Finally someone gets us!

Great article from, of all places, the center-left magazine Slate. Just amazing, and really refreshing...
Five Myths About the Tea Party
Where'd they come from? Are they as racist as people say?
By David Weigel

The grass-roots conservative activists who march under the "Don't tread on me" Gadsen flag and the Tea Party label have put a new twist on Gandhi's maxim: First they were ignored; then they were ridiculed; then they began to fight. They battled health-care reform and then the Republican establishment, which became angry about the less-than-seasoned candidates it was suddenly saddled with.

Yahoo! Buzz Facebook Digg RedditStumbleUponCLOSEIn short order, a movement that few people took seriously has become the most obsessed-over and overanalyzed political backlash since the 1960s. And as long as both parties are grappling with it and publishers are putting out Tea Party books every month, it's worth busting a few myths about the movement.

The Tea Party isn't a reaction to President Obama, it's a reaction to the bank bailouts.
There are some kernels of truth here. The first modern Tea Party events occurred in December 2007, long before Barack Obama took office, and they were organized by supporters of Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, to raise money for his long-shot presidential bid. They received the respectful, hey-look-at-that coverage sometimes given a candidate flipping pancakes at a church social.

Advertisement

Some of the people recognized as leaders of the Tea Party movement, such as FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey, have loudly condemned the 2008 financial-sector rescue package. And several members of Congress, such as Sen. Bob Bennett (Utah), have been unable to survive their TARP votes when facing GOP primary voters.

Here's the thing, though: The tea parties were kicked off by CNBC reporter Rick Santelli's rant about, of all things, Obama's Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan, an effort to lessen the damage to people who'd taken out mortgages they couldn't afford. And it picked up steam when conservative groups fired up activists about energy and health-care legislation—the Obama agenda, not a last-ditch conservative plan to rescue the banking industry. If you think the tea party would have risen up to oppose a Republican president who spent like mad and violated conservative principles, then where was it in the Bush years?

The Tea Party is racist.
It's a phenomenon that some activists call "nutpicking"—send a cameraman into a protest and he'll focus on the craziest sign. Yes, there are racists in the Tea Party, and they make themselves known. But Tea Party activists usually root them out. Texas activist Dale Robertson, who held a sign likening taxpayers to a racial epithet at a 2009 rally, was drummed out of that event and pilloried by his peers. Mark Williams, formerly the bomb-throwing spokesman for the Tea Party Express (he once told me he wanted to send the liberal watchdog group Media Matters "a case of champagne" for calling him racist), was booted after penning a parody that had the NAACP pining for slavery.

Liberal critics of the tea party argue that conservative opposition to social spending is often racially motivated. That's not new, though, and it's not the basis for the tea party.

Sarah Palin is the leader of the Tea Party.
After she and John McCain lost the 2008 election, and after eight unhappy months back at work governing Alaska, Sarah Palin took her time to re-enter politics. She spent the last half of 2009 writing Facebook posts that, for all the attention they got, mostly praised the work of people such as Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. It wasn't until this past February, at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, that Palin picked up the movement's banner. Her credentials aren't ideal: Tea Partiers unanimously agree that the TARP was what turned America's decline into a freefall; as a vice presidential candidate, Palin backed the TARP. But she showed plenty of political savvy and hitched herself to the movement, and reporters, eager to find a party politics angle to the Tea Party story—and knowing that Palin's name brings traffic to news Web sites—anointed her.

Palin has more devoted fans than any other Republican politician, but according to an April New York Times/CBS News poll, only 40 percent of self-identified Tea Party activists think she would be an "effective chief executive." They'd like to be leaderless for now, thank you very much. But the Tea Party Nation, which planned the Nashville event, and the Tea Party Express, which invited the former governor to rallies in Nevada and Massachusetts, knew they could get media to show up if Palin came along, and they won't forget that lesson.
The Tea Party hurts the GOP
Sen. Lindsey Graham predicted recently that the tea party movement will "die out." Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C., who lost his primary race to a Tea Party-backed candidate, has made the media rounds to accuse the movement and some of its heroes, such as Glenn Beck, of poisoning politics. There is no shortage of Republican grumbling about the primary wins of Tea Partiers Sharron Angle in Nevada and Rand Paul in Kentucky, two Senate candidates who are being hammered by Democrats for their anti-big-government rhetoric. Democrats are doing their best to make Republicans answer for it when tea party activists pledge to dismantle Social Security or the Environmental Protection Agency.

But in every political cycle there are "bad" candidates who say the wrong things—and with the right electorate, they still win. The Tea Party movement is giving Republicans a dream of an electorate, one in which surveys find more GOP-inclined voters enthusiastic about casting ballots than voters who lean Democratic. Democrats have done some damage to the Tea Party brand—its favorability has fallen in polls—but in general, the presence of a new political force that is not called Republican and is not tied to George W. Bush has given the GOP a glorious opportunity to remake its image, at a time when trust in the party is very low. Some liberals deride the Tea Party as a new bottle for old Republican wine. But rebranding works. (Even Coca-Cola eventually benefited from the publicity of New Coke.)

The Tea Party will transform American politics.
Here, Sen. Graham has history on his side. A popular, and correct, aphorism about grass-roots movements is that they act like bees—they sting, then they die. Third parties fold into major parties, like the 19th century Populists did with the Democrats.

The Tea Party is unlikely to even reach third-party status, because the vast majority of its members—up to 79 percent, in some polls—identify as Republicans and are savvy enough not to take actions that would help Democrats. (Liberals only wish that Ralph Nader thought like this.) The movement's big innovations, such as fast organizing, are mostly technological, inspired by and improving on Obama's 2008 campaign. Their demands are really the same ones that conservative Republicans were making after Obama won, and that Rush Limbaugh and most GOP lawmakers were already making, too.

So the Tea Party will succeed, if it hasn't already, in making one of America's political parties more devoted to supply-side, pro-war-on-terror, anti-spending principles. But it was pushing on an open door.

Get ready everyone...

This year the tea party rallies will be much different. Last year the media blackout (outside of Fox News) of it up until the day it happened was so blantant because they just couldn't believe how many people turned on a president they helped elect, in such a short time. Now they see us as a real "threat" sometimes to the point of insanity. Folks there WILL BE liberals/anarchists there trying to cause violence and controversy. We HAVE to be like Ghandi, I know if you get struck or threatened the natural reaction is to fight back. PLEASE be calm and respectful to all of the idiots out there, the police will take care of any trouble makers. Make sure to have cameras and videocameras ready because this will be very important. Today will probably make or break this movement, we either become a national force or get relegated to kook status. Yes folks, the stakes are that high and because I have a lot more political experience than probably 90-95% of you in this movement (not a bad thing by the way, always glad to have more people participate in the political process) and am a political science major at the U, we have to come across as the bigger people tomorrow. People are scared, otherwise why would they try to crash the tea party and make us look like morons? If we were as dumb as they say we are they wouldn't need to do that, we would self-destruct. The fact that they HAVE to do this means we are a credible force in politics today and the left is scared shitless by this prospect. Here is an article to help prepare you for what is to come at the rally in St.Paul and around the country today. Here is an article from the Jawa Report

From Anarchist' R Us

On April 15th thousands of right-wingers will attend rallies in cities and towns across the United States. The organizers of this nationwide day of protest call it a tea party. This tea party movement that emerged only a year ago is a coalition of conservatives, anti-Semites, fascists, libertarians, racists, constitutionalists, militia men, gun freaks, homophobes, Ron Paul supporters, Alex Jones conspiracy types and American flag wavers.[...]

1. Organize counter-protests against the tea party demonstrations, same time, same place. This is probably the best option. We need to get in the streets on April 15th and show the tea party movement that there are lots of people out there who oppose their agenda.

