Tea Party day

[Double Agent]

This thread is gold.

[TimC]

Follow me to Freedom!!!1!!

 

Jump in the back of mah truck, boys. I can see Gettysburg from my window.

[CaP'N GRuNGe]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/opinion/...ugman.html?_r=1

 

Op-Ed Columnist

Tea Parties Forever

 

Published: April 12, 2009

This is a column about Republicans — and I’m not sure I should even be writing it.

 

Today’s G.O.P. is, after all, very much a minority party. It retains some limited ability to obstruct the Democrats, but has no ability to make or even significantly shape policy.

 

Beyond that, Republicans have become embarrassing to watch. And it doesn’t feel right to make fun of crazy people. Better, perhaps, to focus on the real policy debates, which are all among Democrats.

 

But here’s the thing: the G.O.P. looked as crazy 10 or 15 years ago as it does now. That didn’t stop Republicans from taking control of both Congress and the White House. And they could return to power if the Democrats stumble. So it behooves us to look closely at the state of what is, after all, one of our nation’s two great political parties.

 

One way to get a good sense of the current state of the G.O.P., and also to see how little has really changed, is to look at the “tea parties” that have been held in a number of places already, and will be held across the country on Wednesday. These parties — antitaxation demonstrations that are supposed to evoke the memory of the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution — have been the subject of considerable mockery, and rightly so.

 

But everything that critics mock about these parties has long been standard practice within the Republican Party.

 

Thus, President Obama is being called a “socialist” who seeks to destroy capitalism. Why? Because he wants to raise the tax rate on the highest-income Americans back to, um, about 10 percentage points less than it was for most of the Reagan administration. Bizarre.

 

But the charge of socialism is being thrown around only because “liberal” doesn’t seem to carry the punch it used to. And if you go back just a few years, you find top Republican figures making equally bizarre claims about what liberals were up to. Remember when Karl Rove declared that liberals wanted to offer “therapy and understanding” to the 9/11 terrorists?

 

Then there are the claims made at some recent tea-party events that Mr. Obama wasn’t born in America, which follow on earlier claims that he is a secret Muslim. Crazy stuff — but nowhere near as crazy as the claims, during the last Democratic administration, that the Clintons were murderers, claims that were supported by a campaign of innuendo on the part of big-league conservative media outlets and figures, especially Rush Limbaugh.

 

Speaking of Mr. Limbaugh: the most impressive thing about his role right now is the fealty he is able to demand from the rest of the right. The abject apologies he has extracted from Republican politicians who briefly dared to criticize him have been right out of Stalinist show trials. But while it’s new to have a talk-radio host in that role, ferocious party discipline has been the norm since the 1990s, when Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, became known as “The Hammer” in part because of the way he took political retribution on opponents.

 

Going back to those tea parties, Mr. DeLay, a fierce opponent of the theory of evolution — he famously suggested that the teaching of evolution led to the Columbine school massacre — also foreshadowed the denunciations of evolution that have emerged at some of the parties.

 

Last but not least: it turns out that the tea parties don’t represent a spontaneous outpouring of public sentiment. They’re AstroTurf (fake grass roots) events, manufactured by the usual suspects. In particular, a key role is being played by FreedomWorks, an organization run by Richard Armey, the former House majority leader, and supported by the usual group of right-wing billionaires. And the parties are, of course, being promoted heavily by Fox News.

 

But that’s nothing new, and AstroTurf has worked well for Republicans in the past. The most notable example was the “spontaneous” riot back in 2000 — actually orchestrated by G.O.P. strategists — that shut down the presidential vote recount in Florida’s Miami-Dade County.

 

So what’s the implication of the fact that Republicans are refusing to grow up, the fact that they are still behaving the same way they did when history seemed to be on their side? I’d say that it’s good for Democrats, at least in the short run — but it’s bad for the country.

 

For now, the Obama administration gains a substantial advantage from the fact that it has no credible opposition, especially on economic policy, where the Republicans seem particularly clueless.

 

But as I said, the G.O.P. remains one of America’s great parties, and events could still put that party back in power. We can only hope that Republicans have moved on by the time that happens.

[CaP'N GRuNGe]

The redneck's version of the million man march.

 

The million man march wasn't organized by CNN.

Edited April 15, 2009 by CaP'N GRuNGe

[cre8tiff]

Astroturf movement. Priceless.

[Randall]

I heart

 

Fox and Glen Beck mention Thomas Paine but do they understand who he really was? He made FDR look tame.

[Perchoutofwater]

+1

 

Don't forget the organizing assist from Fox News and right wing radio.

 

There's nothing grass roots about this. I just hope this leads the "real American pro-American" types to the start of the draft Sarah Palin for 2012 movement. I've been listening a bit to the local right wing talk radio station and it's pretty hilarious with the whining about how the left is going to try to marginalize their protest. Pretty freaking ironic given the past few years.

 

I'm concerned about long term fiscal issues in this country too. But trying to stoke people's fears for a political agenda is something that has a well documented history as the hate mongers throughout the years have shown.

 

Nevermind that this Admin did pass the largest tax cut in US history. Nevermind that it is forced to resort to Keynesian spending to try stimulate the economy. Nevermind that Obama has said we need to make significant changes to entitlements to get our financial house in order. Nevermind that he's only 3 months into office and has to put out the fire first before he can remodel the house.

 

Don't forget ACORN will be rallying at a number of local post offices in support of Obama's spending policies and proposed and thus far unproposed tax increase, as well as infiltrating the Tea Parties to try to disrupt them. I'm sure Obama and the Dems in congress slipping them a few million in the last budget and having them work on the census have nothing to do with that.

[TimC]

Those gawd-danged Yankees have done gone and built a Waffle House on every exit on 95-North. This could take longer than I expected.

[Ursa Majoris]

So it's rallies against taxation just two weeks after the vast majority of people received a tax cut? OK, gotcha.

[Big John]

Those gawd-danged Yankees have done gone and built a Waffle House on every exit on 95-North. This could take longer than I expected.

Waffle House is headquarted in suburban Atlanta and is definitely southern.

[i_am_the_swammi]

I think this will go a long way to show the Democrats have cemented the majority of voters for a good long time.

 

+1

 

There's a difference between being a redneck, and going to rally to prove to everyone how big a redneck you really are.

[Perchoutofwater]

The million man march wasn't organized by CNN.

 

CNN gave the 1/2 million man march every bit if not more attention than Fox is giving the Tea parties. Oh and against my better judgment I read the opinion piece you quoted from the Slimes. It is exactly what I would expect from that liberal institution.

[CaP'N GRuNGe]

Those gawd-danged Yankees have done gone and built a Waffle House on every exit on 95-North. This could take longer than I expected.

 

JudasC, you're a funny guy, I'll give you that.

[CaP'N GRuNGe]

I'm tempted to attend the event here in Phoenix with a hugh sign that simply says:

 

Have to agree here!

[cre8tiff]

Waffle House is headquarted in suburban Atlanta and is definitely southern.

 

The Yanks have clearly infiltrated them thar Motherlands.

[bushwacked]

Will they have statues of Rush, Sean, Ann, and Michael Savage to worship at these rallies?

[Randall]

Harvey Kaye one of his top biographers speaks about

 

His book The Promise of America is very good.

[Perchoutofwater]

So it's rallies against taxation just two weeks after the vast majority of people received a tax cut? OK, gotcha.

 

It is a rally against out of control government spending that is vastly greater than anything we have ever seen that is sure to result in either a bankrupt government or higher taxed in the not so distant future.

[Azazello1313]

nobody minds a protest

 

people do mind people calling for a revolution

 

come on, wedgie. the left talks about revolution so much it's become

. you ever puff up and talk all tough about putting a bullet in gil scott heron's head? chuck D? bill ayers?

[Azazello1313]

pretty f'n funny to hear dems suddenly deriding "astroturfing". it's as if they've never heard of axelrod, ACORN, soros...

[bushwacked]

pretty f'n funny to hear dems suddenly deriding "astroturfing". it's as if they've never heard of axelrod, ACORN, soros...

 

Are you going to hold hands with your fellow AM listening radio buddies in Denver?

[CaP'N GRuNGe]

Will they have statues of Rush, Sean, Ann, and Michael Savage to worship at these rallies?

 

Statues? They are attending. These are media events.

[TimC]

I think we took 'em by surprise. I claim thee in thy name of the Confederacy. I am altering the agreement, pray I do not alter it further. Maryland, you shall forever and always be known as "Rushland" forever more.

[Perchoutofwater]

Obama says working families tax burden lessened.

 

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama seized the opportunity on tax-filing day to assert that his administration is easing the tax burden of working people.

 

"We have delivered real and tangible progress for the American people. I am proud to announce that my administration has lessened the tax burden on working families while also restoring some balance to the tax code," Obama said in remarks prepared for delivery Wednesday at a White House event.

 

He also planned to use the occasion to again tout the benefits — namely the tax cuts — that are a part of the $787 billion economic stimulus package. Included in that sweeping legislation was his signature two-year "Making Work Pay" tax break that the administration says affects 95 percent of working families.

 

The White House said Obama's remarks also would focus on what it called unprecedented action taken to give tax cuts to people who most need them. Obama also was to meet with several working families to mark the day — known notoriously to taxpayers as deadline day for filing tax returns — and underscore his efforts to make the tax code more fair and less complex.

 

Now if you want to restore some balance in the tax code, how bout making everyone pay the same percentage? No he doesn't want balance, he wants redistribution. We know he is spending us into oblivion, how long will it be before he has to raise taxes on everyone? What happens when Margret Thatchers words are realized and we run out of other people's money?

 

If you go to the video link on the left hand side of the linked article title "Tea Parties Attack Taxes", you will hear ABC News reporting "a Whitehouse spokesman has stated that President Obama is unaware of the tea parties and plans to make a speech regarding taxes later today."

 

Ok so either the Whitehouse is lying, out the wazoo about something they really don't need to lie about, or Obama is a clueless idiot.

[wiegie]

come on, wedgie. the left talks about revolution so much it's become

. you ever puff up and talk all tough about putting a bullet in gil scott heron's head? chuck D? bill ayers?

Talking about revolution and actually starting a revolution are two different things. I'm not going to put a bullet into anyone's head for saying anything. But if they actually physically try to start a revolution, I'm not going down without a fight.

 

I've never heard of gil scott heron and the only reason I ever heard of bill ayers was because the GOP made him famous. As for Chuck D, when he seriously tries to lead an armed revolution, I will go after him too.