Taking Tea with the Lizards

[MaggieMae]

For crying out loud, you're always going to have extremes on both sides..did the left get rid of the 911 turthers, no, they used them to the hilt.

Show me ONE main stream Dem who got onto the 9/11 trufers bandwagon!!

LOL, the Obama himself appointed one to his administration, remember that honorable person, Van Jones.

Van Jones was hardly a "main stream figure." He was a gopher, roughly 10 rungs down on an advisory council to the EPA.

 

[MaggieMae]

Who says the tea parties weren't going during the Bush years. They were more than likely drowned out by all the lefty wackos protesting the war and "anything that had to do with "Boooooooosh".

Bush's popularity didn't stop dropping until people began to wake up about what was going on in Iraq, and thereafter it certainly wasn't just lefty whackos protesting that war. Scroll down to the polling archives at the end of this link and keep going to the beginning of the war and then follow the trend.

Iraq

 

[Stephanie]

Show me ONE main stream Dem who got onto the 9/11 trufers bandwagon!!

LOL, the Obama himself appointed one to his administration, remember that honorable person, Van Jones.

Van Jones was hardly a "main stream figure." He was a gopher, roughly 10 rungs down on an advisory council to the EPA.

yeah sure.
poor Obama, he just haven't a clue about all of the appointments to his administration..

 

[MaggieMae]

you don't like the message the Tea Party is for, don't join.

The tea party isn't an extension of the Republican party, that is something the Gop is wanting to forget at their own risk...

go join a "diverse" party like the one listed above, Unity something or other, which to me says the Government is the be all to end all, or go join the Democrats-Progressives party, it's the same thing.

Unity was about introducing real bipartisanship to the mix. Why do you have a problem with that? Ironically, polling shows that most "independents" would embrace such a party. So that begs the question what do you call yourself? A no-central-government-at-all pioneer? You might as well tear up your copy of The Constitution (which the Tea Party Patriots use as their bible too).

 

[MaggieMae]

The commentary is infantile and a rehash of the non sense that the town halls and tea party movement are astro turf.

Its no wonder we can't get along in this country anymore, some people can't even recognize genuine protest, they reduce everythiung to the insipid nonsense they think the other guy thinks, such as teaparty is 'neocon' and protests were unreal.

The commenatry is actually vile in its implications and ludicrous in its false conclusions.

It appears so many of us wasted our time all year explaining this, as we still see these rediculous threads posted with an obligitory 'spot on' for some thing that has no resemblance to the movement and what it means.

I had little objection to the protesting going on at the Tea Party rallies, but when they tried to take over town hall meetings with shoutdowns and acting like disrespectful thugs, they literally were digging their own graves. Foxfyre is right.

Whoa, don't include me in your impression of Tea Partiers here. I never said that nor do I think you are right about that. I go to a lot of Town Hall meetings and I see a lot more 'thuggery' from the left than anything I've seen from the right. I dislike rudeness and discourteous behavior as much as the next person, but I have seen the Tea Partiers bend over backwards to be reasonable, non inflammatory, and express criticism constructively rather than visciously.

Are there exceptions? Of course. But to cherry pick a few minutes to showcase in Youtube clips or scour a demonstration looking for the one or two objectionable signs and hold those up as representative of Tea Partiers is far more dishonest, rude, and disrespectful than anything I've seen the Tea Partiers do.

I was referring to your point that the TP needs to become more mainstream or they will become the spoiler for Republicans gaining seats (paraphrasing what you said). Changed your mind?

 

[MaggieMae]

LOL, the Obama himself appointed one to his administration, remember that honorable person, Van Jones.

Van Jones was hardly a "main stream figure." He was a gopher, roughly 10 rungs down on an advisory council to the EPA.

yeah sure.
poor Obama, he just haven't a clue about all of the appointments to his administration..

I never said that. You're a person in dire need of anger management. Please don't start kicking the cat until you get some.

 

[Samson]

If anybody fails to see the usual neocon suspects' hands behind the mainstreaming of the tea parties and some of the groups directing them and the people in them, you need your head examined.

