GOP Pols Losing Control Of Tea Party Movement?
Most notably, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, was booed at the event in Austin -- on the grounds that he's part of the problem in Washington, having voted for the Wall St. bailout last fall. "I'm not part of Washington," Cornyn said in his own defense. "I happen to work there, but on behalf of Texas, and I can vote 'no' on these reckless spending bills, on the refusal to cut taxes."
Gov. Rick Perry -- who famously seemed to raise the specter of Texas seceding from the union during the April Tax Day protests -- was also booed at the same Austin event as Cornyn. Attendees saw him as yet another tax-hiking tyrant, because he supports toll roads in order to relieve traffic congestion.
The Dallas tea party also attracted some interesting folks in the crowd, as the Dallas Morning News reports:
Katie Vandermeer and her family, including her husband and four children, were sitting under a pop-up tent they brought to the ranch. She heard about the tea party through the Texas Nationalist Movement, which advocates Texas' secession from the U.S.
In Bemidji, Minnesota, a headline speaker for their "Freedom Over Socialism" rally was state Rep. Mary Seifert, one of the leading Republican candidates for Governor, who warned of government taking away everyone's personal freedom: "Now suddenly we tell you that you have to wear your seat belts or someone is gong to come racing down the road and fine you." Another speaker, former state legislative candidate John Carlson, spoke favorably of the Articles of Confederation.
The tea party in Columbia, South Carolina, featured Sen. Jim DeMint and state Rep. Nikki Haley, a leading Republican candidate for Governor. One prominent person was missing, though: Gov. Mark Sanford, who had previously headlined a Tax Day tea party back in April.
The tea party in Boiling Springs, South Carolina, featured a colorful cast of characters. The headline speaker was Alan Keyes, who has been a leading name of the "Birther" movement. Lead organizer Michael Brady came dressed up as Thomas Paine -- who in real life was a left-winger in favor of progressive taxation and opposed to traditional religion. One attendee took out a flyer that said, "Zelaya today, Obama tomorrow," but said he was advocating impeachment of Obama after he was asked directly whether he was in favor of a coup.
At the event in Los Angeles, right-wing former Saturday Night Live actress Victoria Jackson -- who has previously called Barack Obama a Muslim and a communist -- called for the President's impeachment, "There, I said it," and did a handstand dedicated to our men and women in uniform. As Chris Erskine of the Los Angeles Times writes: "But Victoria Jackson held that handstand for, like, almost a minute -- strong and proud. In my book, that's worth 10 bucks alone."
(Cornyn video via The Huffington Post.)
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Haha, I'll sit back with great amusement as I watch their latest Frankenstein gnaw at their limbs.
Mmmm, poetry.
July 6, 2009 12:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Laugh all you want, but they are Freedom Fighting Revolutionaries. It's pretty obvious you aren't from "Real America."
July 6, 2009 10:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
and neither are you.
July 7, 2009 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
They are thousands (note NOT millions) of illiterate, mis- -- and especially mal- -informed far-right lunatic fringe loons who essentially claim that the way to "defend" the Constitution and rule of law is to reject the Constitution and rule of law.
They are, in a word, stoopid.
July 7, 2009 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not surprised. Republicans indoctrinate into their constituents that the Govn't is part of the problem. Sooner or later it takes affect and they turn on you.
It's almost a self defeating mantra.
July 6, 2009 12:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
All this makes you wonder what kind of America these people envision.
July 6, 2009 1:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I shudder the thought.
July 6, 2009 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Apparently, building superhighways for free is a big part of it.
July 6, 2009 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think they'd prefer to have Exxon/Mobile/Halliburton build the roads and then charge us $10/mile to use them.
July 6, 2009 6:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Trans Texas Corridor is a big deal here, and it's not just whack-jobs that oppose Tricky Ricky on that one, but sober moderate and liberal politicians and residents as well.
The TTC would basically write blank checks to toll road operators rather than use 100 percent of Texas' state gas tax (no, not all of it is roads-dedicated now) to build highways.
July 6, 2009 8:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good points, but honestly, there isn't a shred of evidence in the GOP's history that suggests they actually "value" less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security and fiscal restraint. They are delusional.
July 6, 2009 11:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
"All this makes you wonder what kind of America these people envision."
One in which the North did not prevail over the South in the Civil War.
An amazing number of these people are the almost forgotten stereotypical snaggle-toothed back-country trash.
