TPMDC
Michele Bachmann's Stock On The Rise After Her 'Super Bowl Of Freedom'
Christina Bellantoni | November 6, 2009, 6:05PM
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)
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Whether you call it a rally, press conference or "House Call," Republicans think Thursday's Capitol Hill Tea Party was a success -- and they are crediting Rep. Michele Bachmann for having the pizazz to increase turnout and press coverage.
"We didn't know what to expect, we didn't know what kind of energy would be there, but this thing took a life of its own," Brendan Buck, spokesman for the Republican Study Committee, told TPMDC.
"It came together better than we ever imagined it would in terms of size and energy," he said.
After chatting with press aides from various Republican offices, here's what we know.
Bachmann (R-MN) came up with the idea last Thursday and announced it Friday night.
Saturday morning, Republican members started spreading the word among one another and leadership, Rep. Steve King and others decided to participate. All week leadership staffers put together the details and speaking program, while others pulled permits and got the sound system organized. (The undisclosed costs will be shared among several Republican offices.)
Throughout the week, some members announced the would participate but Bachmann took the lead with generating press and several mom groups took up her cause and organized buses to Washington.
"At first, we were hoping for 500 people, we didn't try to hype up expectations," Buck said. "It took a lot of people by surprise to see all these folks come out."
Somewhere in the neighborhood of between 8,000 and 10,000 people turned out - many organized through state parties and conservative groups but plenty on their own time and dime.
As TPMDC reported earlier, they are planning another one for tomorrow.
A GOP aide said the conference is grateful for Bachmann's efforts, and that Republicans credit her with helping excite the base in a way that could help the party in 2010.
"She is very helpful and very talented in getting those folks energized and I don't think our conference would be complete without her," the aide said.
Republicans consider her a "firebrand," and some are still "skittish" about the things she says and does but find her a unique asset for her ability to attract attention.
Yesterday's event had coattails as well, with Republican political candidates aiming to get the Tea Party seal of approval.
While at the rally, TPMDC interviewed Rob Merkle, who wants to challenge Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT).
Merkle delivered 400 petitions to Himes' office from the Congressional district that ask he vote to keep the government out of health care decisions.
"I believe in stopping health care," Merkle told TPMDC. "People don't want it."
He accused Democrats and Speaker Nancy Pelosi of trying to "marginalize" tea partiers as fringe.
"I don't detect a lot of anger, what I detect is frustration," he said. "These are normal every day Americans just trying to have their voices heard."
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DrToast
November 6, 2009 6:50 PM
"I don't detect a lot of anger, what I detect is frustration," he said. "These are normal every day Americans just trying to have their voices heard."
If only there was some sort of voting mechanism we could use to ensure this.
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Overreach THIS!
November 6, 2009 11:30 PM in reply to DrToast
You know what? Maybe you're right!
Maybe if they feel that strongly about it, maybe we *should* have an election! Obama thinks he's going to rule by fiat like Hitler? Let's make Obama face the people, Bachmann if she's the candidate or whoever, and let's have them go to toe-to-toe in 2012 and see who wins!
That oughtta teach him!
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lifecoaches
November 7, 2009 5:53 PM in reply to Overreach THIS!
...uh...or you?
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davewtf
November 9, 2009 7:48 AM in reply to Overreach THIS!
Um, did you forget your meds? Talk about a dream ticket, Obama against Bachmann! Bring it on!
And, by the way, numbskull, stop being an idiot and trying to compare Obama to Hitler. As one comedian put it, the only person you should compare with Hitler is Hitler... and maybe Charlie Chaplain...
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Overreach THIS!
November 9, 2009 8:47 AM in reply to davewtf
Ah, it was a missed attempt at irony, amigo. Click my name and look at my home page if you need to check my bona fides.
Sorry this fell flat on some! Best, OT
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shooter242
November 7, 2009 8:26 AM in reply to DrToast
Yes, you folks can ignore the conservative bent of this months elections, but the members up for re-election next year can't. Unlike the Peanut Gallery here, they have to deal with the real world.
Heh.
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JEP07
November 7, 2009 9:57 AM in reply to shooter242
"the conservative bent of this months elections..."
Who's ignoring? I thought NY 23 was pretty good proof that most of us here are tight about the Republicans splitting, but since you are so cautious to use conservative rather than Republican as your label, you are obfuscating right out of the box.
There are no "Liberal v. Conservative" parties in the country, it is Democrat v. Republican.
When you attempt to move the bar so that it is Dems v. Conservatives, you are comparing apples and oranges. So, while it may prove what we already know, that the conservative/liberal ebb and flow is still at play, the Republican v. Democrat ebb and flow has reached tsunami proportions, and until Conservatives (with a capital C) find another party to take over, they are just another minority, albeit with a lot of money.
As long as the wingnut extremist Republicans, who don't know conservative from liberal in the first place, can dictate who runs for office, as they did in NY 23, the old line Conservatives you so proudly tout are just another minority.
It isn't Democrats V. Conservatives. Never has been.
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TheraP
November 7, 2009 11:51 AM in reply to JEP07
This is like a stock bubble! It WILL be pricked!
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TheraP
November 7, 2009 11:51 AM in reply to TheraP
Or could be a pimple. same thing...
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lifecoaches
November 7, 2009 5:54 PM in reply to shooter242
Yes and so will you...lol
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Overreach THIS!