Exactly.

We DO need a third party in this country imo, but the Tea Party movement is not going to unite us, but separate us.

The so called "non-partisan" folks don't see this I'm afraid, because the Tea Party "Party" is certainly not non-partisan. Many groups ARE using it to promote their own agendas, and I'm afraid the division will only get bigger.

You are both talking about me, and I consider that a good thing, I suppose.

By "non-partisan" you mean Independents. Most voters are Independents, unalligned with either Democrats or Republicans.

I must need my "head-examined" because I don't listen to Rush Limbaugh, and I like watching MSNBC as much as FOX for the entertainment value, and I agree with the one simple plank among the entire "platform" of whatever you'd expect from a political movement named after the "Boston Tea Party:"
1. That we are being taxed without consideration for representing our wishes.
2. That the agenda's of Democrats and Republicans do not consider our needs for a smaller, and more effective government.
3. That the ONLY concern of EITHER party is remaining in power through the appeasement of special interest groups.

The Republians, or if you prefer, in Progressivese, "NeoCons," naturally want to use this frustration to RE-gain power, as would the Democrats if they weren't already in power. Regardless, if there is not a substantive change that addresses 1-3 above, the Third Party will be a viable option.

 

[Foxfyre]

I had little objection to the protesting going on at the Tea Party rallies, but when they tried to take over town hall meetings with shoutdowns and acting like disrespectful thugs, they literally were digging their own graves. Foxfyre is right.

Whoa, don't include me in your impression of Tea Partiers here. I never said that nor do I think you are right about that. I go to a lot of Town Hall meetings and I see a lot more 'thuggery' from the left than anything I've seen from the right. I dislike rudeness and discourteous behavior as much as the next person, but I have seen the Tea Partiers bend over backwards to be reasonable, non inflammatory, and express criticism constructively rather than visciously.

Are there exceptions? Of course. But to cherry pick a few minutes to showcase in Youtube clips or scour a demonstration looking for the one or two objectionable signs and hold those up as representative of Tea Partiers is far more dishonest, rude, and disrespectful than anything I've seen the Tea Partiers do.

I was referring to your point that the TP needs to become more mainstream or they will become the spoiler for Republicans gaining seats (paraphrasing what you said). Changed your mind?

I have not said the Tea Partiers need to become more mainstream. I believe the Tea Partiers ARE mainstream.

What I have said that I do not want the Tea Partiers to split the conservative vote with a third party. I want them to force the GOP to become mainstream with them and conduct a frontal assault on the impending Marxist tinged socialism that way. If they are successful in doing that and can convince the people that it is done, I think they will then win in landslides in 2010 and 2012.

 

[Stephanie]

you don't like the message the Tea Party is for, don't join.

The tea party isn't an extension of the Republican party, that is something the Gop is wanting to forget at their own risk...

go join a "diverse" party like the one listed above, Unity something or other, which to me says the Government is the be all to end all, or go join the Democrats-Progressives party, it's the same thing.

Unity was about introducing real bipartisanship to the mix. Why do you have a problem with that? Ironically, polling shows that most "independents" would embrace such a party. So that begs the question what do you call yourself? A no-central-government-at-all pioneer? You might as well tear up your copy of The Constitution (which the Tea Party Patriots use as their bible too).

If it's anything to do with this administration Socialist policies, FORGET IT.
Bipartisanship to Progressives, is do it our way or get the hell out of the way, as we see what is going on today with the Democrat SUPERmajority..
If I wanted my Representative to agree with everything the other party pushes, I'd go join the OTHER party..

 

[Stephanie]

Van Jones was hardly a "main stream figure." He was a gopher, roughly 10 rungs down on an advisory council to the EPA.

yeah sure.
poor Obama, he just haven't a clue about all of the appointments to his administration..

I never said that. You're a person in dire need of anger management. Please don't start kicking the cat until you get some.

what, I don't pussyfoot around with speaking Political correct BS..would that suit you better.

 

[goldcatt]

If anybody fails to see the usual neocon suspects' hands behind the mainstreaming of the tea parties and some of the groups directing them and the people in them, you need your head examined.

Exactly.

We DO need a third party in this country imo, but the Tea Party movement is not going to unite us, but separate us.

The so called "non-partisan" folks don't see this I'm afraid, because the Tea Party "Party" is certainly not non-partisan. Many groups ARE using it to promote their own agendas, and I'm afraid the division will only get bigger.

You are both talking about me, and I consider that a good thing, I suppose.

By "non-partisan" you mean Independents. Most voters are Independents, unalligned with either Democrats or Republicans.

I must need my "head-examined" because I don't listen to Rush Limbaugh, and I like watching MSNBC as much as FOX for the entertainment value, and I agree with the one simple plank among the entire "platform" of whatever you'd expect from a political movement named after the "Boston Tea Party:"
1. That we are being taxed without consideration for representing our wishes.
2. That the agenda's of Democrats and Republicans do not consider our needs for a smaller, and more effective government.
3. That the ONLY concern of EITHER party is remaining in power through the appeasement of special interest groups.

The Republians, or if you prefer, in Progressivese, "NeoCons," naturally want to use this frustration to RE-gain power, as would the Democrats if they weren't already in power. Regardless, if there is not a substantive change that addresses 1-3 above, the Third Party will be a viable option.

Whoa, Samson (and others XENO). You're taking the first sentence of a much longer post of mine and mischaracterizing what was said completely. I do have an issue with that.

A lot of people have no real issue with most of the individual protesters at these things, but it's also obvious many of the organizers, mainstreamers and groups involved are disconnected from the original message. So you have the charges of "astroturfing" when FOX News promotes, endorses and subsidises them, and you get the label of racist extremists when groups with extreme agendas show up and are allowed to use your platform for their own purposes. And is there something behind the OP's conjecture that the still neocon controlled GOP pols and operatives showing up at a lot of these things are steering the movement to suit their own agenda? You better believe it, or you won't be able to save your movement while there's still time.

It's ridiculous to try to deny it's happening. On the other hand, that doesn't make the entire movement illegitimate - what it does do is render it ultimately ineffective and too confusing for outsiders to sort out who's who. Which leads many if not most to believe it's just another movement of assorted GOP/rightist radicals crapping because they like to crap. They don't see the internal divisions or the disconnect between the average tea partier and the anti-abortion protesters, gun rights activists, GOP politicians addressing the crowds and GOP operatives working them, secessionists, supremacists, and so on and so on. THAT is your problem. Good luck sorting it all out!

 

[code1211]

Who says the tea parties weren't going during the Bush years. They were more than likely drowned out by all the lefty wackos protesting the war and "anything that had to do with "Boooooooosh".

Really, can you link us to some, I must have missed it while shouting "BOOOOOOOOOOSH" over and over, eh?

I don't know when this thing started. I became aware of it around tax day in 2009 after the obscenely partisan Stimulus Bill was passed. Just under a trillion in political pay offs was enough to piss me off, too.

The Health care reform that was planned to hold Unions protected from any taxation for "Cadilac Plans" which was then withdrawn and then added back in after the Senate passed their version was more than ridiculous. Not as ridiculous as the two payoffs for Louisiana and Nebraska, though.

The Democrat controlled Washington is a festering boil of corruption and deceit. We can take comfort at least in the fact that Michelle is proud of her country. Finally.

Political corruption is classic and expected. What galls me is that these thieves don't seem to think we can see they're stealing and are shocked to hear it said. Don't piss on my hat and tell me it's raining.

At least with divided government, there is some kind of restraint on the abuses set against us. The white Housem the House and the Senate are playing can you beat this and just keep spending money on their re-elections and retirements.

 

[Samson]

Exactly.

We DO need a third party in this country imo, but the Tea Party movement is not going to unite us, but separate us.

The so called "non-partisan" folks don't see this I'm afraid, because the Tea Party "Party" is certainly not non-partisan. Many groups ARE using it to promote their own agendas, and I'm afraid the division will only get bigger.