2. Get individual tea party protesters to leave the right-wing and move to the left politically.[lol] That would involve passing out stuff like this at the tea party demonstrations: http://www.anarchist-studies.org/node/299

3. Ignore the tea party movement. This is the worst option because without anyone opposing them they could easily gain power.

Some good articles critical of the tea party movement:

* http://www.anarkismo.net/article/16198
* http://www.truthout.org/william-j-astore-a-very-american-coup-coming-soon-a-hometown-near-you56201

Tea party websites, so you can spy on them:

* http://taxdayteaparty.com/
* http://www.teapartypatriots.org/
* http://www.reteaparty.com/
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_protests

Follow them at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Overland-Park-KS/Infoshoporg/29303624400
http://twitter.com/InfoshopDotOrg

Be careful everyone...

This is what happens when something successful happens to a group that is right of center, politically, in this country. Crash the Tea Party.org has a website up and it has a discussion feed. It also states on the front page:


Once again everyone BE CAREFUL! And anyone holding racist signs and misspelled signs try to ignore them or point out that they are an infiltrator. Not sure how we could remove them peacefully but we will find a way.

Even Democratic pollsters are seeing the writing on the wall

When your own party's pollsters wake up and smell the rage of the American public you know the only people still left drinking the Obamacare kool-aid are the DialyKos Cockkasses (yes I am very well aware of what I just said). This is amazing. From Washington Post

In "The March of Folly," Barbara Tuchman asked, "Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests?" Her assessment of self-deception -- "acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts" -- captures the conditions that are gripping President Obama and the Democratic Party leadership as they renew their efforts to enact health-care reform.

Their blind persistence in the face of reality threatens to turn this political march of folly into an electoral rout in November. In the wake of the stinging loss in Massachusetts, there was a moment when the president and the Democratic leadership seemed to realize the reality of the health-care situation. Yet like some seductive siren of Greek mythology, the lure of health-care reform has arisen again.

As pollsters to the past two Democratic presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, respectively, we feel compelled to challenge the myths that seem to be prevailing in the political discourse and to once again urge a change in course before it is too late. At stake is the kind of mainstream, common-sense Democratic Party that we believe is crucial to the success of the American enterprise.

Bluntly put, this is the political reality:

First, the battle for public opinion has been lost. Comprehensive health care has been lost. If it fails, as appears possible, Democrats will face the brunt of the electorate's reaction. If it passes, however, Democrats will face a far greater calamitous reaction at the polls. Wishing, praying or pretending will not change these outcomes.

Nothing has been more disconcerting than to watch Democratic politicians and their media supporters deceive themselves into believing that the public favors the Democrats' current health-care plan. Yes, most Americans believe, as we do, that real health-care reform is needed. And yes, certain proposals in the plan are supported by the public.

However, a solid majority of Americans opposes the massive health-reform plan. Four-fifths of those who oppose the plan strongly oppose it, according to Rasmussen polling this week, while only half of those who support the plan do so strongly. Many more Americans believe the legislation will worsen their health care, cost them more personally and add significantly to the national deficit. Never in our experience as pollsters can we recall such self-deluding misconstruction of survey data.

The White House document released Thursday arguing that reform is becoming more popular is in large part fighting the last war. This isn't 1994; it's 2010. And the bottom line is that the American public is overwhelmingly against this bill in its totality even if they like some of its parts.

The notion that once enactment is forced, the public will suddenly embrace health-care reform could not be further from the truth -- and is likely to become a rallying cry for disaffected Republicans, independents and, yes, Democrats.

Second, the country is moving away from big government, with distrust growing more generally toward the role of government in our lives. Scott Rasmussen asked last month whose decisions people feared more in health care: that of the federal government or of insurance companies. By 51 percent to 39 percent, respondents feared the decisions of federal government more. This is astounding given the generally negative perception of insurance companies.

CNN found last month that 56 percent of Americans believe that the government has become so powerful it constitutes an immediate threat to the freedom and rights of citizens. When only 21 percent of Americans say that Washington operates with the consent of the governed, as was also reported last month, we face an alarming crisis.

