty of a $250,000 fine and 10 years in prison, according to the news release.

Edward Castaing, an attorney who represented O’Keefe, Basel and Dai at Tuesday’s hearing, refused to tell reporters how he got involved, WWL reported. Videotape of an interview with Castaing showed him respond “I have no idea at this point” when asked who was paying for his services.

Castaing also said he gave them $60 to catch a taxi to retrieve their belongings after their release.

O’Keefe and a female associate were named in a lawsuit filed January 21 by an ACORN worker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who accused them of illegally videotaping an interview with her last July and distributing it on the Internet.

That video and others by O’Keefe and his associate led to the dismissal of four ACORN employees who appeared to offer advice to the couple and to federal legislation barring the group from receiving federal funds. But a review by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, who was hired by ACORN to examine the issue, found no wrongdoing by ACORN employees.

“While some of the advice and counsel given by ACORN employees and volunteers was clearly inappropriate and unprofessional, we did not find a pattern of intentional, illegal conduct by ACORN staff,” Harshbarger’s report concluded. “In fact, there is no evidence that action, illegal or otherwise, was taken by any ACORN employee on behalf of the videographers.”

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, was founded in 1970 to help the poor find government benefits and housing, but it became the focus of conservative complaints as a result of its voter registration drives.

Articles posted January 14 on CampusReform.org and Political Vanguard, both conservative Web sites, quoted O’Keefe and a man identified as Joe Basel as conservative student activists and independent filmmakers.

“Don’t just respond to news, but actually create your own headlines,” O’Keefe is quoted as saying by CampusReform.org.

What do you think about the Tea Party movement?

Are you concerned because they base their arguments in hate and try to scare their followers?

Do you see similarities between the “bullying” nature of the Tea Party and that of other despotic political movements?