July 7, 2009 6:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Any dystopian future dominated by fossil fuel-addicted barbarians should suffice.
July 6, 2009 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
My bet is that they don't have the imagination necessary to realize that if they got their desires, America as we know it would disappear.
Instead they simply are reacting to the irritation of being told to do something. They just want "The Government" to stop telling them to do or not to do something, and assume that nothing else would change. It's compartmentalized thinking, and it's reinforced by being in a group that is telling them to say it again.
It's exactly the same reaction as a teenage boy who yells at his parents to stop bugging him, thinking all the while - and sometimes even saying - "It's not fair for them to boss me around." Meanwhile such people simply assume without further thought that nothing else would change. They would still live in their parent's house, eat their food and get an allowance.
July 6, 2009 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
After all ... what have the Romans ever done for us?
July 6, 2009 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, I don't think thats it. I think the problem for the GOP is that the tea-baggers are intelligent enough to demand consistency.
What the GOP has stood for is low taxes and high spending. But only spending on totally wasteful projects to stuff the pockets of their chums.
Thats why the GOP can't have a mass movement, they can't risk having people think for themselves - they will go off message.
Now that the center has lost power, it has lost the power of patronage and the system flies apart at the seams. The tea-baggers are the next GOP. They will boot the current crew just like Newt did.
July 6, 2009 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
The "center" to which you refer was never the center; and that means Goldwater -- by his own admission -- was not at the center.
That's all BS anti-historical revisionism by "Libertarians" and Neo-Nazis who insist that Hitler was a Leftist because his political party had the word "So-shul-ist" in its name.
The latter overlook the fact that Hitler not only demonized and exterminated Jews, but also Communists, Socialists, trade unionists, and Liberals.
Hmmm . . . why is it that last fact has a familiar ring to it?
July 7, 2009 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe it's worth attending one of these events and asking them that question directly (and respectfully.)
You might find that you can pull some of them to your side. Or at least temper the discourse slightly.
I've tried it, and I actually got a few people to reconsider their position on the stimulus.
It's worth trying.
I think it's worth considering that isolating and disdaining these people (many of whom have much less education than you do) is potentially very dangerous - they will only feel more convinced that they are judged unfairly, and will only become more resolute.
But getting people to consider that there is another side of the coin - and one that actually protects them - that's important.
July 6, 2009 4:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Their future looks scarily familiar to "Idiocracy".
July 6, 2009 7:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Truly a depressingly funny movie.
July 6, 2009 10:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
The attendance at these events has been small and declining. Still news items, I suppose, but not evidence of a movement. A number of tractor pulls on July 4 drew larger crowds.
July 6, 2009 12:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, don't knock tractor pulls! Here at the East Troy (pop. 4000) Lions Club carnival there were over 1500 in attendance. As a percent of the population these tea ceremony events can't get numbers anywhere near a tractor pull! Come to think of it, if they were actual a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teabagging">teabagging parties maybe then their numbers would be higher...
July 6, 2009 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
broken link dangit! I hate dangling tags...
July 6, 2009 1:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, East Troy. Went to Girl Scout camp there. Glad to hear the tractor pulls are bigger than the teabagging parties. (Wow, that still sounds dirty, doesn't it?)
July 6, 2009 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grateful Dead. 1982. Best concert ever.
July 7, 2009 12:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
If we could get them to combine the teabagging with the tractor pulls, we might actually start getting somewhere. After all, these people have their heads so firmly wedged up their backsides that they're gonna need a tractor to pull them out...
July 6, 2009 1:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wait a second - toll roads are taxes in the minds of these people? So when they go to the grocery store and the checkout clerk asks for money in exchange for the food in their cart, do they start grumbling about taxes and threatening to start a tea-party?
I thought that toll roads were what these "small-government" types wanted. Evidently, I was giving them too much credit. They do not want the free-market, they just want something in exchange for nothing. Good luck with that...
July 6, 2009 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Free Market Traffic Fairy will take care of the problems.
July 6, 2009 1:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excuse me, what exactly do you think the taxes those people currently pay are for? Of course a toll is a tax.
Gad, people like you are why California has to pay bills with IOU's.
July 6, 2009 1:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
A toll, by definition, is a user fee. Don't want to pay it? Don't drive on the road.
You, on the other hand, are a tool.
