tea parties

The "tea party" movement: Page 4


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Christopher Hitchens has no clue about the tea parties - 08/31/10

Christopher Hitchens offers "White Fright / Glenn Beck's rally was large, vague, moist, and undirected—the Waterworld of white self-pity" about Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally (at Slate: slate.com/id/2265515 ). A few comments:

Example of Tea Party helping their opponents (immigration, "Restoring Honor") - 08/29/10

The video at peekurl.com/virmhi2 provides yet another in the long line of examples of how the tea parties are helping their opponents.

Glenn Beck "Restoring Honor" rally linked to Dick Armey (Koch too?) - 08/28/10

Earlier today, Glenn Beck held a "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington DC which was attended by somewhere around a few hundred thousand people; certainly an impressive turnout (UPDATE: see below). Thankfully I didn't watch it, but Part 1 of Beck's speech is at peekURL.com/vqlzrtm and Part 1 of Sarah Palin's speech is at peekURL.com/vyn3lcr Any response to the borderline lunacy offered by Beck would become novel-length; for the novella version, see the dozens of tea parties posts. A few quick notes: 1. Apparently Beck unveiled or was planning on unveiling something called a "Black-Robed...

McCain trounces JD Hayworth in GOP primary; who's to blame (tea parties, Palin, Scott Brown...) - 08/25/10

In last night's GOP Senate primary in Arizona, John McCain trounced JD Hayworth with 59% versus 29% for Hayworth (and 11% for Jim Deakin). To a certain extent, McCain's win was due to him spending around $20 million on advertising and him pretending to be tough on immigration matters. Defeating McCain would have sent a strong message to the Beltway establishment, the mainstream media, and other amnesty supporters. Instead, those who should have opposed him either didn't oppose him, didn't take a position, or engaged in useless or counter-productive activities. Who shares the blame? 1....

Melissa Bean's "thug" vs. teaparty libertarian idiot at public meeting - 08/16/10

Gateway Pundit offers "It Begins… Dem Congresswoman Brings In Street Thug at Town Hall Meeting to Threaten Constituents (Video)" (link).

United We Stand Border Coalition Tea Party Rally: Sharron Angle, J.D. Hayworth, less effective... - 08/10/10

On Sunday August 15th 2010, a group called "United We Stand for Americans" ("UWSFA") [1] will be conducting a rally on the border in Arizona in order to call to secure the border and to oppose John McCain.

Is Pete Stark concerned about eVerify keeping illegal aliens from being hired? (Steve Kemp, Golden Gate Minutemen) - 08/03/10

Steve Kemp of the "Golden Gate Minutemen" has been behind two smash Youtube hits featuring Rep. Pete Stark. The videos are at the tea parties level as far as stupidity (very high) and utility (very low) are concerned. They do, however, get Steve Kemp and his group a lot of attention, but then again that isn't going to reduce illegal immigration.

Two tales of Teaparty torpidity (if you oppose illegal immigration teapartiers are in your way) (Mandy Nagy, Liberty_Chick) - 08/02/10

The attached graphics contain two conversations I recently had on Twitter with supporters of the Tea Parties, and both conversations - as with every other single interaction I've ever had with teapartiers - drives home every negative thing I say about them at the link. If you oppose illegal immigration, the teapartiers are just standing in your way.

Example of Tea Party not handling racism correctly; supporting massive immigration + far-left concepts; Glenn Reynolds stupidity - 07/31/10

This post will briefly outline yet another example of the tea parties unknowingly supporting far-left concepts and massive immigration, not handling charges of racism correctly, and, to start with, yet another example of why taking the advice of Glenn Reynolds is a very bad idea. At pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/103874, Reynolds links to this using its sub-headline: "Spencer Wilking Finds That New York’s Tea Partiers Aren’t The Bigoted White Guys You Fear." In other words, the article is saying that the New York group consists of the "good ones"; the sub-headline implies that other tea party...

