tea parties

The "tea party" movement: Page 3


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Government spending & the deficit are a distraction from much more important issues - 04/09/11

Last night, Congress finally did something about massive government spending (link), the single most important issue ever to face the U.S. and the only thing keeping us from continued hope, growth, opportunity and prosperity. Er, maybe not. And, in fact, others used to agree. For instance, consider this table showing the average number of monthly mentions of the listed terms at HotAir [1]. In 2007 there were an average of just 8 mentions per month of the word "deficit" at HotAir. By 2011, there were an average of 222 mentions per month:   "deficit" "spending" "budget" 2011 (4 months) 222...

How Glenn Beck could have kept his Fox News show - 04/07/11

Glenn Beck announced yesterday that he was going to stop his daily Fox News show as of the end of the year. He'll still be doing the occasional special for them, and he promises that he'll have surprises in store and that the best is yet to come. Some notes:

Did Teapartiers get bilked out of nearly half a million dollars? - 04/04/11

The vast majority of those in the tea parties are - not to put too fine a point on it - suckers. Previously they wanted to have a beer with George W Bush, a quisling who allowed loose borders, who wanted to help lower U.S. wages to world levels, and who let foreign citizens take jobs away from American hurricane victims. Nowadays they're following leaders (Dick Armey of FreedomWorks, Grover Norquist, the Koch family, the Wall Street Journal, Club for Growth, libertarians, etc. etc.) and an ideology ("Libertarian Lite") that hurts them (extreme fiscal conservatism) and that ignores their real...

Teaparty's growing unpopularity is now a liability for the GOP (the chart Tea Party doesn't want to see) - 03/31/11

The tea parties movement is now so unpopular that they're a liability for the Republican Party. For a clear example, see the chart below [1] showing how more and more Americans have developed an unfavorable opinion of them over time. Support for the Teaparties has topped out: they've been stuck around 30% since they began. However, all the while opposition to them has been rising.

Tea Party used to push corporate agenda (Institute for Liberty, Monsanto, Asian paper company) - 03/31/11

If you've been following our extensive tea parties coverage, you'll know where this is going (and if you're a teapartier, you'll have no clue): Last fall, [Institute for Liberty's] president, Andrew Langer, had himself videotaped [ peekURL.com/vM87wLC ] on Long Wharf in Boston holding a copy of the Declaration of Independence as he compared Washington’s proposed tariff on paper from Indonesia and China to Britain's colonial trade policies in 1776. That's from "Odd Alliance: Business Lobby and Tea Party" by Mike McIntyre of the New York Times (link) about how the Institute for Liberty and...

Utah gov. Gary Herbert signs "guest" worker, other immigration bills - 03/15/11

Utah governor Gary Herbert has signed (link) a bill that would create a state-level guest worker program with a Mexican state (see that link for the details). The bill would also reward illegal immigration, encourage more illegal immigration, lower wages for American workers, and even their legislature admits it's unconstitutional. Regarding the last: Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said he has been in discussions with the Obama administration regarding the state's desire to work cooperatively with the federal government to obtain the necessary waivers, exemptions or authorizations to...

Koch Industries' sockpuppets edited Wikipedia and post comments on blogs too - 03/09/11

Public relations firms employed by the billionaire Koch family have been caught using "sockpuppets" to edit Wikipedia pages about the Kochs. And, one of those firms admits that they use people to promote the Kochs on blogs and news sites. Unfortunately, ThinkProgress [1] doesn't discuss what the latter consists of, but I would not be surprised at all to discover that the vile and idiotic replies I receive to my anti-tea parties comments around the web (a recent example here) are coming from sockpuppets for Koch, FreedomWorks, and similar groups. From [1]: Last year, Koch Industries began...