July 6, 2009 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I assume that the taxes that those people currently pay go to maintain the roads that are currently in existence, whereas the tolls would go to pay for the additional roads that Perry proposes to build. As I understand it, those who see a value in those additional roads would pay for them, and those who do not would pay nothing more than they currently pay.
In other words, those who use something pay for it and those who do not use it do not pay for it. This is the same arrangement that one has (for instance) at one's grocery store. How is this a "tax"?
Mind you, I am not advocating toll roads. I like the old-fashioned approach of slapping a tax on gasoline to pay for the roads. I am just saying that toll-roads are not taxes, so I am hard pressed to understand how those aggrieved at taxes should be upset by the prospect of toll-roads. It seems that what bothers these people is not that they have to pay taxes, but rather that they are not getting government benefits for free.
July 6, 2009 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
It seems that what bothers these people is not that they have to pay taxes, but rather that they are not getting government benefits for free.
And that attitude is one reason (of many) why California has to resort to IOUs right now.
Nice to *see* you, bagpiper!
July 6, 2009 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
The attitude of wanting a government benefit at no cost, of course. Not your attitude!
July 6, 2009 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Likewise, dear Tuxedo Cat.
July 6, 2009 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perry wants private contractors to operate these roads. So it most certainly isn't a tax: it's privatization/"free"(crony) enterprise, being used instead of roads that would otherwise be paid for by ...um, taxes. So these clowns don't want taxes and they don't want to pay for private roads either. Ignore the reflexive ignorance from the usual party.
July 6, 2009 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah there's nothing cheaper than selling off your government built highways to for-profit enterprises that have to show big $$$ to shareholders and pay exorbitant salaries to their top execs because that's the only way to attract the top talent you need to run a highway robbery scam, er for-profit road system.
The wingnut gov of IN sold off their stretch of I-80 to an Aussie outfit and it was supposed to spell certain political doom for him. It wasn't and it inspired Blago to float the idea in IL before his political demise. He's gone and so is that brainstorm. Didn't stop Daley from ramming thru a 75 year lease of Chicago's parking meter spaces to a company who can't even make their new ones work.
Governor Haircut down in TX ought to find a less obvious way to bilk his constituents. Private roads aren't very popular.
July 6, 2009 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
It didn't spell political demise for our stupid governor because I-80 goes through northern Indiana, and we already didn't vote for him. He spent a great part of the money in southern Indiana.
I had occasion to drive to Chicago on Friday, and noticed that the tolls have basically doubled. If the state had maintained control of the toll road and doubled the tolls, they'd likely have had more than enough revenue to maintain it.
July 6, 2009 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's a "back to the future" sort of approach; in the early days of the Republic, that's exactly what toll roads were, private roads. I assume there's a reason that approach was eventually abandoned in favor of putting state and local governments in charge of road construction and maintenance...
July 6, 2009 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
joevan:Perry wants private contractors to operate these roads.
From the article:Attendees saw him as yet another tax-hiking tyrant, because he supports toll roads in order to relieve traffic congestion.
Wait - so these tea party attendees are supporting socialist roads over capitalist roads?
My head just exploded.
July 6, 2009 8:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ordinarily, I'd agree with you but I live in Taxachusetts where they're about to boost the sales tax by 25% to pay for the Big Dig instead of raising tolls on the Pike. That way, they get to spread the pain beyond those who use the pike and tunnels. I know that someone (everyone!) has to pay for the fiscal foresight of Weld, Celucci, Swift, and Romney (Republicans all), but this across the board approach has me thinking ill of Gov. Patrick (even though I like him a lot).
July 6, 2009 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is not really clear to me that you are disagreeing with me. That is to say, as near as I can tell, contending that tolls are taxes; rather you are contending that the turn-pike is not actually a toll road (at least not entirely).
If I take your point, you are suggesting that the folks who jeered Gov Perry down in Texas were not really jeering him because they believe tolls to be taxes; rather you are suggesting that they jeered him because they do not trust that the proposed toll-roads will really function as toll-roads but will, instead, have to be financed by tax-increases. Is that what you mean?
If that is what you mean, I grant that this makes sense. Moreover, if this is the case, that would mean that the tea-party participants are not being as thick-headed as the summary above had lead me to believe. I am relieved to think so.