November 8, 2009 2:36 AM in reply to shooter242
You got a bad hair day or something, lifecoach? WTF?
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Captain Dan
November 7, 2009 12:17 PM in reply to DrToast
They are either excessively under educated, under informed, too easily duped, over bribed by insurance interests, or not intelligent to have a rational voice.
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bvd
November 7, 2009 6:40 PM in reply to Captain Dan
Or maybe they're just nuts.
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Silence
November 7, 2009 9:04 PM in reply to bvd
Acorners?
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Dick Nixon
November 7, 2009 1:24 PM in reply to DrToast
> If only there was some sort of voting mechanism we could use
> to ensure this.
You actually hit the nail on the head. Their frustration stems from the fact that they are now in the minority and out of power.
The scary part for me is how fast these folks are willing to ignore our democratic principles when they lose. And lose they will continue to do, because despite their dillusions, which are reinforced by Fox News and their small group of friends, they are a minority.
My fear is what will happen when they lose again in 2010.
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lifecoaches
November 7, 2009 5:58 PM in reply to Dick Nixon
exactly what they are doing now...screaming and crying...and falling on the floor throwing a baby-like tantrum...
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slb
November 8, 2009 12:59 AM in reply to DrToast
These guys don't count their voices as "heard" unless all branches of government go along with them.
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charlie8080
November 6, 2009 7:12 PM
Exactly. As if people opposed to Bush weren't frustrated after eight years. They have had less than 10 months. I am tired of hearing about their revolution etc when we have elections every four year.
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TheRealFish
November 6, 2009 7:42 PM in reply to charlie8080
Ah, yes. But they're so sincere. That's the meme, right? I mean, sure: Nobody should question the "sincerity" of the mob that has been being incited by Bachman, Beck, the rest of Faux, the Dick Armey — all those conservative terrorists — since before Obama's inauguration.
And they will continue being "sincere" in their complete and unreasoned fear and hatred until... .
Anyway, I think this article gives Bachman just a little too much credit. The group Americans For Prosperity paid for most of the busses. Armey's FreedomWorks did a butt-load of organizing for this too. Of course, both of those groups either now have major corporate money behind them or at least (in the case of FreedomWorks) had their genesis within Big Insurance corps.
I just wonder how long it will take, when the inevitable violence at one of these rallies really starts crankin', that the inciters will be yanked before a judge's bench. Too bad it will take the rioting first before that happens.
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brewmn61
November 6, 2009 11:15 PM in reply to TheRealFish
The "sincerity" meme really does frost my behind. These people might be genuinely angry, but it's not about health care, or about deficits, or about socialism. It's about the fact that a bunch of old undereducated and overentitled white people don't feel like they're in control anymore. It's their country and they want it back.
If McCain or Bush had implemented identical policies, none of these bovine Babbitts would be doing anything but grumbling quietly into their Folgers. It's all sore loserdom from people who can't abide a democracy that doesn't cater to their every petulant whim.
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Odel Roo
November 7, 2009 8:47 AM in reply to brewmn61
You're wrong
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JohnW1141
November 7, 2009 9:51 AM in reply to Odel Roo
Odel,
I have yet to hear a teabagger articulate in any depth why they are angry. Every teabagger that had the microphone during the town halls had nothing but mile wide, half inch deep rhetoric and unfounded accusations.
If anyone wants to know the teabaggers, look at the signs they carry, listen to their chants, and listen to what they scream.
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The Commenter Formerly Known as NCSteve
November 7, 2009 11:43 AM in reply to JohnW1141
I've heard depth. What I have yet to hear is coherence and reasons grounded in objective reality rather than the crazy shit they tell each other in their chain emails.
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Orlando
November 7, 2009 12:23 PM in reply to JohnW1141
Maybe you weren't listening. It's about freedom. They want their freedom back. I mean, what's more meaningful than freedom? Paul Revere. Martin Luther King. NAZIS. Freeeeeeeeeeeeeedom!!!!!!!
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Texas Aggie
November 7, 2009 11:14 PM in reply to Orlando
This is exactly what is meant by "What I have yet to hear is coherence and reasons grounded in objective reality rather than the crazy shit they tell each other in their chain emails."
What exactly are they losing? Freedoms? They lost those when the Patriot Act was passed, when the DOD started its TIN, when the police got the green light to beat up on marchers, when Bush authorized the NSA to listen in on whomever they felt like with no court supervision. You didn't notice the teabaggers being upset then, did you? While Obama hasn't done much to correct the Cheney/Bush policies, they still belong to the previous administration. What freedoms have been taken away in the last year? Making up something not grounded in objective reality doesn't count. It only reinforces the meme that the teabaggers are nuttier than a pecan grove.
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thomas1
November 9, 2009 10:15 AM in reply to Texas Aggie
they need to be sent to a 'free speech zone'
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Silence
November 7, 2009 9:57 PM in reply to JohnW1141
Or, you could look at the businesses that they own and the jobs that they create.
Unfortunately, vilifying and ignoring them has a very adverse effect. It makes them want to lay people off and attend TEA parties.
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Texas Aggie
November 7, 2009 11:17 PM in reply to Silence
Why exactly do you think the teabaggers are employing anyone? Looking at the interviews indicates that almost all of them are both retired and not bright enough to meet a payroll.