You are both talking about me, and I consider that a good thing, I suppose.

By "non-partisan" you mean Independents. Most voters are Independents, unalligned with either Democrats or Republicans.

I must need my "head-examined" because I don't listen to Rush Limbaugh, and I like watching MSNBC as much as FOX for the entertainment value, and I agree with the one simple plank among the entire "platform" of whatever you'd expect from a political movement named after the "Boston Tea Party:"
1. That we are being taxed without consideration for representing our wishes.
2. That the agenda's of Democrats and Republicans do not consider our needs for a smaller, and more effective government.
3. That the ONLY concern of EITHER party is remaining in power through the appeasement of special interest groups.

The Republians, or if you prefer, in Progressivese, "NeoCons," naturally want to use this frustration to RE-gain power, as would the Democrats if they weren't already in power. Regardless, if there is not a substantive change that addresses 1-3 above, the Third Party will be a viable option.

Whoa, Samson (and others XENO). You're taking the first sentence of a much longer post of mine and mischaracterizing what was said completely. I do have an issue with that.

A lot of people have no real issue with most of the individual protesters at these things, but it's also obvious many of the organizers, mainstreamers and groups involved are disconnected from the original message. So you have the charges of "astroturfing" when FOX News promotes, endorses and subsidises them, and you get the label of racist extremists when groups with extreme agendas show up and are allowed to use your platform for their own purposes. And is there something behind the OP's conjecture that the still neocon controlled GOP pols and operatives showing up at a lot of these things are steering the movement to suit their own agenda? You better believe it, or you won't be able to save your movement while there's still time.

It's ridiculous to try to deny it's happening. On the other hand, that doesn't make the entire movement illegitimate - what it does do is render it ultimately ineffective and too confusing for outsiders to sort out who's who. Which leads many if not most to believe it's just another movement of assorted GOP/rightist radicals crapping because they like to crap. They don't see the internal divisions or the disconnect between the average tea partier and the anti-abortion protesters, gun rights activists, GOP politicians addressing the crowds and GOP operatives working them, secessionists, supremacists, and so on and so on. THAT is your problem. Good luck sorting it all out!

I don't deny "its happening," in fact I'd be astonished if IT didn't happen, to ANY popular movement among independent voters.

But I think its premature to Boldly Assume this will be problematic for the Democrats and Beneficial for Republicans, and therefore "ultimately ineffective." Its already been extremely effective if you consider the VERY IMPROBABLE Election of Scott Brown in MA. Did this happen because the Republican Party suddenly became popular? Or because a Republican candidate "hijacked" disgruntled Independents that won't hold him to their values?

The Jury is still out for Brown, and its certainly entirely to early to pronounce a TeaParty Party "ultimately inefective."

 

[goldcatt]

You are both talking about me, and I consider that a good thing, I suppose.

By "non-partisan" you mean Independents. Most voters are Independents, unalligned with either Democrats or Republicans.

I must need my "head-examined" because I don't listen to Rush Limbaugh, and I like watching MSNBC as much as FOX for the entertainment value, and I agree with the one simple plank among the entire "platform" of whatever you'd expect from a political movement named after the "Boston Tea Party:"
1. That we are being taxed without consideration for representing our wishes.
2. That the agenda's of Democrats and Republicans do not consider our needs for a smaller, and more effective government.
3. That the ONLY concern of EITHER party is remaining in power through the appeasement of special interest groups.

The Republians, or if you prefer, in Progressivese, "NeoCons," naturally want to use this frustration to RE-gain power, as would the Democrats if they weren't already in power. Regardless, if there is not a substantive change that addresses 1-3 above, the Third Party will be a viable option.

Whoa, Samson (and others XENO). You're taking the first sentence of a much longer post of mine and mischaracterizing what was said completely. I do have an issue with that.