July 6, 2009 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think that your premise is "tolls are not taxes." The corollary would seem to be "taxes are not tolls." Herein lies the rub: in Taxachusetts, the sales tax is (about to become) a toll. Everyone who buys anything in this commonwealth is about to pay for a major road project whether they use the pike & tunnels or not. Even car-free citizens will get slapped with this fee. I'm not sure how this would relate to jeering Perry (I think that he should be jeered on general principles alone), but sometimes a toll can indeed be a tax (insofar as the tax is paying for what the toll would normally pay).
I'm not against paying for the Big Dig either through tolls or appropriate taxes (cf.: a gas tax). But hijacking the general fund to compensate for fiscal mismanagement by past (Republican) administrations might get some Yankees in a tea party mood, even in cobalt blue Massachusetts.
July 6, 2009 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
A toll is something that's paid per use. A tax is spread around. The sales tax increase is a tax, not a toll.
In America at least, paying for road projects will taxes is far more 'normal' than paying for them with tolls.
If tolls were suggested, then rejected as a method of paying for the Big Dig, that doesn't mean that everyone is paying the tolls of the few.
It just means that the project was funded though taxes, which is the usual way.
July 6, 2009 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
The problem is that roads, like most infrastructure, benefit everyone, not just the people who drive on them. You may not drive on every road you help pay for, but the truck that delivered the potatoes you ate last night might have. The patrons at the restaurant you own might have used it on their way to you, etc.
Public infrastructure is a cornerstone of a healthy economy. Toll roads only add costs - the cost of collecting the money (gates and attendants, and TIME for all the travelers who have to slow down and pay), and the cost of the profit margin.
July 6, 2009 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
My take on it exactly.
July 6, 2009 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
As I said above, I'm not against paying for roads. I just want more honesty (a bridge too far?) from politicians when they tell me that the toll is going to pay for the road. By now, everyone knows that that's just marketing bullshit to make the road easier to sell to the taxpayers. I've never seen a toll go away after the road is "paid for." I'm fine with getting rid of tolls, but let's not pretend that a toll is not a tax (and inevitably a permanent one) by another name.
July 6, 2009 6:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Depends on who's collecting it, I suppose. If the government collects the toll, it's a kind of tax.
If a private company collects the toll, it's capitalism.
July 6, 2009 8:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Example: One wouldn't claim that Wendy's $2.99 fee for a burger is a 'tax.'
You want the burger, you pay for the burger. Same as road tolls. It's capitalism.
July 6, 2009 8:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
But then, if the government sold burgers for $2.99... it still wouldn't be a tax.
So it's a matter of expectations.
We're not accustomed to socialized fast food, but we are accustomed to socialized roads.
July 6, 2009 8:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
That said, the distinction between a user fee and a tax is just semantics. Are cigarette taxes a tax or a user fee? When the cost of the toll road is covered, will the toll cease? Of course not. By any definition it becomes a tax.
User fees are just a way to specify a tax in order to impose additional general taxes. Why shouldn't roads as a public conveyance be paid for by state general obligation bonds? On the other hand why should non-users pay for education, pensions, and parks? Distinguishing between who should pay for something and who is absolved is a slippery slope.
As for not using a specific road, that isn't practical in a place like NJ. Deciding to avoid I-95 to avoid tolls will add hours to a trip, and results in an opportunity cost. I can avoid cell phone taxes by not owning a cell phone, but that isn't a practical option either.
So, the people in Texas are correct. A toll road is a tax. "User fee" is just a specific type of tax masquerading as a perk.
July 6, 2009 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
That said, the distinction between a user fee and a tax is just semantics. Are cigarette taxes a tax or a user fee? When the cost of the toll road is covered, will the toll cease? Of course not. By any definition it becomes a tax.
Paying back the cost of building the toll road must necessarily include maintenance, e.g., rebuilding the uppermost layers of the road several times, before you finally have to rebuild the underlying layers. Even on a private toll road as well-traveled as the Dulles Greenway, which connects the airport to VA-7 at Leesburg, the rates are scheduled to rise by 33% from 2007 to 2012, to help cover things including capital improvements and debt service for the parent company.
Until self-maintaining roads are delivered to us by science, the tolls and the gasoline taxes and the bond levies are the best we can do.
July 6, 2009 7:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excuse me, what exactly do you think the taxes those people currently pay are for? Of course a toll is a tax.
Not one of those "everything is a tax" spewers!
For fook's sake. Taxes pay for public roads.