The Teaparty-ification of NPR (James O'Keefe, cheap stunts, distraction) - 03/09/11

The president and CEO of NPR - Vivian Schiller - was fired by their board today (link). That follows James OKeefe of ACORN fame catching one of her former underlings on hidden camera saying embarrassing things. A few notes:

Obama plays race card on Tea Party and whites in general; "subterranean agenda"; Teaparty interferes with proper response - 03/03/11

According to the book "Family of Freedom: Presidents and African Americans in the White House" (link) by Kenneth Walsh of US News: But Obama, in his most candid moments, acknowledged that race was still a problem. In May 2010, he told guests at a private White House dinner that race was probably a key component in the rising opposition to his presidency from conservatives, especially right-wing activists in the anti-incumbent "Tea Party" movement that was then surging across the country. Many middle-class and working-class whites felt aggrieved and resentful that the federal government was...

Tim Pawlenty's crazy Tea Party outreach - 03/01/11

Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty is reaching out to the tea parties and doing it in big, crazy ways. Over the weekend, he appeared at the Teaparty "Patriots" summit in Phoenix, Arizona and said among other things this completely false statement (video: peekURL.com/vNQNJUT ): "I'm here to say thank you for standing up to the ruling class" [meaning: "liberal power brokers, guardians of the status quo and the royal triangle of greed: big government, big unions and big bailed-out businesses"] In fact, the teapartiers are having their strings pulled by one set of the "ruling class",...

Yet another example of Teaparty being useful idiots for the Koch brothers? (Madison union protests) - 02/19/11

Are the tea parties useful idiots for an attempt by the billionaire Koch family to fight unionization in order to increase their profits? The latest example of the Koch family pushing an agenda that helps their bottom line and getting help from the teapartiers in that endeavor comes from the protests between public sector unions and Republican governor Scott Walker in Madison, Wisconsin. I haven't been closely following the issue, but at the very least it's clear that the Kochs are attempting to take advantage of the issue to push their agenda. And, pushing that agenda would help the bottom...

Teaparty: 52% unfavorable, just 35% favorable (WaPo ABC poll) (socialism gets 36% favorable) - 01/19/11

[See the March 2011 update below] Per their enablers, the tea parties are as American as apple pie with a U.S. flag on top. So, why do many Americans have an unfavorable opinion of them? According to a new Washington Post / ABC News poll (link), just 35% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the teaparty movement, down from 38% in September 2010 and from 41% in March 2010. Meanwhile, their unfavorable rating has jumped to 52%, from a low of 39% in March 2010. Only 16% are strongly favorable on the teaparties. If the partiers were as mainstream and all-American as they say, wouldn't their...

Reason Magazine misleads about Jared Loughner (+AllahPundit, Glenn Reynolds) - 01/18/11

Reason Magazine offers the deceptive video "The Week in Stupid: Cable Pundits on the Gifford Shooting" (below). If you trust anything Reason tells you, keep reading.

Jared Loughner: anti-Bush, pro-small government? Intellectually dishonest Tea Party defenders - 01/17/11

Enablers of the tea parties have, of course, been completely intellectually dishonest when attempting to defend themselves against claims that Jared Loughner is linked to them in one way or another. One example is here, and today's example involves the New York Times piece "Looking Behind the Mug-Shot Grin" (link). Based on the relevant portion of that article [1], Loughner sounds a bit like a libertarian or perhaps anarchist [2]. Instead of considering the whole of the relevant portion of the NYT article, Tea Party enablers stop at the part about not liking George W Bush, attempting to...

Jared Loughner's "Genocide School" video (Pima Community College) - 01/15/11

Pima Community College has released the video from Jared Loughner that resulted in his explusion from that school (article here, embedded below, [1]). In it he walks around that College at night and narrates why it's his "genocide school" and how their actions will result in him becoming homeless. He seems particularly agitated about having received a "B" grade in a sociology class. As I've stated many times, about the only political inclination that can be derived is that of a deranged extremist libertarian. While I expect some on the Left to claim he says things similar to the tea parties,...

From my satire to Tea Party ideas: Mike Lee and child labor - 01/15/11

In July of last year I offered a satire called A Teaparty Timeline, containing this: In the 1800s, teaparty valiantly fought for the rights of children to work as many hours as they wanted.