A lot of people have no real issue with most of the individual protesters at these things, but it's also obvious many of the organizers, mainstreamers and groups involved are disconnected from the original message. So you have the charges of "astroturfing" when FOX News promotes, endorses and subsidises them, and you get the label of racist extremists when groups with extreme agendas show up and are allowed to use your platform for their own purposes. And is there something behind the OP's conjecture that the still neocon controlled GOP pols and operatives showing up at a lot of these things are steering the movement to suit their own agenda? You better believe it, or you won't be able to save your movement while there's still time.

It's ridiculous to try to deny it's happening. On the other hand, that doesn't make the entire movement illegitimate - what it does do is render it ultimately ineffective and too confusing for outsiders to sort out who's who. Which leads many if not most to believe it's just another movement of assorted GOP/rightist radicals crapping because they like to crap. They don't see the internal divisions or the disconnect between the average tea partier and the anti-abortion protesters, gun rights activists, GOP politicians addressing the crowds and GOP operatives working them, secessionists, supremacists, and so on and so on. THAT is your problem. Good luck sorting it all out!

I don't deny "its happening," in fact I'd be astonished if IT didn't happen, to ANY popular movement among independent voters.

But I think its premature to Boldly Assume this will be problematic for the Democrats and Beneficial for Republicans, and therefore "ultimately ineffective." Its already been extremely effective if you consider the VERY IMPROBABLE Election of Scott Brown in MA. Did this happen because the Republican Party suddenly became popular? Or because a Republican candidate "hijacked" disgruntled Independents that won't hold him to their values?

The Jury is still out for Brown, and its certainly entirely to early to pronounce a TeaParty Party "ultimately inefective."

Of course that depends on your goals, but as far as getting your message out - what is your message? Do you have one, united message? Or is your goal simply to protest Obama and promote a wide variety of rightist causes while electing GOP politicians, which is what the Brown victory and especially the statements of people associated with the movement in its aftermath tended to suggest?

If that's your goal, fine. But then don't pretend you're not just part of the GOP and serving the GOP's interests. If that's not your goal then you need to get control of your message because that's what's being communicated - and if that's not your actual message then yes, you're being ineffective.

 

[Cold Fusion38]

LOL, so protesting the fact that taxes are VERY LIKELY going to be raised in the future is now a worthless endeavor, and we should just all sit on the sideline like good little slaves to the Guberment and wait for it to smack us in the ass..

Tea party members, angry mob

Anti-war protesters, Union thugs protesting, illegal immigrants protesting, patriotic warm fuzzies.

AGAIN!!!!! Where was the "PROTEST" of Bush's $5 TRILLION debt that would OF COURSE result in higher taxes SOMEWHERE along the way?

 

[Cold Fusion38]

Sorry guys but you ARE allowing the TP movment to be hijacked by the EXTREMISTS and will end up, as has sadly happened to the Libertarian party, as a JOKE of a movement. Oh and this is coming from a guy who RAN as a LP candidate.

 

[Cold Fusion38]

WOW!!!! I pissed SOMEBODY off my rep is down to FIVE!!! I guess my job here is done.

 

[goldcatt]

LOL, so protesting the fact that taxes are VERY LIKELY going to be raised in the future is now a worthless endeavor, and we should just all sit on the sideline like good little slaves to the Guberment and wait for it to smack us in the ass..

Tea party members, angry mob

Anti-war protesters, Union thugs protesting, illegal immigrants protesting, patriotic warm fuzzies.

AGAIN!!!!! Where was the "PROTEST" of Bush's $5 TRILLION debt that would OF COURSE result in higher taxes SOMEWHERE along the way?

There were plenty of protests during the Bush Administration and before. They were called Tax Day protests and even the occasional tea party, and mostly held by small groups of Libertarians and like-minded folks near the post office or some other place associated with getting taxes out. They got some press, mostly local, but nothing like what the new Tea party movement sees - which might be why it stayed uncorrupted for so long. The smaller the group, the easier it is to stay on message.

 

[Cold Fusion38]

I guess a "Super" Mod has used some obscure "RULE" to lower my rep power by over 20.

 

[Cold Fusion38]

The SAD fact is ONLY the extremists get "PRESS".