As for the spitting incident, I believe it happened. I believe it was an accidental occurrence. I've seen the video and I believe the man that was shouting accidentally spit in the Congressman's face. If I were him, I would have immediately apologized.
The N-word? I saw a video and believe I heard the word shouted out, but who shouted it and to whom they were shouting it is in question.
That has not been my problem. My problem was the instant denial that it happened in the first place and the excuses that were made. From the get go, in regards to the N-word, I said we don't know who said it. It could have been a greeting from one black man to another that was picked up or it could have been what many said it was a racial slur used against the Congressman.
My problem is that those in the TP, simply shrugged it off. At the very least I felt they should have been denouncing it rather than claiming it didn't happen. They could not have seen everything or heard everything. To simply say it didn't happen cost them credibility in my book. If they had said, "I didn't hear that word spoken while I was there, but if it was, it had no place in our group", I would have understood.
I have not been to a Tea Party event. I don't even know when or if there has been one in the Tampa Bay Area. I'm certain there must have been, but I don't know when. I have grown very anti-political party over the last few years. If it speaks of either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party I want nothing at all to do with it. As I said earlier, what I have seen says that it is an arm of the Republican Party, thus, I'm simply... well, very skeptical to say the least.
Immie
Instant denial? What world do you live in?
The event was not described as one person maybe saying the word, it was described as occurring at least 15 times, and was reported as conclusive fact by every news agency within minutes. Quite a few of them now admit that no evidence exists which corroborates that version of the story, and regret that they did not do even a cursory fact check before reporting the story. More than one have assigned reporters to look more closely at the incident, and so far no one has produced any real evidence. This despite the offer of a $100,000 reward for proof. If you say the tape you surely saw Jesse Jackson Jr' walking through that crowd with 2 cell phones to record what happened.
All the Tea Party has said is that they were there, and they did not here the slurs, and challenged anyone to produce proof. As this was an obvious attempt to discredit the Tea Party by provoking a racial incident I think that the fact that no one has produced any video is pretty telling. Yet you want to believe that the Tea Party is racist on the basis of an incident that is based on the word of provocateurs.
You are right, the first reports, I saw here on this site claimed that it was chanted. Then the reports came out that it was shouted one time less than 24 hours later, if I am not mistaken. Then the denials started. I believe it was our very own TruthMatters that started at least five threads about the chanting incident.
I'm only giving you my perception of the movement. What I have heard from the movement is basically denials that it happened at all. I can understand the denial of the chanting. The videos I have seen show no such evidence. But there is one video presented by TM that I believe the word can be heard shouted one time.
My contention is merely that as an outsider, I see the near silence on the issue (and I will expand this a little bit if you don't mind to include the racial signs that they have been accused of carrying) as being an acceptance of those signs and the slurs. In regards to the signs, I will say that I don't know that any of the signs I have seen pictures of here on this site actually came from TP events although the indication is that they did... that point is skeptical, to say the least.
But, let me see if I can simplify what I am trying to say here. The allegations in the media are that there are racial undertones in the movement. Can you deny that "fact"? If there are those allegations out there, then I as an outsider want to know before I become involved in such a movement, that the movement itself denounces any form or racism in its midst. The silence bugs me.
If those "real people" as Gremlin called them accept the racial undertones that have infiltrated their movement, then I don't want to be a part of the group. I may agree in principle with many of the things they state as being their desires, but I don't feel comfortable around people that spread hatred.
Immie