Fees (or tolls, which are fees associated with transportation) pay for private roads.
You see the difference don't you?
July 6, 2009 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Toll roads can be and in some cases are run by private companies. I'm not sure what you're defining a "tax" as, but it seems like you're saying anything that involves giving money to the government is a tax. With toll roads the "government" proper isn't always the one getting the money. In fact as I understand one of the things making toll roads a recent controversy in Texas is that the state has been privatizing the road system, leading to roads which were previously public suddenly being supported by tolls rather than taxes.
July 6, 2009 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
(Bull)sh*tter242 is not interested in the truth, only in mindless anti-governmental lies. Nothing he says should be given any credence whatsoever. If he tells you it's Monday, check a calendar.
If he ever, by some accident, had a true thought, it would die of loneliness.
July 6, 2009 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Somebaody pays taxes in Texas? News to me. You pay nothing, you get nothing. Grow up, loser.
July 6, 2009 9:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, the big beef these knukle-draggers have with Perry is his plan to confiscate private land (via public domain) along the I-35 corridor for his Trans-Texas Highway project.
July 6, 2009 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now that's the part I like the most, seize land as part of public domain and then privitize it! Rather then having public officials responsible to the whole population, give it to corporate executives who are responsible to that thin segment of the population who own shares, maybe shareholders on Wall Street, or even from Australia. Then see whether it is easier to change a public offocial or a CEO.
July 6, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I did, too! Certainly that's what the House Republicans in Virginia are always insisting on.
My main beefs with tolls:
1) When the tolls are paid with EZPass or something like it, people tend not to notice the amount of money they are paying annually for the use of the road; and
2) Once a road is set up for tolls, it's next to impossible to remove them once the road is paid for. That's made worse by the current tendency of states to sell the toll collection rights to a third party in return for a large amount of cash up front.
July 6, 2009 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's a pretty funny story in the Dallas News, starting with the headline about the crowd falling well short of the expected 50,000. And this:
from Katie illuminates much about Texans' and independence. She must be pretty wealthy, not to appreciate the Obama tax cut the majority of us got in April....
And it was held at Southfork, fictional home of an obscenely wealthy family? Nice imagery, that.
July 6, 2009 1:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Teabaggers", heh heh.....more like vacuous rabble.
July 6, 2009 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm joining the Texas Nationalist Movement
SECEDE NOW
http://www.texasnationalist.com/
July 6, 2009 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love the folks that want to make Texas a third world country.
July 6, 2009 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am blown away by the ignorance of these people. It really is difficult to believe that even the dumbest can fall for this crap.
Scary stuff, really
July 6, 2009 1:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. They revel in their ignorance.
The scary part for me is one of the things that I can never forget about the Pol Pot genocide. They detested intellectuals and so, as they slaughtered almost 2 million of their own country-men and -women, one of their targets was people who wore eyeglasses -- because we all know that eyeglasses are a sign of superior intelligence.
Another scary thing is that these are the same people with most of the guns and they are all closeted, if not openly, anti-democratic authoritarians who crave submission to, and punishment from, strong daddy figures.
July 6, 2009 1:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Man, I had always pegged Victoria Jackson as a great intellect.
Guess I was wrong.
July 6, 2009 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sometimes actors and comedians *play* stupid people on TV and sometimes they really are just that stupid.
I'd put this putz several notches below Sarah Palin in brain power, which is sad enough, but she appears to be just a notch above this crazy lady who thinks obama intends to change the white house into a pyramid. seriously
July 6, 2009 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Joe Not A Real Plumber was at a tee-hee party near San Antonio, saying these events are not for "politicians" but for "real people."
I guess that means people like him who are famous for being famous and who pretend to be something they aren't.
July 6, 2009 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
This reminds me of John McCain’s concession speech the night of the election. I thought he was valiantly trying to do an honorable concession (even though his campaign was not) and he was trying to say decent things about Obama. But the red meat psychos whom he’d allowed Palin to work up would have none of it. The look on McCain’s face as he seemed actually shocked that at this serious moment in his career, his entire career in fact, he would have a bunch of redneck Palin supporter trash booing and yelling in the background was actual pitiful. It was pitiful for a few seconds anyway. Obviously these mainstream republicans can’t figure out that once you let the monster out of the box you can’t get it back in. These regular republicans try to pander to these people at the bottom of the barrel and then are shocked when they can’t calm them down or rein them in. After all these years, starring with Reagan, of pandering to white supremacists, and anti tax nuts, and racists, and woman haters, and religious zealots and bigots, and paranoid nutters, and conspiracy theorists, and Rush Beck and O’Reilly dupes they may actually be starting to realize that when you marginalize the electorate the Red Sea ain’t gonna stay parted and will crash down on them too.
