The Tea Baggers must be proud of their little parties. Even though attendance has fallen far short of their expectations, they were able to get their message out thanks to their media sponsor, Fox News. Media Matters has compiled a nice little montage of videos from various Tea Vee sources:
But there was so much more. For instance, Joe the (fake) Plumber had this to say at a Michigan TP:
“Let me give you another extremist view, ‘In God We Trust.’ Say that too loud in some parts of America and you will be shot. It’s terrible.”
Joey the P didn’t bother to specify what part of the country that would be. I can’t think of any place where militant atheists are knocking off folks who quote from currency. However, I can think of whole regions (I’m looking at you southerners) where fanatical gun enthusiasts revel in making violent threats directed at liberals, minorities, or anyone they view as different. Amongst those southerners is Texas governor Rick Perry, whose tea party address sounded more like a call for a new Confederacy:
“We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that.”
If Texas wants out of America, I say let them go – and take the rest of the south with them. I’m sure they’ll be very happy in their theocratic utopia, railing against imagined threats of Socialism – or worse, as Cody Willard from Fox Business News demonstrates by urging us to fight the Fascism that’s permeating the country:
Glenn Beck’s Acute Paranoia Revue took to the road to host the Alamo’s tea fest. The entire hour featured musical accompaniment from the Motor City Jackass, Ted Nugent, who famously taunted Hillary Clinton, Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, and Barack Obama to “suck on” the end of his assault rifle.
Neil Cavuto attended a lame rally in Sacramento, CA, where he interviewed a girl who appeared to be about nine years old. He tried valiantly to put words in her mouth to the effect that she was there as a committed protester, not because her parents made her be there. But she defiantly refused and, at the end of the segment, she shouted at him that she was really there because she got to cut school. Nice try, Neil.
Cavuto and Beck devoted two full hours of live programming to the Tea Bagging. That’s a huge chunk of broadcast real estate. And it isn’t over. Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Greta Van Susteren have yet to air. Hannity and Van Susteren previously announced that their programs would be live with the TPers.
I’m sure there are going to be an untold bounty of both comical and disturbing episodes erupting in the hours and days to come. But these were a few that I didn’t want to let get away. Fox News will begin spinning the days events into a fantastical misrepresentation of reality this evening. At least the truth about Fox’s role as the PR agency for the Republican Party (and the Tea Party) is becoming better understood by more people. Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has summoned the courage to honestly portray today’s events:
“[W]e call call it astroturf, it’s not really a grassroots movement. It’s astroturf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class.”
That’s it in a wingnut shell.
I suppose we’ll be eating cake, Nancy?
I think you mean Georgie…
Bush and McCain partying while New Orleans drowned.
I’d love the video of Cavuto and the little girl.
Me too. I looked for it on YouTube for several days after the Tea Party, but couldn’t find it. The girls was great because she was so defiant.
Many tea party people don’t like republicans at all. I’m tired of the liberal media trying to portray us all as republican nuts. Democrats want you to think we’re republicans. Republicans want you to think we’re republicans. Really we’re just people that believe in the constitution and are sick of never ending government debt. I don’t own a gun, I don’t believe in any religion, I just don’t want to work four months of the year to pay taxes that just go to banks that are ripping us off! We are in debt to banks and they have tricked us into thinking we can borrow more money to pay that debt. So somebody please explain how you can get out of debt by borrowing more money? I’m dying to know. And don’t say oh well jobs will increase because of the spending and then we’ll pay that debt because it’s not going to happen. All manufacturing will be done in China as it is now. We may see some office jobs and green jobs but not enough to offset all the jobs we lose to other countries. The only way I believe we can get out of debt is to start exporting more than we import or stop almost all trading with other countries and keep our dollars circulating here.
I am happy to offer you an apology for calling you a Republican. I know that not all of the tea partiers were. But probably a majority were and, as you say, the Repubs wanted to brand the events as their own. Fox News went so far as to broadcast promos that said “FNC Tax Day Tea Parties.” So you may have been unfairly swept up in that.
As for getting out of debt, you preemptively constrained me from answering the question, but I’m going to anyway. Despite your protestation, you can get out of debt by borrowing. Businesses do it everyday. It’s called raising capital. What’s more, creating jobs is a proven way for governments to get revenue. If you put people to work you create taxpayers who did not used to be.
That said, there are no easy answers for the problems we face now. They are nearly unprecedented in their scope. So every solution is going to be painful.
Well I admit your idea would work but I think there are a few reasons why it won’t. First I don’t think enough jobs will be generated I could be wrong on that and hope I am. Second the final version of the Recovery and Stabilization act didn’t include E verify which means many construction companies will be hiring illegal workers not citizens. Third the government needs to stop spending so fast, I mean I just have a feeling if the tax base was bigger the Government would just use it as leverage to borrow even more. We need to change our attitude about credit in this country as a people and realize it is not OK to be in debt. You don’t need that three story house with a Plasma TV and two 40,000 dollar cars just because your buddy has it. Big business had us spending what we didn’t have it was a fake bubble which means the economy will never be as good as we imagined it was and we need to change the way we live. Like you said it will be painful. Stop consuming and start producing! It just seems to me as though our government is controlled by the Federal Reserve bank who have a vested interest in war (republicans) and also endless government programs (democrats) because it forces us to borrow at interest. The income tax was invented to secure this debt. We never used to have it. The Fed Reserve is a legalized banking cartel that bribed politicians to give up the right to coin our own money under the guise of not having any more depressions. Well I think the Fed Reserve has failed and we need real change!
I can’t say that I agree with everything you say here, but I appreciate your fairness in spreading the blame around. Washington is an equal opportunity den of corruption. I’ll just make two quick points.
1) The problem with immigration is that our neighbors are too poor and our domestic employers are too greedy. If there were real enforcement on hiring of undocumented workers, the immigration problem would go away. It is just plain foolish to direct the legal measures at the desperate people who are coming here for work. If there were no jobs, they wouldn’t come. Now, I don’t think E-Verify would effectively work to that end. We would need stiff penalties against the employers. Also, undocumented workers contribute more to the tax base than they consume, but that’s another debate.
2) There is nothing wrong with debt. The problem is too much debt. I always thought it was funny when Republicans say the government should be run like a business. Well, all businesses carry debt. That is how they finance growth. But don’t tell that to a Republican. And there is a big difference between a family budget and a business budget. They have completely different goals. Families are not trying to expand the distribution of anything. They are not trying to gain market share. They don’t need to acquire other families or bankroll research.