Did Pima County Sheriff Dupnik ignore Jared Loughner's warning signs before Gabrielle Giffords shooting? - 01/13/11

Almost immediately after the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and several others by Jared Lee Loughner, Pima County, Arizona Sheriff Clarence Dupnik began politicizing the tragedy [1]. Part of that politicization was justified, part was not. Specifically, considering the role that an overly hostile political environment might have played in the tragedy and urging calm is acceptable, but naming specific persons (Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh) as possible contributing factors is not. In any case, supporters and enablers of Palin, Limbaugh, and the tea parties movement responded by going on a...

Friend: Loughner wasn't political, not left or right (two years out of date; Zeitgeist) - 01/12/11

On Good Morning America, Zach Osler - a former friend of Gabrielle Giffords shooter Jared Lee Loughner - said the following about Loughner (video below): He did not watch TV. He disliked the news. He didn’t listen to political radio. He didn’t take sides. He wasn’t on the left. He wasn’t on the right. However, in the same interview, Osler admits not having seen Loughner for two years. Obviously, a lot can happen in two years, but don't expect partisan hacks to acknowledge that or in some cases even mention that Osler's information is two years out of date. Osler's claims also contradict...

Is Jared Lee Loughner linked to Tea Party, conservatives, or libertarians? (Gabrielle Giffords shooting) - 01/11/11

Q. Is Jared Lee Loughner linked to the Tea Party, conservative, or libertarian movements? A. At this time, there's no indication that Loughner was a member of any organized political movement. He was a registered independent who hadn't voted in 2010 (link). The DHS claim that he was linked to the white racial separatist group AmRen is false. Given what we know now, the chances of him being welcomed as a member of any group outside the far fringe is remote [1]. Given his history, the chances that even the teaparties would welcome him to their meetings is slim. He might have been welcomed to...

Glenn Reynolds denies Tea Party's history of intimidation (Giffords shooting, Loughner) - 01/09/11

Glenn Reynolds takes to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to offer "The Arizona Tragedy and the Politics of Blood Libel" (link) in which he tries to run away from the toxic political environment that the tea parties movement - of which he is a leader - has created: With only the barest outline of events available, pundits and reporters seemed to agree that the massacre had to be the fault of the tea party movement in general, and of Sarah Palin in particular. Why? Because they had created, in New York Times columnist Paul Krugman's words, a "climate of hate." ...There's a climate of hate...

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, several others shot; Palin, Tea Party candidate - 01/08/11

UPDATES BELOW Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and several others were shot earlier today and there are conflicting reports on whether she and others were killed. Per this: The gunman, who may have come from inside the Safeway, walked up and shot Gifford in the head first, "point blank". According to [an eyewitness, Steven Rayle], who is a former ER doctor, Gifford was able to move her hands after being shot... After shooting Gifford, the gunman opened fire indiscriminately for a few seconds, firing 20-30 rounds and hitting a number of people, including a kid no older than 10 years old... The gunman...

Tea Party "Patriots" mostly silent about anti-American DREAM Act (and rightwing bloggers too) - 12/07/10

The "patriots" in the tea parties aren't exactly going all out to oppose the anti-American DREAM Act amnesty. The loudest voices against the Obama administration have mostly gone silent against an amnesty which could cover between one to two million illegal aliens and which would allow those illegal aliens covered by it to take college resources away from their fellow citizens.

The anti-corporate Tea Party? No: will oppose some corporations, give others a pass (FreedomWorks, useful idiots) - 11/23/10

FreedomWorks [1] have a new effort to get the tea parties to espouse an anti-corporate message. The teapartiers, Fighting the Power? Not so fase: if you're familiar with both the teapartiers and Freedom Works, you know there's a catch, and indeed there is: they're only going to get the tea partiers to oppose *some* corporations, while helping or ignoring another set. Don't worry: the teapartiers will continue to be useful idiots for some corporations, just not all of them. From this: Jesse Jackson isn't the only activist that can use corporate boycotts for political purposes. Starting next...