July 6, 2009 1:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
These are the people that find Sarah Palin so attractive and will be ready to make her the candidate in 2012.
July 6, 2009 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let them follow her to the edge of the world and beyond.
Cull the herd.
July 6, 2009 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah - the gene pool needs a bit of chlorine about now...
July 6, 2009 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. I think Palin is perfectly poised to start a third party, or a splinter Republican party in 2012.
These people don't even know what they want, they speak in vague hyperbole. Could anything be more poignant than an organizer walking about dressed like Thomas Paine?
Palin is their ideal candidate. She has no plan, no actionable ideals, no system of governance or grasp of policy. She is perfect.
(I am not implying, by the way, that this third party thing would do very well. I imagine it would be about like Wallace's presidential runs.)
July 6, 2009 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
At the rate they're going, the Republicans will be a third party before long.
July 6, 2009 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sarah gave 'em a push in that direction Friday
July 7, 2009 1:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Has anyone told these guys that Thomas Paine was, well, not an atheist, exactly, but certainly a staunch foe of organized religion:
He was also in favor of progressive taxation, a guaranteed minimum income, and universal free public education. Hardly the sorts of ideas I'd expect to see the tea-baggers championing!
July 6, 2009 6:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
PALIN: 2012-2013 AND 1/2
July 6, 2009 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
ha!
July 6, 2009 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
The modern day Republican party;
Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber, Michele Bachmann, teabaggers, Limbaugh dittoheads, Hannity sycophants, birthers, and the Intelligent Design gang.
Not exactly a breeding ground for particle physicists.
July 6, 2009 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ugh. Please don't mention those folks in the context of breeding ...
July 6, 2009 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
In Bemidji, Minnesota, a headline speaker for their "Freedom Over Socialism" rally was state Rep. Mary Seifert, one of the leading Republican candidates for Governor, who warned of government taking away everyone's personal freedom: "Now suddenly we tell you that you have to wear your seat belts or someone is gong to come racing down the road and fine you."
Just one correction: you mean Rep. Marty Seifert, not Mary. I pray he does not become Governor. He would be worse than Pawlenty. God forbid.
July 6, 2009 1:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I actually agree with the seat belt thing. But then, I am old.
July 6, 2009 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
These people have some idealized notion of Reagan as their God, but will be first in line to get their government checks whether it is unemployment, disability or Social Security. They often take it as a point of pride that they are ripping off the state or federal government even as the complain about taxes.
July 6, 2009 1:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Does anyone know what these geniuses said would be the reason for the president to actually BE impeached??
July 6, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are the Tea Parties really now just big group exercises in therapy for the losers of the last election? Poor, poor conservatives ... "we lost, now impeach the guy who won"!!
July 6, 2009 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's a Democrat.
He's black.
He speaks in complete sentences.
He wants your guns.
He isn't a Real True Christian™ (Fred Clark, slacktivist.typepad.com, all rights reserved)
Want me to go on?
It all makes sense if you accept the premise that no Democratic administration is a legitimate administration.
A royalist party in a parliament has no real interest in increasing its share of votes in that body, never mind cooperating with the small-r republican parties in governing. Their purpose for being is to shut government down, or at least neuter it, so that the royal family can be restored.
The GOP's present position is analogous to the royalists and Bonapartists in the French assemblies of the 19th century.
They have no interest in the smooth functioning -- any functioning -- of a body whose legitimacy they fundamentally do not accept. They only want a rapid transition back to a monarchy.
The weirdest transformation of political terminology hasn't been what happened to the word 'liberal' since John Stuart Mill -- it's what happened to the word 'republican'.
July 6, 2009 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't forget "Communist."
July 6, 2009 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
He listed "democrat" already.
July 6, 2009 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's a shame that Obama's ended up being such a centrist - it wouldn't take a lot of work to take the message Larry Summers was trumpeting prior to his appointment on the steady growth of income disparity in America and reconcile it with the tea party movement's motivating principles.