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Silence
November 8, 2009 1:37 PM in reply to Texas Aggie
Maybe, those conducting the interviews search for people that best serve their agenda. I have met many entrepreneurs at the TEA parties. They attend out of concern for their employees, their businesses and this country.
Small business owners do not understand or agree with Obama's agenda. He seems only interested in catering to the special interests of large corporations. The meeting that he called with the CEO's of the largest corporations, just days after his inauguration, was very telling.
Obama's agenda = the shaft for small businesses.
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Silence
November 8, 2009 7:31 PM in reply to JohnW1141
I can articulate it in one word:
TRUST.
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Chrsiti
November 8, 2009 12:02 AM in reply to TheRealFish
I was on one of those buses. It cost each one of us each $200.00 as Christina stated in an earlier article to ride from Minnesota and back. Every sign was hand made, not one printed by an organization. I saw people get on with just purses that had come from from work, for a three day leave. What is it about you that you have to come to these conclusions of some big organization getting everyone together?
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Silence
November 8, 2009 2:12 PM in reply to TheRealFish
The big corporate money is funneling straight to Obama. Freedom Works receives funding from small businesses and individuals.
Take the blinders off. The only "transfer of wealth" will be from small businesses to large corporations such as GE, Goldman and GM. Small corps are fast, efficient and a competitive nuisance to the large, lumbering corps. The Big "C"s would like nothing more than to see them all gone.
Wall Street owns Obama.
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commie atheist
November 6, 2009 9:03 PM in reply to charlie8080
Well, we had an election, and the majority of voters, in their infinite wisdom, elected a man who had a black father and a white mother and who's middle name is Hussein. To the teabaggers, this was a certain sign of the apocalypse, and they are doing everything they can to alert G-O-D to the fact that they do not support the Muslim, Kenyan-born Indonesian half-breed usurper Obama and his cryptofascist communism before the Rapture happens.
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jeffgee
November 6, 2009 9:40 PM in reply to commie atheist
Can we get on with the rapture and get these idiots out of here?
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The Commenter Formerly Known as NCSteve
November 7, 2009 11:47 AM in reply to jeffgee
If we had one, none of them would believe it happened because they'd still be here. Funny how hatred, wrath and, based on the size of a lot of their asses, gluttony will do that.
So they'd blame the disapperances on Obama, rally round that appealing new Bible thumping charasmatic leader, tattoo his barcode on their heads, and double down on the crazy.
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dUb
November 6, 2009 7:13 PM
69,456,897 Americans already had their voices heard. Don't these normal every day Americans have somewhere else to be on a weekday?
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Curtis
November 6, 2009 7:23 PM in reply to dUb
Well, they can't just sleep in their parents basement all day.
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Matt Jones
November 6, 2009 10:32 PM in reply to dUb
Many that I've seen were retired - they've got lots of free time to make sure the government stays out of their Medicare, and their Social Security as well!
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BrianSkuse
November 7, 2009 1:36 PM in reply to Matt Jones
Very good point, colleague. A lot of those people are on Medicare and Social Security.
It must be easy and fun to pander to and manipulate a crowd of dupes this stupid. They do not care if you lie to them as long as you keep saying what they like to hear.
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Silence
November 8, 2009 2:28 PM in reply to BrianSkuse
Take good look in the mirror.
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Silence
November 7, 2009 9:29 PM in reply to dUb
Where are the jobs?
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CN
November 6, 2009 7:31 PM
In other words, the Sarah Palin of Congress.
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East Coast Aussie
November 6, 2009 7:44 PM in reply to CN
I was thinking the same thing when I got halfway through the article.
Fortunately this also means she'll self destruct and take the boat down with her.
btw, how do you quote like that?
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lousgirl84
November 6, 2009 8:11 PM in reply to East Coast Aussie
Yeah - how does he?
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Turnaround
November 6, 2009 8:57 PM in reply to lousgirl84
Just paste the text you want to quote between HTML tags "blockquote" and "/blockquote"--but put the tags in angle brackets.
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pv2k
November 6, 2009 8:59 PM in reply to lousgirl84
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Scott in PacNW
November 6, 2009 8:56 PM in reply to East Coast Aussie
You quote by manually typing HTML code.
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JEP07
November 7, 2009 10:09 AM in reply to CN
Bachman/Palin 2012?
Or is that backwards?
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lexalexander
November 9, 2009 11:00 AM in reply to JEP07
Ooh! Ooh! Don't forget Virginia Foxx and Sue Myrick! It ain't just Alaska and Minnesota ginnin' up Teh Crazy!
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falafelboy
November 6, 2009 8:37 PM
I am so pleased that so many Republicans are jumping on Captain Cavegirl's ship. Shall we dispatch the socialized coastguard when it goes down in 2010?
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Michael A
November 6, 2009 8:40 PM
I just love how diverse and young the tea partiers are. Check out some of those pics. Lots of minorities in the crowds. Gee, I wonder what is driving these people? Racism perhaps? Nah, couldn't be could it?
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Scott in PacNW
November 6, 2009 8:59 PM in reply to Michael A
I remember much of the same wingnut freakout when Bill Clinton took office in 1993. Michigan militia, Posse Comitatus, OK City, Jess Helms warning Clinton to 'watch his ass' in NC on the anniversary of the JFK assassination.
And Clinton was a 'Rockefeller Republican' (aka DLC) Democrat. So, IMO, it's not entirely racism, no.
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commie atheist
November 6, 2009 9:08 PM in reply to Scott in PacNW
Funny, I don't recall people with guns strapped to them showing up to rallies, or hordes of people storming the halls of Congress, demanding that the half-breed Kenyan-born Indonesian Muslim president show them his birth certificate, i.e., prove that he had the right to occupy the WHITE house.
There may have been wingnuts aflame when Clinton was president, but I don't believe the intensity of the fervor was quite this intense. And the only thing different about Obama (literally) is his parentage.
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mophan
November 7, 2009 12:31 AM in reply to commie atheist
Yes, you are right... these are not our mother and father kind of nuts.
They are a totally different kind of nut. Mutated in some way. Zombies even. They just won't die...
Must be that government provided health care. We all knew the government was conducting experiments... and now the facts are right in front of us. We've created monsters!!!
Oh, the humanity!
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Odel Roo
November 7, 2009 8:53 AM in reply to mophan
Mnn on man... you guys are just as bad as the birthers - going on and on about his race... So what little name are they gonna give you to marginalize you? Baiters?
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BalRog
November 7, 2009 12:12 PM in reply to Odel Roo
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falafelboy
November 6, 2009 9:01 PM in reply to Michael A
Right you are. Did you know Bachman changed the spelling of her last name when she ran for congress. It used to have 3 k's in the middle instead of the ch.
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Silence
November 7, 2009 9:44 PM in reply to Michael A
Could it be exploding unemployment and high taxes? Nah. It couldn't be. It must be racism. Yeah, yeah. That's the ticket. Racism.
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AmericanDad
November 7, 2009 10:48 PM in reply to Silence
High taxes? You haven't noticed that taxes for 95% of Americans are lower under Obama than under Bush? Or that a third of the cost of the stimulus came in the form of tax breaks for businesses?
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Silence
November 8, 2009 10:20 AM in reply to AmericanDad
LOL. Well, our company hasn't seen one dime of those elusive tax breaks. In fact, our CPA has warned us to duck and cover as our small business is now under attack by the Feds.
We own a mfg company that provides solid, high tech jobs to Americans. Unfortunately, it seems we have become the enemy.
What is Obama's plan for the massive job losses that will result when small companies are run into the ground through excessive taxation and "redistribution"?
Is there a plan?
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moat
November 8, 2009 2:26 PM in reply to Silence
Which change in the tax code are you referring to, Silence?
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Silence
November 8, 2009 2:44 PM in reply to moat
The expiration of the Bush tax cuts, the surcharge on "S" corps, the cap and trade taxes that will cause exploding energy bills for small business.
All of these "changes" converge to form the perfect storm that will capsize small corps. These companies do not receive "special favors and exemptions" from the tax code or politicians.
The big corps receive bloated contracts from the state federal gov't. These contracts and countless exemptions serve to offset tax burden. Take away the working capital slowly accumulated by small businesses you've kill them off.
It's not rocket science.
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AmericanDad
November 8, 2009 10:11 PM in reply to Silence
Yes. Small companies (like mine, too), got screwed by the bailed out banks who were supposed to extend us a helping hand in return.
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Silence
November 8, 2009 10:31 PM in reply to Michael A
The race card has been canceled due to excessive use.
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mikedrevguy
November 6, 2009 8:40 PM
"I believe in stopping health care," Merkle told TPMDC. "People don't want it."
which people don't want healthcare? do they want to die? do they want to be under-productive? do they wish to be simply sick and miserable for the duration of their lives?
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commie atheist
November 6, 2009 9:09 PM in reply to mikedrevguy
STOP HEALTH CARE BEFORE IT CURES YOU!!!!
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cwnidog
November 6, 2009 11:13 PM in reply to mikedrevguy
With quotes like that, at least he'll keep the election season interesting.
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fkaZk0sm0
November 6, 2009 8:43 PM
"Somewhere in the neighborhood of between 8,000 and 10,000 people turned out.."
really???
seems to me the 8-10k figure was the high end. why is tpm now reporting this as the figure??
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Joe Buck
November 6, 2009 8:59 PM in reply to fkaZk0sm0
The only independent, professional estimate I've seen was from the Capitol Police, which was 4000 people, right? So where does this larger number come from? Republican sources? A general rule is that rally organizers always at least double the figure and rally opponents at least halve it. But it seems reasonable to treat the Capitol Police as neutral.
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commie atheist
November 6, 2009 9:00 PM in reply to fkaZk0sm0
Because Christina Bellantoni has a secret pro-wingnut agenda? Just kidding, although I saw somewhere that she used to work for the Moonie Times, so she may not have been de-programmed completely yet.
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bluesplashy
November 6, 2009 9:24 PM in reply to fkaZk0sm0
I question that number also. What is up Bellatoni? Where did that number come from? Can you give us your source?
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Turnaround
November 6, 2009 8:52 PM
People don't want health care? What's next...they don't want health?
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commie atheist
November 6, 2009 8:58 PM in reply to Turnaround
Back in my day, people didn't have health care. If they got gangrene in their extremities, they just chopped off the infected parts themselves. AND THEY LIKED IT!!!
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Odel Roo
November 7, 2009 8:55 AM in reply to commie atheist
LMAO - too funny!
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commie atheist
November 6, 2009 8:57 PM
Yes, help the party drive away independents and swing voters, who will take one look at the Bachmann-Birther-Overdrive and vote for the safe and sane Democrats.
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Matt Jones
November 6, 2009 10:34 PM in reply to commie atheist
We know what about Bachmann "excites" the base. It's the same thing that Palin has. If they run a Palin/Bachmann ticket in 2012, sales of Viagra will drop sharply...
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jdb316
November 7, 2009 11:40 AM in reply to commie atheist
Or will they just stay home on election day? That's the biggest worry for the Dems. The Republicans proved in 2000 and 2004 that they can win elections solely by galvanizing their base. The Dems need to make sure their base is similarly motivated next year and in 2012.
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commie atheist
November 7, 2009 2:36 PM in reply to jdb316
The bases of the two parties, if both are properly motivated, will cancel each other out. Independent voters determine the outcome. They will have a choice between the Bachmann-Birther-Overdrive chorus, and Democrats who will have (hopefully) taken advantage of their majority in Congress to effect real change in this country. Jury's still out on that last part, but if Democrats actually show leadership in trying to turn this mess around, then I think independents will support them in 2010.
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Texas Aggie
November 7, 2009 11:28 PM in reply to jdb316
That's exactly what happened to Deeds. He tried to go after the wrong wing vote and, of course, didn't get it. But in the meantime his base stayed at home and he got killed. If he had stuck with a progressive program, at least he would have had a fighting chance, but going for the wingnut vote made the results inevitable. The Blue Dogs will find out the same thing if they try to go wingnut. As Bachmann has shown, no one does wingnut like a dingbat so you can't beat them at that game. The only chance you have is to go for the sane vote and hope that there are enough of them to beat the wingnuts.
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slb
November 8, 2009 1:15 AM in reply to Texas Aggie
And if there aren't, then we're all in a kind of trouble that goes a lot deeper than just the composition of Congress. It will mean that we are living in a world where the inmates really are running the asylum.
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duck cheney
November 6, 2009 9:14 PM
Laugh if you must. Bachmann and Palin are just the right kind of tools to usher in book of revelations like consequences should they win a trip to the White House.
What was that? Tell me again how we as a country are not crazy enough to allow it.........
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chucktrotter
November 6, 2009 9:41 PM
The attendees of the "tea party" looked more to me like a reunion of disabled Sumo wrestlers. If they were an example of main-stream Americans, we are in tough shape. If I looked like a majority of that herd, I would be pissed-off to!
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pmccoy
November 6, 2009 9:47 PM
Palin-Bachmann 2012! The progressive's dream team.
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DaddyD
November 6, 2009 9:50 PM
McCarthy was pretty popular within his party for a while, wasn't he?
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Richardxx
November 7, 2009 2:38 PM in reply to DaddyD
For a number of conservative Republicans, old "Tail-gunner Joe" remains popular. His disgracing is something they still hold against the moderate Republicans.
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Texas Aggie
November 7, 2009 11:33 PM in reply to Richardxx
That's only too true. As we speak, the Texas State Education Board is trying to rewrite our history books exonerating Joe and making him a hero. This is only one of many historical revisions along the same lines that they are pushing and if they are successful, you can bet that text publishers are going to put the same thing in the books available for sale in the rest of the country.
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geofu54
November 6, 2009 10:35 PM
So... in a nutshell, after Palin, they tasted blood. And they are now hooked. It was so good. It feels like destiny.
Right?
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Plutodawg
November 6, 2009 10:37 PM
Somehow Bachmann doesn't come close to jiving with my definition of "pizazz". Maybe "disturbed", "batshit crazy", "delusional"...heck there are lots of adjectives...just not "pizazz".
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SqueakyRat
November 9, 2009 9:12 AM in reply to Plutodawg
I don't think "pizazz" is an adjective, Pluto.
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geofu54
November 6, 2009 10:59 PM
But seriously -- she may have wanted to instigate people to "scare Congress," but apparently, it was Republican members that she scared the most.
Come to think of it, it may have been her #1 mission there. I bet it was. She first and foremost wants to get attention. And wants to take charge.
And now, it seems nobody in that party is willing to bell the cat.*
(* No insult to cats intended.)
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JEP07
November 7, 2009 10:05 AM in reply to geofu54
Some cats are so loud, they don't need bells.
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geofu54
November 7, 2009 5:04 PM in reply to JEP07
Well, I should have said "muzzle the cat" then. Still, you get the point. Those rats will keep kissing her ass until eaten by her.
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DickTater
November 6, 2009 11:49 PM
These folks keep talking about how the people back home don't want healthcare....but they can't really get a posse together from their own districts. First, they don't really know or talk to or take direction from people in their districts, they take orders from Corporations. So, these folks always have to be scrounged up in wide swaths of Corporate astroturf actions with lots of money and concerted effort.
I mean, with the whacked out crap these people are spouting, no matter how you feel about the avg. intelligence of americans, you have to cast a pretty wide net to bag this many idiots.
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Overreach THIS!
November 7, 2009 12:07 AM
You take a country of 300 million people and have a Democratic election -- one guy wins by a country mile.
So against that, you gather 4000 of the stupidest, most uninformed and most bigoted white people from that 300 million around a stage. Buy them bus tickets; they are too stupid to wonder who's paying.
Now I got a spankin' new calculator that figures that to be 0.0013% of the population. And a crazy woman having been chosen by God as she claims to run for Congress (people have been put in mental hospitals for that), she riles them up. A top elected leader of their party gets to the podium with a prop constitution that spells out those elections, and he proves that he doesn't know that the Constitution says at all. Although it's basic to his job that he know it.
The ignoramuses cheer and waive pictures of Hitler. And this motley, ignorant, bussed-in-for-free-by-secret-interests, .0013% of the population, they are claiming that this is mighty significant event. How'd they reach that conclusion?
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Richardxx
November 7, 2009 2:52 PM in reply to Overreach THIS!
Only 0.0013% of the population? Surely yours is a liberal calculator. The conservative calculators show that they actually had a working majority of the American people there in D.C. Conservatives don't need those pesky liberal decimal points, zeros and pesky specific numbers to know who counts.
And why shouldn't God ask Bachman to run for Congress. He asked Bush to run for President then got him appointed to the office, didn't he?
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AmericanDad
November 7, 2009 10:51 PM in reply to Richardxx
Why does God hate America?
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Overreach THIS!
November 8, 2009 2:18 AM in reply to AmericanDad
WORD!!!
ROFLMAO! =D
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Overreach THIS!
November 8, 2009 2:14 AM in reply to Richardxx
A great laugh for my morning here in Eastern Europe! THANKS A LOT! ROFLMAO! =D
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Chrsiti
November 8, 2009 1:11 AM in reply to Overreach THIS!
I was on one of those buses for 24 hours to our country's capital. I paid $200.00 myself to get there. The rest of the people on all three buses did also. Some people came from work with just their purse for three days because they believe in this cause. Do you know know what it means when you assume?
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Overreach THIS!
November 8, 2009 2:29 AM in reply to Chrsiti
I hope as many of the bigots as possible had to pay that much or preferably more. I am passing on what was reported and it is you are assuming (1) that I am assuming, and (2) that I am wrong, incorrect on both counts.
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SqueakyRat
November 9, 2009 9:21 AM in reply to Chrsiti
Who provided the bus?
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Silence
November 8, 2009 4:32 PM in reply to Overreach THIS!
LOL. Liberal tolerance. Where would we be without it?
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Overreach THIS!
November 8, 2009 8:03 PM in reply to Silence
What's that about?
Tolerance of posters of dead Jews in Hitler's Death Camps? We are supposed to tolerate that? You tolerate that, then?
You tolerate the bigotry of suggesting of suggesting against all evidence that the President was born in Africa? The KKK would be very tolerant of that, you as well, then?
Answer the questions if you dare, rather than your snide evasions.
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Silence
November 8, 2009 8:59 PM in reply to Overreach THIS!
I have read some truly despicable posts on these boards, from both sides. As offensive as they may be, I will tolerate it.
Why? To preserve our most important right, freedom of speech.
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Overreach THIS!
November 8, 2009 9:24 PM in reply to Silence
All of this non-responsive oblique crap from you, the "What do I do it?", the "lololol," this is all there because you are unable to argue anything coherent. You just observe.
As in not saying anything whatever of value.
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Silence
November 8, 2009 9:51 PM in reply to Overreach THIS!
What would you like me to say?
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Plutodawg
November 7, 2009 12:12 AM
On the other hand, at least they're doing that much, Tater:
Want Obama To Be Bolder? Take To The Streets!
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/06/want-obama-to-be-bolder-t_n_348969.html&cp
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phillygirl
November 7, 2009 1:01 AM
She's so powerful. Oooooh! What led TPM to plant a big wet kiss on this woman's behind?
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larue
November 7, 2009 4:15 AM
Oh for cryin out loud, WTF is this crap givin ANY notice to Bachman, or this shit for brains useless protest?
They had less than 4K people there!
It's a failure!
And as street theatre, they invaded the WRONG Pelosi office and Boner read the WRONG passage from the wrong document!!!
They should only get derision! And I'm thinkin, they don't even deserve that, in the prog blogs.
Josh, TMP, think about what you are doing!
Giving LOSERS, free press!
WTF? They are losers! Make your points, cut them down, and end it in ONE story, stop giving them your time and staff and money once you have the story!
And please, spend your money on covering The Hill, and the issues at hand!
HC REform, banking legislation, climate change legislation.
Cover the corps and CEO's who are screwing us all, leave the small potatoes alone!
Fuck Bachman, and her ilk! Palin! Teabaggers!
I want to know what the fuck is happening on The Hill that's fucking us progs!!!
I don't care a rats ass about the Orly Taitz of reality!
I want to know what our ELECTED OFFALS are doing, and NOT doing, to earn our votes!
Harumph, TMP.
There's a phreakin VOTE on HC Reform Saturday!
What's the deal, what's the issue at hand, what is being proposed in the bill(s) at hand in the House?
What is FOR the masses, what is for the corporate feudalists?
Where is your prog coverage, Joshua?
Where is your progressive hide?
Did you LOSE it?
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larue
November 7, 2009 4:19 AM
Ok TPM! My bad on the acronyms above . . .
My points stand.
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Tanjaoui
November 7, 2009 6:37 AM
McClatchy's done a great job on banking and Goldman Sachs. Shouldn't that get a linky at TPM? Major story there. Bachmann's stunt is political hi-jinks; there's no substance to it. Barely merits a footnote.
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i5kfun
November 7, 2009 7:56 AM
"The undisclosed costs will be shared among several Republican offices."
Wait a minute, wait a minute, now wait just a minute here. So these anti-tax, anti-government teabaggers were using GOVERNMENT funds, taxpayer funds, to setup and run this event! That is an unacceptable and shameful waste of taxpayers money during this recession while the country is so deeply in debt. My children and grandchildren will have to pay off that debt those teabaggers made Thursday!
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Silence
November 8, 2009 4:35 PM in reply to i5kfun
That would be ACORN.
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mgardener
November 7, 2009 10:35 AM
When is Ms Bachmann devoting her time to her real job which would be that of legislating?
Whom do they think they are kidding?
This grass roots campaign is well funded and well planned.
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100x
November 7, 2009 11:37 AM
Tell them to get in line.
Matter of fact. Who cares if they are angry.
I've been angry for 8 years.
They slept through or somehow missed the total destruction and looting of our country on Fox.
Instead of being angry when it actually happened they were cheering.
The Constitution they so dearly love was used as toilet paper for 8 years. Where were they. Asking can I wipe next.
Invading the wrong country, causing the worst global depression, 6 million jobs loss in a year.
I wish Obama would have entered the WH with a surplus.
Yet they supported every policy that got us into this mess.
Take a look in the mirror and you can see who the entire world is mad at.
Bush and the Republicans that followed him.
That would be you.
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Rich in NJ
November 7, 2009 11:45 AM
TPM and other media are what is causing the crazies' stock to rise.
Stop covering the wingnuts, whether they be Palin, Bachman, Taitz, or Colter.
I don't understand why you treat them as if they had huge followings.
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Richardxx
November 7, 2009 3:12 PM in reply to Rich in NJ
What bugs me is that Bachman and Palin are both crazies being pushed on the rest of us by the religious right. But no one wants to bring this up.
These people have an agenda, and that is to put America under the bible as the ultimate law. They really do live in another world, one mostly inside their own heads. Other examples are DeMint, Sessions, Coburn, Inhoff, and Ensign. At the state level Sanford is another example.
The Constitution and the Rule of Law (to include the part that even top political leaders are required to obey the law) are something they ignore.
These people are either religious fanatics themselves, or they operate in politics as agents for the religious fanatics. But it's OK, since they are Christian religious fanatics. So that makes it politically incorrect to speak of their fanaticism.
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Tanjaoui
November 7, 2009 7:19 PM in reply to Rich in NJ
You're right. Covering a few thousand people in front of Congress only lends them an air of seriousness and credibility. They shouldn't be getting this kind of coverage. There are more important aspects of this thing to investigate/report.
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vincent75
November 7, 2009 1:24 PM
like in west wing when bartlett and toby were hoping ritchie would get the GOP nomination, it would be the best thing for democrats if michelle is the nominee in 2012. she is only interested in two things and two things only- making you afraid of it and telling you whos to blame for it.
getting heavy sorkin flashbacks today, if you couldnt tell.
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vincent75
November 7, 2009 1:25 PM
like in west wing when bartlett and toby were hoping ritchie would get the GOP nomination, it would be the best thing for democrats if michelle is the nominee in 2012. she is only interested in two things and two things only- making you afraid of it and telling you whos to blame for it.
getting heavy sorkin flashbacks today, if you couldnt tell.
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gordon s.
November 7, 2009 2:32 PM
Looks like some ageism in a few responses. Some protesters do appear to be protesting the demise of the racism and sexism that conferred privledge and material benefits on white males when they were growing up. I wonder if willful ignorance is a better descriptor than stupid. Some are really obnoxious. However when I consider the loss of civil rights and growing state power during my similarly long life, I feel some sympathy, despite rejecting the grounds of their protests.
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bula
November 7, 2009 3:29 PM
Michelle is not a problem. She is just as out there as Sara Palin. You need to fear Rep. Paul Ryan, the smooth talking, photogenic, corporate owned wingnut.
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2009/11/paul-ryan-may-be-beloved-of-corporate.html
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AmericanDad
November 7, 2009 10:56 PM in reply to bula
Nah, Ryan's from my state. He's no threat. He may be able to speak in complete sentences, but he has Dubya's interest in data, details and history. Kinda like a more articulate Palin: pretty but empty-headed. This is the moron who's answer to health care reform was to privatize Medicare. His own party reacted to that with deafening silence
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bula
November 8, 2009 4:43 PM in reply to AmericanDad
Exactly!
Just like Ronald Regan....
And he is held up as the greatest leader of our time by the Repukes....
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AmericanDad
November 8, 2009 10:15 PM in reply to bula
Reagan was pretty? He always reminded me of an iguana.
Despite what the party faithful and the neocon media sing in their ritual worship of Ronny, he didn't generate the wave that carried him into office, he simply rode a wave that was already on the way. He was in the right place at the right time, and there was nothing special about him.
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AmericanDad
November 8, 2009 10:17 PM in reply to bula
Reagan was pretty? He always reminded me of an iguana.