WSJ/NBC poll shows little support for fiscal conservatism; 70% "uncomfortable" with cuts to Medicare, Social Security, defense - 11/18/10

Bad news for libertarians and the tea parties: a new Wall Street Journal / NBC News poll shows little support for fiscal conservative policies (link): [The poll] shows Americans skeptical of deficit-cutting proposals laid out by the chairmen of a commission appointed by the White House. In the survey, 57% of respondents said they were uncomfortable with gradually raising the Social Security retirement age to 69 over the next 60 years. Some 41% said they were somewhat or very comfortable with the idea. Roughly 70% were uncomfortable with making cuts to programs such as Medicare, Social...

Tea Party leaders: GOP should ignore social issues (TP "Patriots", Tammy Bruce) - 11/15/10

Leaders of the Tea Party "Patriots" and the New American "Patriots" - together with the gay group GOProud and Tammy Bruce - have written an open letter (link) to the GOP urging them to avoid "social issues". Instead, they want the GOP to concentrate on their message of "economic freedom". Obviously, what they want is incredibly poor strategy and in line with all the other stupidity surrounding the tea parties movement. 1. Social conservatives make up a large part of the GOP coalition, and if the GOP won't offer them something many of them won't bother to vote, many will vote for fewer GOP...

How many Senate seats did the Tea Parties cost the Republicans? - 11/10/10

If you ask a member of the tea parties how many senate seats their candidates lost the GOP, they'll probably say "-17". However, from this: The Fix looked at Angle, Buck, O'Donnell and two other faces of the tea party: New York governor candidate Carl Paladino and Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul. The five of them, it turns out, ran behind the vast majority of other Republican candidates -- and sometimes by wide margins. In almost every case, they ran behind more mainstream Republican candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state and other statewide offices. And in no...

Why George W Bush should be shunned - 11/09/10

George W Bush is currently trying to rehabilitate himself and getting help from many rightwing/tea parties-style sources. Here are some of the reasons why he should be shunned now (and why those same sources should have shunned him then but couldn't find their tongues):

Glenn Reynolds still supports childish mocking of politicians rather than intellectual challenges - 11/03/10

It's been two weeks since I last showed how Glenn Reynolds is wrong, so let's take a look at his latest childish, thuggish advice [1]: BARNEY FRANK SURVIVED SEAN BIELAT’S CHALLENGE, but as this “train-wreck” victory speech demonstrates [2], it really got under his skin and he’s lashing out in what looks more like an angry concession speech. I think Barney Frank is actually hurt that he had to take it, not just dish it out this time around. But the Tea Party movement has not yet begun to dish . . . . But Frank’s childish behavior provides a good lesson in how to deal with the political class....

2010 Elections: Tea Party wins some, loses some, does somewhat less damage than feared - 11/03/10

In the 2010 elections, Republicans who were backed by the tea parties ("TP") won several races but some of the major TP candidates lost. The GOP landslide was very large on both the national and state levels, and apparently exit polls showed 4 in 10 voters expressing support for the TP movement. However, those who voted skewed older; more younger people voted in 2008. Below is a list of some of the races, followed by a discussion of what to do. * Mark Kirk won in the most important race in the U.S., considering who was kept out of the Senate. Needless to say, the TP "patriots" largely ignored...

Repudiate Teaparty: vote Democratic except Kirk, Tancredo, and Brewer - 10/29/10

In the election on Tuesday, I strongly urge you to vote against candidates who are part of the Tea Parties movement and against that movement in general. The teaparties are one of the most malignant political movements in the past several decades and must be repudiated; more on that below and see my extensive coverage at that link. I'm also making these specific recommendations:

Immigration questions for Sean Bielat - 10/25/10

Sean Bielat is the tea parties favorite who's challenging Barney Frank for Congress from Massachusetts. His immigration position follows [1], followed by some questions for him. In the following, each number in parens indicates a question below. I'll invite him via Twitter [2] to answer these questions, and the reader is invited to do the same: @SeanBielat. I believe in an America that protects our citizens' civil liberties (see #1) and our borders. The federal government's negligence on immigration and border security makes everyone less safe and more vulnerable. Workers deserve the...

Koch family, U.S. Chamber, businesses met to plan strategy (+Glenn Beck, tea parties, "mobilize citizens for November") - 10/20/10

Twice each year, the Koch family conducts strategy meetings with corporate and thought leaders to plan how to advance their "free market" ideology. ThinkProgress has the guest list and program for their June 2010 meeting (in Aspen), and, while immigration isn't mentioned, many of the known attendees are on the wrong side. I don't normally recommend anything at ThinkProgress, but in this case I'll suggest taking a look at their post and downloading the PDF. The New York Times has a related report here; from that: The participants in Aspen dined under the stars at the top of the gondola run on...

Glenn Beck urges donations to illegal immigration-supporting U.S. Chamber of Commerce - 10/14/10

Earlier today, Glenn Beck urged his fans to donate to the US Chamber of Commerce, a group that strongly supports illegal and massive immigration. In 2006, GOP Rep. James Sensenbrenner suggested that the Chamber register as a foreign agent due to what they support.

Teaparty: where were you during the Bush administration? Tell me. - 09/16/10

I've previously joked about the tea parties conducting an eight-year silent protest against the Bush administration.

DiverseTea: tea parties to fight charges of racism... by enabling far-left concepts - 09/13/10

FreedomWorks - the group that pulls many of the strings on the tea parties movement whether the teapartiers want to admit it or not - is launching a new effort called "DiverseTea" (wouldn't "DiversiTea" be better?). They're doing minority outreach in an attempt to show how diverse the teaparties are (link): The ads [to be bought by Freedomworks], which will be accompanied by a yet-to-launch website, will showcase diversity in the tea party ranks by calling attention to movement leaders who are African American, Hispanic and Jewish... “The goal is to build a platform for a diverse group of tea...

Tea Party "Patriots" Admit Failure (They Just Don't Know It) - 09/12/10

The Tea Party "Patriots" have released a promo video in which they admit that they've failed. And, to compound that failure, they don't realize that they're admitting that they've failed. You can see their promo at peekURL.com/vudfmnw and my video response is attached (and also available at peekURL.com/v5ky22y ). The script of my response is below, first some notes: * See tea parties for my extensive coverage, including things you won't hear from them or their other opponents.

Delusional John Hinderaker on the "Tea Party Majority" (Powerline) - 09/07/10

There are few groups more delusional than the tea parties, but John Hinderaker of Powerline is apparently trying to give them a run for their money. In the Glenn Reynolds-linked [1] post "Tea Party Majority" [2] he says the following about the image below: One could draw many conclusions from this, but I would suggest two. First, far from being a fringe phenomenon, the Tea Party movement represents the solid core of mainstream American opinion. Second, when the Republicans take control of Congress, they should not be afraid to cut spending and programs. That's just, well, nuts. The underlying...

9500 Liberty immigration documentary on MTV (NY Times, Tea Parties) - 09/07/10

The 9500 Liberty pro-illegal immigration documentary will be shown on MTV on September 26; see the link for the details on that film. Two years ago, Youtube started promoting them and that was followed by the Washington Post and other sources, and that's not because it's a balanced treatment of the immigration issue but rather because they're on the pro-illegal immigration side.

Erick Stoll, Chase Whiteside smear tea partiers (New Left Media; a challenge) - 09/01/10

Erick Stoll and Chase Whiteside run "New Left Media" and their claim to limited fame is going to tea parties events and trying to get those attending to make themselves look bad, even if they have to use deception to do it (link).

Mark Levin's insane tea party rant - 08/31/10

Glenn Reynolds [1] and Dan Riehl [2] direct our attention to the opening of yesterday's Mark Levin show in which that right-wing radio host gave, per them, a "Rousing Call To Arms For The Tea Party Movement": link.

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