Health care is no longer a debate about the merits of specific initiatives. Since the spectacle of Christmas dealmaking to ensure passage of the Senate bill, the issue, in voters' minds, has become less about health care than about the government and a political majority that will neither hear nor heed the will of the people.

Voters are hardly enthralled with the GOP, but the Democrats are pursuing policies that are out of step with the way ordinary Americans think and feel about politics and government. Barring some change of approach, they will be punished severely at the polls.

Now, we vigorously opposed Republican efforts in the Bush administration to employ the "nuclear option" in judicial confirmations. We are similarly concerned by Democrats' efforts to manipulate passage of a health-care bill. Doing so in the face of constant majority opposition invites a backlash against the party at every level -- and at a time when it already faces the prospect of losing 30 or more House seats and eight or more Senate seats.

For Democrats to begin turning around their political fortunes there has to be a frank acknowledgement that the comprehensive health-care initiative is a failure, regardless of whether it passes. There are enough Republican and Democratic proposals -- such as purchasing insurance across state lines, malpractice reform, incrementally increasing coverage, initiatives to hold down costs, covering preexisting conditions and ensuring portability -- that can win bipartisan support. It is not a question of starting over but of taking the best of both parties and presenting that as representative of what we need to do to achieve meaningful reform. Such a proposal could even become a template for the central agenda items for the American people: jobs and economic development.

Unless the Democrats fundamentally change their approach, they will produce not just a march of folly but also run the risk of unmitigated disaster in November.

Why the TEA party movement shouldn't support JD Hayworth...

Look I know I am probably going to get a lot of flak for this but I don't care. First off for those of you who say "But Marco Rubio is challenging Charlie Crist in a primary why can't Hayworth challenge McCain?" Well, for starters the Rubio-Crist (Rubio is kicking major ass in latest polling by the tune of 2-1 literally or 60-28) is an open Senate seat in Florida, it is good that there is a primary there. It helps our party fight it out and clean house. But Hayworth is running a spiteful campaign against McCain who may not be a perfect conservative but is better than most, and if Hayworth were to knock off McCain in a primary (he most likely won't) McCain would probably run as an independent (think Ned LaMont knocking off Liberman in the Dem primary back in 2006) and could split the vote enough to give the election to the Democratic candidate. In the name of purity would you rather have that seat flip folks? For those of you who say yes go join a kook third party because that is an insane idea. It doesn't play well with the American public. Plus while I know McCain is no saint Hayworth has A LOT more baggage; don't believe me? Check out Wikipedia and other sources to check his background.
Between 1999 and 2005, Hayworth received $69,000 from lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his clients, primarily from Indian tribes. $62,000 of the money went to TEAM PAC.[14] After Abramoff was convicted of defrauding the tribes, Hayworth decided to keep the donations.
Gee, no chance the Dems would seize on that would they? Remember the whole Abramoff mess is what cost us control of the House back in 2006, why remind people about it? Also read this about his District that kicked him out of Congress back in 2006
Several prominent local Republicans also crossed the aisle to endorse Harry Mitchell in the race, including many former GOP elected office holders.[22] This defection of Republicans had a significant impact on the result of the general election: CD-5, despite having a 60% Republican active registered voter advantage over Democrats (139,057 vs 86,743 in October 2006)[23], nevertheless voted in favor of the Democrat Mitchell.
So he had a 60-40 edge in his party's favor and STILL LOST THE FREAKING HOUSE SEAT. This man is scum and the sooner people bail on him the better. Anyone in Arizona, hold your nose and vote for McCain in August, we don't need Hayworth running again

wow... nearly 6 months...

I wonder if I still have any followers, probably not but I will be updating this site over the next week in preperation for the 2nd annual Tax Day TEA Party protest. It is only 5 1/2 weeks away so get ready everyone!

School kids taught to praise Obama

creepy video, why we need to continue this movement.