Despite what the party faithful and the neocon media sing in their ritual worship of Ronny, he didn't generate the wave that carried him into office, he simply rode a wave that was already on the way. He was in the right place at the right time, and there was nothing special about him.
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Swift63
November 7, 2009 5:11 PM
I'm very happy that soon these people will be able to get mental health treatment.
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Silence
November 7, 2009 9:14 PM in reply to Swift63
And another election.
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Swift63
November 7, 2009 5:17 PM
But on a more serious level, the opposition is not racist. Not in the classical sense of the Klan, or of the He-Shall-Not-Be-Named German dictator. What is true is that a sizable number of their supporters do have a few racist memes in their minds, many of them regional (kaff-South) and many of them just the sorts of things that hang around in your mind from your party blaming the poverty of blacks solely on their lack of "get-up-and-go," and other offensive things. Starting at least with Nixon, and increasingly with Reagan, the GOP is willing to race-bait if it serves them, and then deflect the accusation of racism with "politically correct," and "state's rights" and "Democrats are the racists!" practiced chants.
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lapdogs
November 7, 2009 7:01 PM
Rise, Baby, Rise!
Between Palin and now Bachmann bubbling up to the top of the Republican Party as their new "Leaders", there is no way the Democrats can lose.
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Silence
November 7, 2009 9:06 PM in reply to lapdogs
Want to make a bet? The writing is on the wall.
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Solomon Drek
November 7, 2009 10:54 PM
Get a grip on reality. A few thousand peabaggers is nothing compared to the millions who marched on Washington to protest the Vietnam War and support the Civil Rights movement.
There was no internet to spread the word, and the country had a much smaller population base.
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Silence
November 8, 2009 3:12 PM in reply to Solomon Drek
Why are you so worried about them?
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AmericanDad
November 7, 2009 11:01 PM
Perhaps Josh needs to employ a little more editorial control of the site. First we had a TPM writer calling Tuesday's election a "GOP sweep" when they actually got their asses kicked across the country. Now we have a TPM headline and writer proclaiming that Crazy Shelly's stock is rising -- when the opposite is true, because if your stock is rising with the lunatic fringe and the party that ever fewer people trust, claim to be a part of and vote for, as Crazy Shelly's is, by definition your stock is falling overall. She's been promoted to first chair of the band playing on the Titanic, but the ship is still sinking.
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Chrsiti
November 8, 2009 12:07 AM
When you have to call people names such as "lunatic fringe, nutcase, angry mob, or racist" it makes one look smaller. It is evident that using insulting names to make one look stronger only makes them look like a coward.
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Overreach THIS!
November 8, 2009 2:33 AM in reply to Chrsiti
To people that carry Hitler posters and claim the black President is not an American?
From your perspective, sure it does. But these are all accurate depictions, and we have no guilt about speaking truth to your kind, far from it.
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Peter Principle
November 8, 2009 12:47 AM
"I believe in stopping health care," Merkle told TPMDC.
Well, you can't get more honest than that.
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billyshake
November 8, 2009 2:37 AM
You know, this lady drives me insane, but I gotta say, she's doing a lot more for her (crazy) causes and beliefs than most members of congress. I wish we had a few like her on our side -- as in members who could get 10,000 progressives to the Capitol on a Thursday.
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Chrsiti
November 8, 2009 8:51 AM
In our effots to live and let live there are many distractions such as the Hitler signs and the president's birth certificate as you said, Overreact. Those distractions are what is causing people to not have civil conversations. I am trying to look beyond the signs, name calling and blaming and want to hear civilized conversation about what's going on. Is anyone willing to talk with me without using insults?
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moat
November 8, 2009 2:33 PM in reply to Chrsiti
Are you saying that the birthers and referrals to hitler misrepresent the movement? The leaders of the movement do not repudiate these elements.
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Chrsiti
November 8, 2009 10:07 AM
I guess my efforts to enlighten myself in my search for some form of understanding on why and how people think the way they do, will be better spent elsewhere. I admire your passion and wish you all well in your efforts to live and let live.
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Overreach THIS!
November 8, 2009 8:17 PM in reply to Chrsiti
Here's a step toward enlightening yourself.
The fact that somebody takes a position does not mean that the best approach is for you to seek out the middle ground between that position and somebody else's. The somebody else's may be a better position, which the compromise would undermine fatally. And here, the Democrats have compromised a whole lot and have only gotten spat upon for it. So if your real purpose is to enlighten yourself and not to assume or project moral superiority, consider seriously the possibilities that you may not have enough information and that your basis frame might not be supported in logic anyway.
And further: the Republicans strategy is *not* to find a compromise, your enthusiasm aside. It is to embarrass Democrats and undermine them by delivering only failure, so that Republicans can say in the 2010 elections and beyond that the Democrats did not get anything done, so vote Republican.
Wake up.
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Silence
November 8, 2009 10:49 PM in reply to Overreach THIS!
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE - News; NYSE:FRE - News), the second largest provider of U.S. residential mortgage funding, on Friday posted a loss of $5 billion in the third quarter and predicted it would need more government support amid a "prolonged deterioration" in housing.
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JimmyBobby
November 8, 2009 6:41 PM
Another brainless wingnut who is, I'm sorry to say, only doing well because she's reasonably attractive. Let someone who looks like Janet Reno try this shit and she'd be shut down in a New York minute.
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