Granted, some of the teabaggers are legitimate wing nuts, but there is a grain of truth to their complaints about increased taxes, because the rich have been chronically shirking tax duties for decades, but the money still has to come from somewhere. The poor, and even much of the middle class, have every reason to be pissed off about taxes because they're being taxed in lieu of the people who can actually afford it, and some of these people are probably just barely scraping by.
The rub is in the ironic fact that the Republicans have been milking this angle for so long with their left hand while worsening the problem with the right. That's why Joe the Plumber HAD to be a wealthy non-plumber, because there just wasn't much of a blue collar base of people that had any reason at all to complain about Obama's stated tax plan (or at least none that would stand up to any scrutiny at all).
July 6, 2009 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Palin/Theplumber 2012!
July 6, 2009 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rep. Mary Seifert should be informed that seat belt laws are made by the states, not the federal gov-mint. Don't you just love it when pols show their ignorance?
July 6, 2009 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
The link for "Mary Seifert" is broken, and the name should be "Marty Seifert."
July 6, 2009 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
The natives are restless!!LOL
Now they are turning on their leaders
July 6, 2009 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
"These people have some idealized notion of Reagan as their God, but will be first in line to get their government checks whether it is unemployment, disability or Social Security"
I have seen that with my own eyes. I have to work at a place where they have Fox News blaring all day. Most workers are wingnuts and they stomp around all day, incensed by the latest crap they heard on Beck. However, an attempt at a detailed conversation reveals they really don't know much. The Tea Party thing is really big around here.
Recently, one of these anti-stimulus, anti-tax, anti-benefits workers walked out after a fight with boss. He immediately went to Texas Workforce to claim unemployment, claim he was fired, and try to find all manner of fault with his boss in order to get unemployment.
No decency. No honor. Gutless cowardly morons.
July 6, 2009 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
And yet, this person you mention will pull a Ron Paul argument* "well, if the government is giving it away, I'm going to get mine."
*Paul notoriously foregos his principles by adding pork to bills (and then voting against the bill).
July 6, 2009 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
So like... I'm unclear. Do they ever explain WHY Obama should be impeached? Like, on what grounds? Or is it just like kinda a general... just, like, impeach him?
July 6, 2009 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Because he's not white.
July 6, 2009 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remember his campaign video? It was like a trailer for some weird grandpa bear cowboy porn.
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/67fb84c4db/big-john-cornyns-campaign-video-from-tubulargoldmine
Big Bad John!
July 6, 2009 2:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
knuckle-dragging morons.
July 6, 2009 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
These idiots get the crowd to rail against Government, forgetting that they are Government. Priceless!
July 6, 2009 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Texans? you know how stupid they are when you consider that they are the cretins who started "gov." dubya bush on his political career.
hoisted this idiot upon the country and look at the mess resulting from that fiasco!
July 6, 2009 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sneer away libruls. Toll roads are just another kind of tax. If the state needs revenue, it should cut taxes more because everyone knows the more you cut taxes the higher your revenues. Why, if the states would just cut taxes to zero their revenues would be 100% of the state's gross product.
July 6, 2009 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
As a long-time resident of Houston, I would advise against trying to use logic with Texas Republicans. Many Texas Republicans will admit that a significant percent of Texas Republicans are alogical.
July 6, 2009 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dear Eric,
I haven't read through all the comments, but I did read your article, and want to suggest that you may have erroneously lumped the two tea party movements together, when they are actually somewhat (somewhat) distinct.
The July 4 tea parties, to my understanding, had initially been organized by libertarians, whereas the earlier tea parties in the spring were disproportionately organized by "Fox & Co."
I came into contact with quite a few of the libertarian "tea partiers" through my work protesting the bank bailout with a progressive group (the libertarians showed up for us, thus I showed up for them - indeed, an odd pairing.)
The libertarians told me they were quite ticked off that they'd been lumped together with the Fox News followers. They felt that the tea party idea had been theirs for years, and that it was simply co-opted by a more powerful, larger group (Fox News, Glenn Beck, neither of which they seem to like.)
I subsequently attended a Fox News tea party later in the spring, and then a libertarian protest. Both local.
Very different groups. (VERY!) In fact, I found that the Fox News followers were much more open to a progressive Democratic line. (The stickler is that you have to show up and explain it to them, but then again, would it kill you?)
Conversely, the libertarians were better educated (and thus better protected in the downturn), and are much more convinced of their ideals.