A Teaparty Timeline: Tea Party through the years - 07/19/10

Most people think that the Tea Partiers are just a recent and U.S. phenomenon. Wrong! In fact, there are currently Tea Party groups in hundreds of countries around the world, with over 900 million active members. Not only that, but Teapartiers - or those adhering to Tea Party ideals - have been around for thousands of years. Join us now as we take a trip down memory lane to learn about Teapartiers of the Past:

Tea party leaders, complaining about NAACP "racist" charge, call Obama's policies "socialist" - 07/14/10

Yesterday, I discussed how if you object to the NAACP playing the race card, the tea partiers aren't your friends. As if to provide a real world example, Jenny Beth Martin and Mark Meckler of the so-called "Tea Party Patriots" offer "On being labeled as 'racist'" (link): A clear pattern of behavior has emerged over the last 16 months. According to liberals, if you disagree with their thinking, and if you disagree with the Obama administration, you are not only wrong, you are a "racist."... ...At its most simple, [the NAACP resolution] is a direct attack on the First Amendment rights of...

If you oppose the NAACP playing the race card, the Tea Parties aren't your friends - 07/13/10

Earlier today, the NAACP passed a resolution "calling on all people -including tea party leaders - to condemn racism within the tea party movement" per this (actual text not available yet).

Bill Kristol enables tea party idiocy; "my fellow Tea Partiers" - 07/11/10

Watch out world, because William Kristol is now a tea partier (link). After the memorable four words "my fellow Tea Partiers" he states that, in addition to the "the day-to-day work of a loyal opposition", he wants the Republican Party to: be the party of the future as well as the present. It can be the party of fundamental reflection and radical choice as well as the party of day-to-day criticism and opposition. This isn’t easy. It can lead to mistakes and missteps, tensions and confusions. But it’s what the moment requires... So fear not the Tea Parties. Be open to fundamental reforms. Belt...

Gallup: Tea partiers think debt more a threat than terrorism; aligned with Republicans on most issues - 07/05/10

According to a new Gallup poll (link), those in the tea parties movement are aligned with Republicans on most issues. And, asked to name "Extremely Serious Threats", they (first number) and their opponents (second number), say: * "Federal government debt": 61% 29% * "Terrorism": 51% 29% * "The size and power of the federal government": 49% 12% * "Healthcare costs": 41% 33% * "Illegal immigration": 41% 14% * "Unemployment": 35% 32% * "The decision to have U.S. troops in Iraq/Afghanistan": 24% 22% * "The size and power of large corporations": 16% 32% * "The environment, including global warming...

Very few July 4th, 2010 Tea Parties compared to last year - 07/05/10

Last July 4th, the tea parties movement was in full swing with thousands of people attending events held across the country. This year was a much more muted affair with a few small events held here and there; gone are the glory days of appearances by Mickey Dolenz and Stephen Crowder.

Arguing with Tea Partiers, Part 1: Teaparty's "Jump, Smear, and Lie" technique - 06/22/10

1. The tea partier will interrupt the other person, in one way or another. That might involve simply trying to prevent them from finishing their sentence, or, in the case of a text-based argument, it might involve simply ignoring everything someone says except a sentence fragment.

Tea partiers help Obama yet again, play circus at Gulf offshore drilling meeting - 06/22/10

Mac McClelland of The Atlantic reports on just the latest example of those in the tea parties in effect helping Obama (link).

Two examples of how tea partiers aren't effective (big AP report, whoo) - 06/20/10

All week, the tea parties line has been abuzz about the release of a new Associated Press article that was supposed to be a fair look at their movement. And, it's here.

Even Dick Armey realizes how toxic the "Tea Party" label is - 06/17/10

Even Dick Armey of FreedomWorks - a main stringpuller on the tea parties movement - now realizes that the label "Tea Party" is toxic and politicians should avoid calling themselves "tea party leaders". Recall that last month the Koch family - without which there might not be a tea party movement - also backed away from the tea parties. From this: ...Armey said (Rand Paul)’s "bigger mistake" came in his victory speech after securing the nomination, when he said "I have a message from the tea party. ... We've come to take our government back" and added: "This tea party movement is a message to...

Koch family distances from Tea Parties; says dogmatism isn't working ("Kochtopus") - 06/17/10

May 10 saw the appearance of the article "The Left’s Billion Dollar Tea Party Lie", an attempt by the billionaire Koch family to back away from the tea parties. The "Kochtopus" - those people and organizations funded by or linked to the Koch family - has been the main driving force behind organizing and promoting the tea parties.

What personality trait causes tea partiers and libertarians to want to play dress-up games? - 06/14/10

I'm no psychologist, but there has to be some explanation why many libertarians and those in the tea parties think that playing dress-up games and putting on a show is an argument. The same isn't true of other political groups; the only two I can think of that come close are PETA and CodePink. The great majority of political groups try to make an argument or (as in the case of this site for the most part) try to show how the opposition is wrong. But, for the teapartiers and for libertarians, simply playing dress-up games is the argument itself. For a recent example (link) In Dallas, the [San...

Democrats skip townhalls to avoid tea party "patriots" - 06/07/10

Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times offers "Democrats Skip Town Halls to Avoid Voter Rage" (nytimes.com/2010/06/07/us/politics/07townhall.html): the tantrums that those in the tea parties threw at last summer's public meetings have caused many Democrats to avoid open meetings this time around: Of the 255 Democrats who make up the majority in the

How D.C. Douglas helps Freedomworks and Teaparty - 05/18/10

One of the reasons why there's still a tea parties movement is because their loudest opposition is a match for them when it comes to incompetence. The latest example of that opposition's incompetence comes from D.C. Douglas ("DCD"), the voiceover actor who was fired by GEICO Insurance after he left a voicemail for FreedomWorks ("FW").

Maine GOP adopts Tea Party platform, and it's semi-sane - 05/10/10

The Maine GOP has adopted a very tea parties-friendly platform; you can get a PDF with it here. I've only seen the tea partiers do two smart things in all the months I've been covering them; this is - in some ways - the third smart thing. In other ways, it's more of the same libertarian lunacy with a fillip of Randroid extreme insanity. First, some of the insanity/loony/libertarian: Espouse and follow the principle: It is immoral to steal the property rightfully earned by one person, and give it to another who has no claim or right to its benefits... ...Promote energy independence...

Will teaparty and rightwing bloggers stumble us into amnesty? - 05/09/10

As if there wasn't enough to worry about, here's something else: rightwing bloggers and the tea parties might "oppose" amnesty in such a way that makes amnesty more likely.

Why the Tea Parties keep being called racist - 05/05/10

Amy Gardner and Krissah Thompson of the Washington Post offer "Tea party groups battling perceptions of racism" (link).

No shame: Teaparty invokes Civil Rights Movement, baby-waves, and engages in bad journalism - 04/29/10

Yesterday, Gateway Pundit (aka Jim Hoft, someone who I take to be more a useful idiot naif than an outright Glenn Reynolds type) offered "Team Obama Calls Out Swat Team on Tea Party Patriots!" (biggovernment.com/jhoft/2010/04/28/team-obama-calls-out-swat-team-on-tea-party-patriots), a journalism-free claim about an Obama event in Quincy, Illinoi

PJTV whines about taxes for Beverly Hills business as millions unemployed - 04/17/10

Normally I'd prefer people to shun the Pajamas Media mini-empire, but I actually urge everyone to share this video: link. Not because it's good, but for the opposite reason: it makes them and those in the general tea parties movement look very bad.

If Andrea Nill of CAP can't get Steve King's joke, what else is she unclear on? - 04/16/10

From this (bolding added): Immigrant-rights groups sought to tap some of the "tea party" thunder Thursday by using the anti-tax-and-spending movement's nationwide protests to argue illegal immigrants must be legalized because they are eager to pay their full taxes... "Here there are people who don't want to pay taxes, and we're saying there are all these people who want to carry the load and we don't allow them to," said Mary Moreno, a spokeswoman for the Center for Community Change. She led a delegation that delivered five boxes of blank tax forms to a Capitol Hill office as a symbol of all...

Chris Stirewalt's fantastical libertarian triumphalism - 04/15/10

Chris Stirewalt - Political Editor of the Washington Examiner - offers the fantastical "Hating the government finally goes mainstream" (link, linked of course by Glenn Reynolds: pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/97645). He advances the delusional claim that the tea parties and recent polls indicate that libertarianism is finally becoming popular, that "[l]ibertarian sentiment has finally gone mainstream". First, his definition of libertarianism doesn't comport with reality: A movement that said that people should do whatever they wanted as long as it didn't hurt anyone else couldn't compete during...

Taitz uninvited from tea party event; does Seema Mehta know what a "falsehood" is? - 04/14/10

Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times brings word (link) that Orly Taitz has been disinvited from a tea parties event in Pleasanton on Thursday. And, that was done after politicians who were to appear at the event complained. Taitz is a piece of work, so it's perfectly understandable why Carly Fiorina and Chuck DeVore wouldn't want to share a stage with her (even if they say they had nothing to do with her being booted from the event). That said, this bit from Seema Mehta's article jumps out (bolding added): Taitz is best known for her crusade to prove Obama was born in Kenya and not Hawaii, a...

How Crash the Tea Party could be effective (Brendan Steinhauser of Freedomworks knows!) - 04/14/10

As exhaustively detailed at the following link, the tea parties are a massive magnet for massive stupidity. They can't do anything right and the only reason they aren't little more than an embarrassing blip on U.S. political history is because their opponents are only marginally smarter than they are. Instead of trying to intellectually engage the partiers and show how they're wrong, those opponents have engaged in a long series of similarly childish activities, such as calling the partiers names or the like. The latest example is the "Crash the Tea Party" group (crashtheteaparty.org) which...

Cristina Corbin of Fox tries to distance Tea Party from fringe "conspiracy theories", gets facts wrong - 04/12/10

Fox News is apparently realizing that the 99.99% (or more) of those in the tea parties who engage in hyperbole, conspiracy theories, or just general lunacy are making the other 0.01% (to be generous) look bad. So, Cristina Corbin offers "Tea Party Rallies Remain a Cauldron for Conspiracy Theories" (link). In her quest to distance the partiers from fringe ideas, she gets her facts wrong: Other Tea Party members continue to question the president's citizenship -- a sign reading "Show Us Your Birth Certificate" popped up at a recent rally in Traverse City, Mich. "What's more disturbing is that...

Example of tea party being useful idiots (global warming edition) - 04/07/10

Not that you needed it, but the video at peekurl.com/vuoy9wp provides yet another in the long line of examples of the tea parties being useful idiots, in this case about global warming. It consists of a series of interviews conducted by Bob McCarty at a tea party protest in December.

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz completely "p0wns" her Tea Party constituents (Obamacare) - 04/06/10

Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz held a townhall about Obama healthcare yesterday and - as with all the other townhalls - the results weren't pretty. Instead of taking effective steps to discredit her, those present (at least on the videos below) asked weak questions that she handled with ease.

Carol Shea-Porter "p0wns" her Teaparty constituents, including a doctor - 04/02/10

The video at peekURL.com/v5rn15o shows New Hampshire Rep. Carol Shea Porter basically lecturing her constituents at a townhall yesterday. Those on the video (and the one at peekURL.com/vuimsnv ) just aren't in her league. And, that's saying something since Porter appears to be quite a piece of work.

Jack Cashill shows yet more tea party incompetence, analyzes McClatchy tea parties-as-racists article - 04/02/10

Over at the ironically-named American Thinker, Jack Cashill offers "How Quickly Spread the Tea Party Smear" (americanthinker.com/blog/2010/04/how_quickly_spread_the_tea_par.html, linked of course by Glenn Reynolds, pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/96898).

What Evan Coyne Maloney won't tell you: the tea parties are far worse than the anti-Iraq war protests - 03/31/10

Back on December 15, 2002, I was the first journalist of any kind to go to an anti-Iraq War protest and come back with photos. A couple months later, Evan Coyne Maloney did the same, in his case with video. Both of us subsequently went to several other peace movement protests and shot pictures (me) and video (him) of the loopy signs and protesters.

Freedom Vigil: Beltway libertarians to restore U.S. liberty one glowstick at a time - 03/26/10

The latest hilariously stupid tea parties-style cheap stunt is a "Freedom Vigil" to be held in Washington DC tomorrow night. "Thousands" - make that more like a few dozen - will gather for a silent walk during which they'll raise glowsticks in the air in order to show their support for liberty (at least according to their definition). And, no, I'm not making that up.

Tea partiers clueless about tax policy (among, of course, other things) - 03/19/10

Bruce Bartlett - former Reagan advisor and Treasury official during the George HW Bush administration - offers "The Misinformed Tea Party Movement/For an antitax group, they don't know much about taxes" (link):

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