You're welcome to contact me if you want any additional insight on what differentiates the two groups.
July 6, 2009 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
After looking at the video, I was struck by the terminology directed at Cornyn. I was at a 4th of July parade in Deerfield, IL which Rep. Mark Kirk (R), 10th District, prety much always walks in. This year as he paraded by, a guy across the street screamed, "Traitor, Traitor . . ." At first I thought it was about his recent comments in China, but then the guy yelled, "Thanks for voting for the biggest tax increase ever." Kirk has tried to walk a thin line between being a "moderate" while still appealing to the base. If the vehemance of the guy across the street is any indication, he's losing some of his teabagger inclined base.
July 6, 2009 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Texas Republicans get their wish and they break away from America, set up their own government and stop paying taxes, in 5 years the state will make the environment of "Mad Max" look like Beverly Hills. I pray to Sarah Palin they get their wish.
July 6, 2009 4:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oklahoma is already building the new border fence to keep them out.
July 6, 2009 6:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Noble, don't forget to turn on the fans to keep the smell out too.
July 6, 2009 7:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
If more people had to do a hand stand for spewing their crazy all over the place, there would be a lot less crazy in the world... I applaud her for enforcing the standards of just how much you have to be dedicated to your opinion before you start sharing it.
Also, I am so thirsty and feel bad for all that wasted tea... the Boston tea party was about "look we don't need your stupid tea if you are going to tax us so much"
so it makes sense that if they want to protest that they should be destroying their farms and roads and hospitals if they really cared so much... but all they do is "take that obama! I just threw a tea bag in water! HA!"
July 6, 2009 6:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Love seeing the name Alan Keyes prominently associated with Teabagging. Lest we forget: "leading name of the 'Birther' movement" Alan Keyes lost to Obama in the 2004 Senate election by a ridiculously lopsided margin (I remember something like 80-20). Not that he's bitter.
July 6, 2009 6:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Guess "Big" Jon ain't so popular these days.
July 6, 2009 7:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Not-So-Right-Wing & a big movement have a lot in common. Plus, didn't they get that tea-bagging is pretty much a disgusting insult to themselves?
July 7, 2009 12:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
You know the fundamental flaw with these tea parties- as well as the whole "Let's do what our forefathers did" argument in general?
England didn't have nukes.
July 7, 2009 2:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Everyone is over-analyzing the tea party movement; and the uber conservative base that feeds it.
Its simply a visible reaction to the shock felt by some over President Obama's election. Its anti-Obama, more than its pro-whatever.
These folks promote the philosophy which states, "agree with what I think, take action along the lines I support, and you are a true American; don't and you are NOT a true American; you are a traitor; or worse."
And its not confined to the far right. The far left has its own brand of this philosophy.
The real enemy is extremism. Pander to it at your own peril. And the peril of the nation.
July 7, 2009 5:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting. They rail against the Federal Government, and yet the seat belt laws she is referencing are passed in state legislatures.
Do the antendees even have a clue that they're just being used by The Club for Growth and the Grover Norquist Gang to intimidate Republican politicians into supporting his Tax Relief for the Wealthy scam?
July 7, 2009 7:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
You'd better get used to it. The rich are already paying a majority of the federal taxes including FICA, property taxes, state income taxes, cap gains taxes, etc. etc. etc.
Meanwhile nearly half of tax payers pay no income taxes, and a substantial portion of that is compensated to cover FICA.
It's about time the bottom half pays it's fair share. The free ride is at an end.
July 7, 2009 9:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Troll "shooter242" is a loon who actually belives that proving O'Reilly to be a liarwith the hard evidence from O'Reilly's show menas that O'Reilly is a truth-teller.
And as usual he is spewing the false far-right lunatic fringe talking points which he wears as blinders.
Yo, fool: it's okay to SPEAK with an accent but not to HEAR with one.
July 7, 2009 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's not forget that when you pay a toll on a private road, you are also paying into there profit and high CEO/management salaries.
July 7, 2009 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
A Tea Party is not a GOP deal, there are a lot of O-bots that are just smart enough to see the derection there life is going while The Supreem Leader parties and is out on the town on our dime.
Just remember Al Gore is there leader and he did invent the Internet !!!???
July 8, 2009 2:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Teknoloji ve Bilgisayar Forum Forum
July 6, 2010 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink