DISQUS

AMERICAblog: My take on the teabaggers: Very white, older and very, very angry

  • Indigo · 3 months ago
    Teabaggers I know also tell n-word jokes, express anti-Semitic sentiments, talk loudly about how well their "portfolios" are doing, and the computer literate among them are habitual spammers. They're not well-behaved white folks who are feeling excluded from the process, they're foul-mouthed social transgressives who slink around the edges of society, even when they drive Mercedes and practice phamaceutical medicine.
  • devlzadvocate · 3 months ago
    You must know my family.
  • An_American_Karol · 3 months ago
    Most of the teabaggers couldn't afford the insurance on a Mercedes. Now, those using the teabaggers to push their agenda? That's another story.
  • ndtovent · 3 months ago
    "they're foul-mouthed social transgressives who slink around the edges of society, even when they drive Mercedes and practice phamaceutical medicine."

    Your description is sooo dead on.... That's exactly what they're like.
  • Bubbles · 3 months ago
    The anger comes from conservative talk show media.

    They specialize in one thing, stoking Anger.

    My father works as a greeter for Wallmart. He also suffers from dementia - however he is functional (not Alzheimer's). When he's home working out in his shop, he listens to conservative radio. When he comes home from work he watches Fox news. When he takes his break at work he likes to go out to his car and listen to conservative radio.

    My mother told me, this man, my father, who once had a brilliant and creative and very reasonable mind, who has been gentle and kind all of his life is starting to turn into a mean person. He's angry much of the time. Because he's got dimensia, he doesn't even know why he's angry.

    A man who has lived a life time of good, is going to go out mean, angry, hateful of what he can't even remember or identify.

    This is part of the price that the Right is willing to pay to keep their movement alive.

    The right needs numbers. They'll take them from anywhere: southern racist, old people who are losing their faculties, and younger idiots that never had them.

    Behind the right is corporate money and organization. They know what they are doing to the country, they just don't care. They lust for money. They are like the guy that kid napped the girl and kept her hidden for a decade and a half. Right or wrong or whatever, it served his lust.

    The right then, is a profound immorality in our country in our time. Let us then so bare our selves in this struggle, that if the Republic stands another 1000 years, (secessionist not withstanding), future generations will look back and realize that this was the hour where America found its goodness in its character.




    .
  • cwyatthouston · 3 months ago
    Same thing with my dad. He was the biggest-hearted, most generous and loving man...until he began listening to Rush Limbaugh. Part of my fury with the right-wing noise machine has to do with the toll that their hateful spew has had on my family. My dad has become a bitter, distrustful, angry, scared old man, and I blame Rush.
  • PLUTim · 3 months ago
    Similar thing with my pops...

    My dad has always been pretty much a bigot but one that usually voted Democrat.

    Four or five ears ago he got mezmorized by the Megyn Kelly's and Jill (I think) Skinners on fox. Not to mention the many very attractive female "guests" that they always have on. Now, he's a full blow wingnut that burned his American Flag on November 4th. Yes, I explained to him that people like President Obama are the ones who allow him to do that with the flag and that if the wingnuts he's now supporting had their way, he'd be thrown in prison for doing that. He doesn't care.

    So what started as eye candy news for my dad has evolved him into a full blown Hannity lover. I can barely stand being around him.
  • robertarhodes · 3 months ago
    I'm so sorry about your Dad.

    You could be talking about my Mom. The same thing happened with her. Fox News turned my funny Mom into a hate spewing anger machine - or at least that's where she focused most of her t.v. watching time. She actually kept wishing that someone would shoot Bill Clinton.

    fox news and glen beck need to be stopped. glen beck is the messiah of these lost souls and fox news is his mouthpiece. The vitriol they spew is on 24/7 with no filter.

    How many other mothers and fathers are they turning into angry, hateful people?
  • Bubbles · 3 months ago
    Thanks for your concerned. I am also sorry about your mom.

    Seems like these people should be focusing on joy and peace at the end of their lives. Instead they are being enlisted, or drafted into the rights army of hate.

    This is quite despicable.

    This looks like low hanging fruit for a doctoral dissertation for some scholar working on PhD in Poli Sci.

    I once worked at Enterprise Rent-A-Car as a systems designer. They decided to resuscitate their moribund car leasing division. The brought in some of their best sales talent to help me design a system to support their sales effort. One of them told me, "in the final analysis, ever 'buy' decision comes down to an emotion." Before that emotional switch is flicked, you give away the store, after you give the customer nothing more, and try to chisel some things back.

    Anger and hatred are the low hanging emotional fruit that Conservative Media use to enlist lackeys. Just like the con-man calling your parents and wanting to sell them land down in Florida, or some other scheme, with age goes people's critical reasoning skills, the ability to filter out nonsense and make good judgment.

    They are the low hanging fruit. The suckers Fox is realing. They'd like to real in others - but most 'others' have reasoning skills that tell them Fox is nonesense.

    I imagine, if the Republicans had their way, and did away with Medicare and Social Security and totally impoverished the elderly, they wouldn't have any advertisers because their core audience would have no spending power.

    That's another thing for another day... the fact that my parents rely on Social Security and Medicare and still vote Republican.
  • Liberpassion · 3 months ago
    Wow...someone needs to explore and study this phenomenon.
    Former Dems...sliding into a RightWing created frenzy as they grow older.
    Good Lord...We need that Fairness Doctrine back.
    That's the only answer to this extreme mind control!
  • Mum48 · 3 months ago
    I'm a lifelong liberal, and I can't imagine that as I'm getting older I would become more conservative. The things I value and the ideals I try to uphold and promote are too deeply ingrained to change. That being said, I have taken care of and been close to older people throughout my life and with very few exceptions (my own grandmother being one of them), they tend to become more fearful and anxious as they age, and this spills over into their concerns about their finances and their health - the whole "who will take care of me" question. The world is changing so fast. Think of how much it has changed in the past 10 years alone. That can be pretty frightening for someone who grew up and worked and raised a family during a time of significantly more stability. The status quo, the devil you know, the way things used to be - it can all be pretty appealing. And when people who already live in fear that it is all going to be taken away are exposed to people who are telling them that that is exactly what their government is going to do . . . . well, let's say I'm not surprised.
  • Bubbles · 3 months ago
    Well, my father was never a liberal or a democrat. But he was very reasonable and open minded. Even though he was both republican and conservative, he never thought his views were the end all and be all.

    I think the fairness doctrine would be prudent. But the problem is, it's not in fitting with the constitution, especially in regards to cable.
  • onlinesavant · 3 months ago
    Actually, it is fitting with the constitution. That's why it lasted for so long before reagan ended it by executive order. Obviously, there were legal challenges to it before then that did not stand. Think about it. They ARE the public airwaves (Not cable.). It would be logical that a diversity of views would be required to be aired.
  • Bubbles · 3 months ago
    I did a quick google on it and found this little piece:

    http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Report:_new_Fairness_...

    Apparently, the fairness doctrine was constitutionally based upon the fact that air waves are finite publicly owned thing, and the public has a right to hear multiple points of view, therefore the fairness doctrine was a valid restriction on 1st Amend free speech rights. The contra arguement is that, thanks to cable (which is not publicly owned), the finite element is no longer true, thus fairness doctrine would not be applicable.

    Because the fairness doctrine regulates free speech, a core and fundamental right, it is subject to strict scrutiny by the Supreme Court. For a law that regulates a fundamental right to be valid it must: (1) be justified by a compelling governmental interest; (2) must be narrowly tailored to achieve that goal or interest and (3) the law or policy must be the least restrictive means for achieving that interest.

    In cases of strict scrutiny (and for that matter, intermediate scrutiny) the law is almost always knocked down.

    This is why, I think, many feel it wouldn't survive a Supreme Court ruling. In light of the current court, I don't think such allow would survive.

    However, I think it can be argued that there is a very compelling interest here: responsible public debate, giving birth to sound responsible policy. The state won't survive irresponsible policy for long. There's your compelling interest.

    Also the current tenor has made speech making a threat to the peace and irresponsible broadcasters are a public and private menace, as state above in this thread on this blog.
  • bob915 · 3 months ago
    Bravo---well posted Bub----I was in Nawlins over the past weekend doing some recovery construction, and there was a tv on in the bar near the spot where I was staying. Alas, it was on Cluster Fox: but not for long brothers and sisters. Some small group of younger men and women, dirty and thirsty like me, came in, and bought their rounds, bought us all a round, and tole the 'tender to kindly change to a different channel. I was shocked, surprised, and delighted to see the woman actually flip the changer without complaint. I asked her a little later if the tv was always on Faux----she said no, just a little bit at a time so the regulars could have their half hour of jollies, then they could get back to reality. From my keyboard to G-d's ears
  • Dave of the Jungle · 3 months ago
    The biggest mouths are wired to the tiniest brains.
  • RainbowPhoenix · 3 months ago
    I'm stealing that.
  • Dave of the Jungle · 3 months ago
    You're entirely welcome to do so.
  • SusieQ · 3 months ago
    Dave, may I please steal it too?
  • GH · 3 months ago
    The overspending?

    Boy. That's a conclusion.

    That "overspending" seems to have brought the economy back from the brink.

    It certainly provided my son in law assistance paying the amazingly high 100% cost of his COBRA health insurance after he was laid off.

    As to overspending, you didn't see a "conservative" march on Washington to protest "overspending" when Bush was President. When Clinton was President and the deficit was actually declining, the "fiscal conservatives" took down the "National Debt Clock" because they couldn't stand to see it run backwards under a, gasp, Democrat.
  • nancy50 · 3 months ago
    Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy cost 2.5 trillion dollars over the decade. That's more than healthcare will cost.

    Of course the repugs have selected memory on those types of issues.
  • Satori · 3 months ago
    I think the tax cuts resulted in a net gain in revenues, according to the IRS. Fairly sure of this.
  • onlinesavant · 3 months ago
    Where's your proof? Anecdotes please. Beyond this illogical equation that you suggest, (Revenue was taken OUT of the federal budget. Where was the gain in revenues? If you you suggest it was in economic growth, I will dispute that as if that were the case, we would NOT be in the economic situation we are in.) medicare part d will cost 8 trillion dollars over 10 years, without being paid for, and the Iraqi occupation obviously has cost over a trillion dollars.Along with the Bush requested TARP bailout of 750 billion dollars.To iterate Nancy's question, "Where was the outrage then?"
  • Mum48 · 3 months ago
    Citation? The only places that have even tried to suggest that the Bush tax cuts benefited anyone besides the rich are libertarian and conservative websites. And any attempt to attribute revenue gains to tax cuts alone is an exercise in futility, as any economist would tell us.

    I offer this as rebuttal:
    http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=165
    http://www.factcheck.org/taxes/supply-side_spin...
  • offspring · 3 months ago
    First off lets be honest they are in no way not one way protesting the health program, the signs and shouts tell you exactly what is going on, they want their america back, the gays dead or silent, the blacks selling crack and shooting eachother and staying out of control, and the church ruling all. I in no way liked bush, but his people wouldnt have tolerated this shit, seriously people are bringing GUNS and hilter signs and revolution now crap!! This is about a group losing power and being thugs cause that is all they can do. Granted devils advocate here, we did some stupid shit during bush, but in no way none was it close to the violent undertone of these people, they are outright crying and screaming for some nut to shoot obama we all know it but never say it, they are trying to get someone to kill that man, it is becoming a religous duty to them. You cannot use logic with them, they will do violence. The only way to stop them is to take them off the planet but that wont happen. We all know in our minds and hearts they will not stop till obama is dead and then they will sit back and go gee we didnt cause that, the sad fact is i will be surprised if he makes it another year, these people celebrate a man going into a church and killing in front of childeren a man who was a doctor, they celebrate him, what do you think some old white guy isolated and left feeling powerless is seeing? He is seeing meaning if he does something similar.
  • brian · 3 months ago
    Reagan, Bush Sr and Bush Jr ran up enormous debt, but I did not hear any of these people worried about it. Being against the Iraq war was grounds for being called a traitor. Giving healthcare to all Americans is somehow equivalent. Under Bush Jr we got a $5 trillion debt and he basically did nothing for the people, except give them a tax cut that never paid for itself. No one is for debt, but spending money on Americans is a better cause than war. These people have lost their humanity and watching the press coverage of people who do not know what Communism, Socialism and Fascism are on a political scale just goes to prove that these people are just plain stupid.
  • offspring · 3 months ago
    oh i agree with you, it is odd the people that are protesting are the type that liked fascism
  • RainbowPhoenix · 3 months ago
    But it's only fascism when we do it. When they do it it's just the good ol' American way. *gag*
  • Chris From Maine · 3 months ago
    I saw at least 2 different signs from the teabaggers on various websites that said :

    "we came unarmed THIS TIME".

    that scares the crap out of me.
  • An_American_Karol · 3 months ago
    Not me, Chris. My money is on the Pentagon and our armed forces.
    The teabagger's leaders (Limbaugh and Beck) would hide under the bed like three year old girls.
  • Chris From Maine · 3 months ago
    actually I was referring to something like JFK/MLK/RFK happening, not some kind of war.

    Like I've said, all it takes is one.
  • leliorisen · 3 months ago
    If the Teabaggers really want to have an event that the media would avidly cover, I propose they host a fundraising ball in the winter, and another in the summer.

    I would think their loyal followers would have no problem swallowing a pair of balls a year.
  • 1970cs · 3 months ago
    Put 20 Tea Baggers in a group and ask them to discuss why they are in Washington, within 5 minutes they would be at each others throats.
  • devlzadvocate · 3 months ago
    Imagine being on one of those busses for a two-day ride back home.

    Walmart on a bus.
  • 1970cs · 3 months ago
    If Obama was the vindictive type, he would set up immigration checkpoints at the truck Weigh Stations in Maryland and Virginia and s-l-o-w-l-y check every bus occupant for proof of citizenship.
  • devlzadvocate · 3 months ago
    Absolutely . . . and check to ensure no dentures were stolen from DC.
  • Satori · 3 months ago
    I wonder who the officers would rather be busting - - a bunch of law-abiding geriatrics riding on a Trailways bus, or Acorn employees setting up child prostitution brothels?
  • robertarhodes · 3 months ago
    You are a sad, sorry individual.

    It must be very difficult being you. Living with that kind of anger and denial really isn't healthy.

    A black man is the democratically elected President of the United States of America and no amount of yelling, screaming or posturing is going to change that for, at least, three more years.
  • Satori · 3 months ago
    To whom are you speaking, Robert? I am neither angry nor delusional about the fact that a black man was lawfully elected. I came very close to voting for him myself, as a protest. It didn't seem so strange to me - - I have had black friends all my life, some of them very close to me. For you to react to my comments so absurdly suggests you might be somewhat confused. Are you sure you realize that you won? Do you hate white people?
  • Gridlock · 3 months ago
    "I have black friends, BUT..."
  • Satori · 3 months ago
    Wow. You nailed me, Gridlock. I slink away in shame. I only sort of like black people, I guess. That's what I meant to say.
  • Mum48 · 3 months ago
    Acorn employees were and are not "setting up child prostitution brothels." Generalizations and distortion - is that all you have?
  • nicho · 3 months ago
    White, older and angry. Joe, you forgot "crazy." As Bubbles noted below, otherwise normal people have been turned into lunatics by a constant exposure to the crazies on the cable chatter channels.

    My family, too, has been affected. My sister wants to cut public spending, despite the fact she works for the city and it would mean her job. She hates unions, despite the fact the union saved her job. She hates the idea of "government-run health care," despite the fact my brother in law is on Medicare. She is opposed to "the gays," despite the fact that two of her best friends are lesbians.

    In short, she has become detached from reality. In her house, Fox goes on when they get up and goes off when they go to bed - with only an interruption for Rush.

    The country has gone nuts -- and the Democrats aren't a whole lot saner than the Republicans.
  • focofundido · 3 months ago
    I went running at the Mall today and have never seen so many pasty, overweight and hermit-like people. I was barely at my first garbage can when I spotted a discarded sign claiming the President and Congress were conspiring to turn the US over to Islam (on the back were the words "KENYA BORN"). And yes, I saw an old hag carrying an "Bury Obamacare With Kennedy" sign. They were all just a mix of hags, crazy cat women, and overweight and angry-looking fat men.
  • Mum48 · 3 months ago
    Hey, there! Careful with the crazy cat woman slams. I'm a woman with five cats, and I'm often called crazy (in a good way). Please don't confuse me with the ignorant lunatics that populate the teabagger/birther brigades.
  • Wesinoregon · 3 months ago
    You will find that their tactics are VERY NAZI inspired. They are doing exactly what the brown shirts in Germany did to anyone who opposed them.
  • devlzadvocate · 3 months ago
    We had Douchebaggers protesting against the diabolical Barack Obama in our neighborhood, too. Guess they didn't have bus money. So, I drove real close to curb and snapped their pictures with my phone camera, then flipped them the bird. They were not happy, but I was smilin'!
  • buckguy · 3 months ago
    The DC Fire Dept estimated 60-70K. That's about 2-3x the size of a large professional gathering like American Public Helath Assn. In otherwords, it doesn't make for a huge impact. When DC hosts a big meeting, it also hosts a lot of little ones, too.

    There was a guy with a "Say No to Govt Health Care" who was returning to his car near my home. He was probably 60+ and it begged the question of "why not start with Medicare?". He jumped into a gas hog with tags from a state that gets more from federal taxes than it pasy in.
  • nicho · 3 months ago
    Interesting that when there anti-war protests, the DC officials claimed they didn't make crowd estimates any more. Now, they do. Hmmmmm!
  • An_American_Karol · 3 months ago
    Any of the red states.
  • 1970cs · 3 months ago
    Alaska?
  • Bladeflyr · 3 months ago
    Thanks Joe, for the eye witness observation.
    I'm just tired and bored with these 27%ers.
    Although I respect their 1st amendment right to whine-
    "I'm Scared!". Frightened children fear change...
  • devlzadvocate · 3 months ago
    It is more than whining.

    It is a freakin' foot-stomping, kicking and screaming, out-of-control temper tantrum.

    The Douchebaggers are becoming like SNL characters.
  • jillibrown · 3 months ago
    I watched Obama's rally in Minneapolis, and then I saw a little bit of video on the tea party, the contrast in tone and demographics was overwhelming.

    I live in houston, and I haven't seen this many caucasians in one spot in a long long time. The tea party component certainly doesn't reflect my world. If it did, I think I'd slit my wrists. What a miserable existence they must lead. If I could stop laughing at them, I think I'd probably pity their stupidity.
  • henrythefifth · 3 months ago
    John, it's intersting you mention they act like Obama is a third world dictator. Actually, if Obama were the dictator or totalitarian these people make him out to be, the teabaggers would NOT be out there and allowed to exercise their 1st Amendment Rights. That's the irony of it...if Obama were that bad, the Teabaggers would all be disappearing mysteriously. Probably to Gitmo.
  • GH · 3 months ago
    Or be limited to demonstrating at the zones of exclusion the Bush Boys were so good at setting up.
  • shell · 3 months ago
    I have thought of that, too. But, I guess this is too complex for them to comprehend. Sadly, I am not kidding.

    I wondered that when they brought their guns out to intimidate people. Do they think that by doing this, they have saved America, because NOW Obama will see how determined they are? He was going to take all their guns away, but he was scared, so now the gun nuts will be safe?

    I really think they "think" this way.
  • P O'Neill · 3 months ago
    They're getting the 2 million attendance figure from discarded hype that worked its way back into the media bloodstream via the UK.
  • libertydan · 3 months ago
    I'm angry cause the teaparty thing got taken over by neocons, where's the anti war signs?
  • GH · 3 months ago
    Nice write up about the DC teabaggers. And your links were excellent. I'd been wandering around the net trying to find similar, and yours were the best.

    Reflecting back on the 2008 Election, I'm pretty sure these are the same people whose behavior at McCain / Palin rallies began to attract negative attention to the GOP.

    Thing is: Fox can actually do a better job of organizing them now than during an actual election. Fox doesn't have to do anything but activate anger, and some of the wingnuts on parade didn't like John McCain because he was "too liberal," so they didn't turn out for him or his rallies.

    It puzzles and amazes me that people on Medicare can look straight in the camera and rant about the dangers "socialized" health care.

    Received an email today from an older cousin whose prostate cancer was treated on medicare. Forwarding a nutcase lawyer's "treatise" on how it is Unconstitutional for the government to reform health care.

    Jeeze!
  • lmohlsson · 3 months ago
    Wow, amazing you were there...I was too and didn't really see anger by many people. What I saw was, frustration of being ignored and alot of first time people getting together as a group that has been ignored. Most of the people I saw and talked too were proud, excited and happy to have the right to be there. All were concerned about the overspending and feel no one is listening.
  • Chris From Maine · 3 months ago
    how are they being ignored? They have an entire news channel devoted to 24 hour coverage of them and their "issues" ...

    people like me are really ignored. Views like "we should pull out of Afghanistan" arent welcome on ANY news channel.
  • Gridlock · 3 months ago
    Frustration at being ignored? LOL

    Yes, crazy people are best left ignored. You shouldn't listen to crazy people because, um, THEY'RE FUCKING CRAZY AND HAVE NOTHING SANE TO SAY.

    I thought that might have been patently obvious to everybody.

    ... except maybe the crazy.
  • nancy50 · 3 months ago
    You know what we called people who didn't agree with President Bush? Unpatriotic. I'm sorry you feel frustrated...I am very aware of how that feels...I went through it for 8 long years as our country was lead down a path of near destruction. Were you protesting then?
  • lmohlsson · 3 months ago
    I didn't call anyone unpatriotic and no, I didn't protest as this was the first time since the debt is planning on being 3 times what bush got us to. As far as near distruction history will tell us who was more distructive.
  • RainbowPhoenix · 3 months ago
    They certainly get the most attention of any "ignored" people I've ever seen.
  • An_American_Karol · 3 months ago
    That's exactly what Fox reported, almost to the word. Who would have thought?
  • henrythefifth · 3 months ago
    Welcome to Americablog....Troll. :)
  • Gridlock · 3 months ago
    concerned troll is concerned.
  • timncguy · 3 months ago
    they aren't being ignored. They are the only ones the media pays any attention to. They are pandered to by the repugs.

    The dems hear them, they just don't agree with them.

    They aren't being ignored. It's just that the politicians who agree with them LOST the election. So, why would they expect their agenda to be implemented? They LOST. Elections have consequences

    It seems that both the teabaggers and the repugs in congress feel that the dems should be willing to propose and implement CONSERVATIVE policies just to make them happy.
  • lmohlsson · 3 months ago
    Your not understanding what I am saying, I was responding to inaccurate information being written on the blog and simply stating that the group was frustrated not so angry. I was not a big fan of Bush but, one thing he did not do that Obama does alot is use the term "they" and "them" alot speaking to half of the population, he is talking to me with what appears to be distain. Thought Obama was going to try to bring everyone together
  • Mum48 · 3 months ago
    First of all, it's "disdain." And if you think that he is speaking to you with "disdain," then you are hearing someone in your head. Yes, he is intelligent, and he knows how to deliver a speech. Whether they are written for him or by him, or whether he reads them from a script or from a teleprompter, is immaterial. He is always speaking from the heart. His own life story is very humble (and inspiring) and I have never heard him talk down to ANYONE, including the right-wing buffoons in Congress and the ignorant rabble that calls for his death and calls him a socialist/communist/marxist/fascist/Messiah/Muslim. I still don't understand what you are talking about when you say he uses the terms "they" and "them" a lot (not alot) "speaking to half of the population."
  • RainbowPhoenix · 3 months ago
    I don't doubt that most of them are older, but when I was in line for Obama's comencment speach at the ASU graduation, I saw a decent amount that didn't look much older than me (I turn 21 in two months).
  • facebook-547794456 · 3 months ago
    My God did anyone just see Don Lemon on CNN? He was interviewing both a Dem and a Rep about the hateful outbursts against Obama. Don was super weak and kept apologizing again and again to the GOP guy saying he didn't want to "beat up on him". Consequently Don gave him 10X more time. I'm not kidding, Don apologized about 9 times. It was truly embarrassing and shameful. Someone has to make a clip of what transpired. This is one of the main problems of the so-called 'liberal media'.
  • cahya · 3 months ago
    What an interesting article.
  • Satori · 3 months ago
    "I'd like to make a friendly suggestion to the teabaggers: Get a hobby, do some volunteer work, or better yet work out and get some exercise. These people needs lives."

    My god, people - - is this blog reflective of many liberals' thinking? Do you not see that conservatives are only now learning to use the tactics the left has used for generations? Do you not see that they will only refine their methods heading into the mid-terms? The political power shoe is indeed on the left foot now, and it is stunning to see that straight-laced conservatives have become willing to get on buses and show up for demonstrations - - and potentially be seen by their neighbors and employers on TV. This is something old white guys like me just never did. I know many meek people who are centrists and say they want to get involved. In my lifetime, this has never been the case with conservatives, not even close. This should scare you. It really, really should.

    One other thing. Folks, it was not the organizers of this event who said anything about expectations of millions of attendees. What they said today was that "over projecting" is an old, old tactic wherein those opposing a demonstration leak information that a huge crowd is expected. Anything less is then seen by the media as a failure. Several such leaks already have been traced to staff members of Dem representatives. Look for Fox to publicize this.

    Conservatives are getting better at the opposition game. You feed their flames by suggesting they're too dumb to play and win. Especially when you have both houses of congress and the whitehouse in your back pocket and are still looking, angrily, for Republicans to blame for your ineffectiveness.
  • 1970cs · 3 months ago
    What the left has learned is that politicians know the Tea Baggers are getting back on their buses at sundown and that protests like these don't work.

    Remember the worldwide anti Iraq war protests that actually drew millions?
  • Satori · 3 months ago
    Point taken. It should be said, though, that the goal of conservatives now is to hobble a radical president, then change the balance of congress. Simpler to accomplish that than to end a war, in my experience.
  • brian · 3 months ago
    Radical President? Why? Because he asks that all Americans be covered for healthcare?

    I was called a traitor for not supporting the war in Iraq. I was called a traitor when I called out Bush for spying on all Americans in violation of the 4th Amendment. I was called a traitor when I called out Bush for the imprisonment of Americans without trial. I was called a traitor when I called out Bush for running up a $5 trillion debt. And so on. So how is trying to provide healthcare to all Americans worse than what President Bush did?
  • Satori · 3 months ago
    Brian, if I were to label Barack a radical - - and I'm not sure that I'm ready to do that yet, personally - - it would be a conclusion reached after examining the man's words and actions over many years, the company he keeps and has kept, and the policy vision reflected in these facets of his identity. The left won in the last election, but I believe Barack makes a woeful miscalculation in believing that America is a far-left nation. That is only my view. I would like to see Barack adopt an incremental, long-term approach to change. That sort of change is more readily accepted than a tsunami, a blitz of government expansion. Success for Barack, and for those of your party, would be sweeter and longer lasting if the movement were gentle. The hard push by Pelosi and Obama brings resistance and fighting. As the Zen saying goes, "the softest thing in the universe overcomes the hardest thing in the universe.
  • Gridlock · 3 months ago
    you're insane if you think Obama is "far left" or even freaking ANY left.

    Seriously. Your political spectrum meter is fucking busted.

    At most he has tiny leftist tendencies overshadowed by the usual right wing corporatist nonsense.

    In any other country on the planet, Obama would fit in nicely with their conservative movement.
  • Satori · 3 months ago
    I'm sorry, friend - - I believe you may be farther from the political center than I ever have been. But then, we're using terms, and we have to agree what "liberal" means historically in the United States. A longtime friend of mine is a theologian and we love to spar on religious matters. He's Christian, I'm not. He makes this very good point: we waste our time debating if we cannot find at least one source of information that we both believe is credible. Without that, any discussion is circular. So we start our discussions by agreeing on credible sources and definitions of terms. I do not believe you and I would find a single source of information that we both believe is credible, though I am rather fond of this country's foundation documents. I believe the founding fathers, liberal for their time, laid a foundation, and people like myself who respect their intelligence and governing philosophy now are considered conservative or Libertarian. To create a large, centralized government is not to act in accordance with our foundational documents. I am a federalist, for sure, and I am anti-government. Republicans have failed badly with regard to conservative governing, but, over time, they violate originalist ideals far less often than today's liberals do. This is easy to see if you read the Constitution carefully. So I submit to you, Gridlock, that Obama is indeed very liberal if, by "liberal," one means a gross departure from the ideals of this country's earliest political thinkers. They were radicals, but those who admire them today are not considered to be.
  • Gridlock · 3 months ago
    Libertarianism is a bankrupt, unworkable and patently ridiculous philosophy that has absolutely zero chance of actually working in the really real world.

    On the planet earth, we live in things called "societies", and within these constructs foundations and infrastructure have to be laid, maintained and defended.

    Libertarianism is incapable of encompassing these necessary structures, and thus would relegate all of us to living in some third world backwater devoid of proper roads, imports, defense, or any kind of building code or product standard provided there was ANY manufacturing happening beyond a local level.

    In essence, rural anarchy preyed upon by lawless businesses not held accountable for anything they would visit upon the population.

    The fact that anybody used 'Libertarianism' in a serious discussion means they forfeit any and all position they might have held.

    Ridiculous.
  • Satori · 3 months ago
    "Libertarianism is a bankrupt, unworkable and patently ridiculous philosophy that has absolutely zero chance of actually working in the really real world."

    So is Catholicism, examined logically. Yet, look at the Vatican.
  • Gridlock · 3 months ago
    That's because Catholicism doesn't actually adhere to its own tenets!

    Neither would Libertarianism, like communism. Nice theories with too many holes that refuse to include the human equation in their calculations and are thus unworkable in reality.

    Ugh, this so freaking basic and elementary! A child knows this!

    I can't believe i'm debating a supposed adult on the obvious deficiencies of failed and theoretical government models.
  • Satori · 3 months ago
    "I can't believe i'm debating a supposed adult on the obvious deficiencies of failed and theoretical government models."

    I'm going to guess . . . . you're in your sophomore year?
  • Gridlock · 3 months ago
    No dear, that is long in my past but pretty misty in your future.
  • Steve_in_CNJ · 3 months ago
    sorry, but you lost any shred of credibility when you mentioned a "radical president". obama is more conservative than richard nixon. but he got an overwhelming mandate for *non-incremental* change when he was elected. if you were watching fox news, you might be unaware of that campaign.

    up until now, he has not pushed any of his big agenda items other than HCR. even there, he has walked back the "radical" ideas that got him elected -- apparently in order to assuage you scared-shitless paranoid conservatives. radical indeed.

    instead of sounding ridiculous, tell us why you oppose a non-profit government insurance option.
  • Satori · 3 months ago
    Steve -

    I have explained elsewhere in this thread my reasons for preferring something other than a large, centralized government solution to delivering anything at all, whether it be products or services. I am conservative. I am anti-government. Government should be expanded when there is no other solution. I am not even close to believing government can manage health care better than it does the Veteran's Administration, Social Security, Medicare, the postal service, or Amtrack, to name a few. Government is braid dead, corrupt, and inefficient. And unlike private business, it can go on operating at gross losses year after year, soaking the taxpayers, where a private enterprise would be forced to become competitive or soon die. Government bureaucracies never die - - they just become bigger screw-ups.

    Your personal attacks are truly underwhelming, by the way. Grow up.
  • Gridlock · 3 months ago
    Yes, free enterprise has been SO good up to now with regulating itself and staying competitive.

    From the financial world and its collapse to the manufacturing sector and its pollution and outsourcing, to the HMO's and insurance companies jacking premiums and dumping policy holders at the slightest whim, BUSINESS HAS SURE BEEN AWESOME IN REGULATING ITSELF WITHOUT SOMEONE STARING OVER THEIR FREAKING SHOULDERS 24/7.

    Christ on a crutch, you actually believe that "private enterprise can do better" claptrap?

    Total delusion, as I've just illustrated above.
  • Satori · 3 months ago
    You're wrong about the 24/7 part. Look at history. Regulatory action is cyclical - - applied when needed. If you want government looking at your business 24/7, there are many countries that would be happy to have you and do precisely that. If you want to understand what has happened to us economically, surely you will not overlook government's role in facilitating the creation and trading of bad financial instruments.

    "Claptrap"? Grow up.

    And while you're growing up, do you also expect the government to provide you with a job? A TV? A cellphone? Why not? Shouldn't the government look at every business you patronize, and all your transactions with those businesses? Is there anything should do for yourself?
  • Gridlock · 3 months ago
    Applied cyclical? I'm sorry, are you under the impression that business isn't looking EVERY SINGLE MINUTE of every day at ways to get around laws, loopholes, standards, scrutiny and otherwise in order to save a penny?

    The government let regulation LAPSE and, thanks to many conservative governments, that laissez-faire attitude created the insanity that resulted.

    Yes, claptrap. It IS claptrap. It has been historically proven to be claptrap. I suppose you think trickle down economics works too, despite however many decades proving you dead wrong.

    As for your last paragraph, who the fuck even suggested that? The transactions are not in question, the business standards that created those products ARE.

    Do you even realize how many regulatory bodies review, test, and ensure the products that you use, from house building to shaving, meet SOME kind of standard so they don't freaking kill you?

    Probably not. In Libertarian-land, somehow that isn't a concern! Things just magically adhere to a mysterious set of standards!

    You take so much for granted in your little world, it's really quite amazing you function at all.
  • Satori · 3 months ago
    You shouldn't assume you know anything about anyone's world when you seem to know so little about your own. I never said I was a Libertarian. I voted for Clinton twice, Kerry once. My mind is open. Is yours?
  • Gridlock · 3 months ago
    Yeah, the fact that you referenced Libertarianism twice in approving tones certainly means you have no leanings that way, especially in this debate context.

    Don't insult me with transparent efforts to dismiss it. It insults us both.
  • Mum48 · 3 months ago
    Amen.
  • Steve_in_CNJ · 3 months ago
    brain dead is pretty much how i'd describe that answer. you don't seem to have a critical or analytical mind. just feelings. feelings are rarely self-consistent. for example, you would almost always choose a centralized government solution to defense issues.

    irrational dread and fear is not an idea. ideological blinders transform a potentially useful problem-solving exercise into pointless pugilism. all i hear from the right on this issue is paranoia, racism, xenophobia... would it be too much to ask for some rational thought?
  • Mum48 · 3 months ago
    I worked on Obama's primary and general election campaign, and I'm very familiar with all of his policies and positions. He was never, never a "radical" in any sense of the word. He is, if anything slightly left of center. If anyone voted for him based on their perception that he was a radical, they were engaging in self-delusion. I am considerably more left-leaning than Obama, but I am also the veteran of several presidential campaigns and wanted someone who knew that the perfect is the enemy of the good. Obama is that someone.
  • Steve_in_CNJ · 3 months ago
    when people say "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good", i often hear "don't let the good be the enemy of the mediocre". is that good advice? it's defeatism. it puts you exactly where your enemies want you. obama has backed down in one way or another from every one of his major campaign promises. if you worked on his campaign, you know this, but somehow you don't care.
  • cointreau · 3 months ago
    you misspelled "racial."
  • SusieQ · 3 months ago
    If ONLY he were a radical president. Big disappointment so far.
  • maineiac · 3 months ago
    Michelle Malkin has a piece posted saying there were 2 million folks there and there were about 4% of that actually. Teabaggers were twittering that number all day. They have delusions of grandeur.
  • Gridlock · 3 months ago
    "Look for Fox to publicize this. "

    LOL fail.
  • UAFA_NOW · 3 months ago
    Settle down. Don't mock other peoples protest rallies unless you can do better. LOL. I'm will to wager that the LGBT March on Washington will be relatively the same size or even significantly less. Regardless, you just know that somewhere in that teabagging crowd is the next Timothy Mcveigh.
  • Gridlock · 3 months ago
    Mocking stupidity and ignorance is the best way to combat it.
  • devlzadvocate · 3 months ago
    Then next Timothy McVeigh was in the crowd??? Sweet!
    Hold the next Douchebag rally in Owosso, Michigan.
  • evan_la · 3 months ago
    OK. Consider yourself mocked. LOL. We have done better - rallies of 300,000 or more - I've been to two.
  • offspring · 3 months ago
    THIS ISNT PROTESTING...ITS INSIGHTING
  • Swami_Binkinanda · 3 months ago
    If it's all in caps, its probably stupid.
  • ImpureScience · 3 months ago
    I thought it was interesting that ABC News ran this item:

    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/protest-crowd-si...
  • An_American_Karol · 3 months ago
    And those teabagging idiots have the nerve to call President Obama a liar?
  • allamr18 · 3 months ago
    OMG i was in dc too. and i was at the black family reunion going on at the national mall. many of the tea party people were walking through like ok where the hell am i? they were majority older and very very white. i saw maybe a handful of hispanics but mostly white and id say 40 and up with their children. but it was soo funny to see them get off their buses yelling impeach obama then walk through a group of 600 to 1000 black people dancing to young joc and charlie wilson and they go impeach obama to oo shit. lol
  • sam1955 · 3 months ago
    You better get a good look at these folks. They are the men who will save this nation from this pathetic man who could only be president due to his skin color and the racists in this country who play the race card constantly. When they have had enough of this it will be the end of this wave of white guilt you have enjoyed so long.

    Have you heard what Dr Manning says about him?

    http://la-gun.com/manning/

    Do you have no shame regarding the crap that white America has been putting up with for the last 50 years?

    http://www.newnation.org/NNN-Black-on-White.html

    These people love the country this country used to be.

    They are determined and very well armed.
    Do you think the US Army will fire on them if this low life gives the order?
  • Gridlock · 3 months ago
    Do you think the US Army will have any hesitation putting holes in the head of every one of these nutjobs if called to do it?

    I love this little blurb off your crackpot website:

    " There’s going to be a
    revolution, Patrick
    Henry style, in America
    where red-blooded,
    God-fearing, Jesus-
    loving Americans are
    going to stand up and
    say, “We’re not going to
    take it no more.”

    Yeah, because cracker-ass crackers who love jebus have, historically, been SO FUCKING OPPRESSED BY THE WORLD

    I think it's hilarious that you have no concept of how ridiculous you are.
  • Bubbles · 3 months ago
    You suffer from an extreme case of ODS. Obama derangement syndrome.

    You are paranoid. That means you have fears that aren't based upon any facts in reality.

    That means that you are deranged. Perhaps you let yourself become so.

    That means you are insane. You are not mentally healthy.

    Turn off the T.V. and the Radio for a month. Spend some time with nature. And get some help.

    Right now you are a menace to society.
  • cointreau · 3 months ago
    excellent snark.
  • RainbowPhoenix · 3 months ago
    Does anyone know the number to call for the guys in the white coats?
  • robertarhodes · 3 months ago
    Silly rabbit.

    You don't love this country. If you did you would realize that this a democratically elected President and even though you don't like him, being black and all that, you would, at least, try to make the country better and not try to tear it apart because of your anger and hatred.

    You need to calm down and think of your health. Stress is a killer and you seem very stressed out.

    Your kind of hate will eat you alive.
  • Swami_Binkinanda · 3 months ago
    The first step is to admit that you have a problem.

    Rage and victimhood are powerful drugs-like cocaine, heroin, pot and alcohol they let you elude responsibility for your failings in a cloud of mushyheadedness. People like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Michael Savage-Wiener, are addicts of other substances themselves who enrich themselves at your expense just like a drug dealer.

    Only you can free yourself from your ignorance, pain, fear, and failure. Only you can accept yourself. Please get the help you need before the rage and victimhood take over your whole life.
  • Wesinoregon · 3 months ago
    Same thing happened in Nazi Germany. The MOB was brainwashed into unreality. The Republicans, sad to say, have picked up on this from their "ARCHITECT" ... Carl Rove. I have NO doubt he has used the Nazi model in his politics. He is un-american as they come.
  • PeteWa · 3 months ago
    looks like someone went off the rails on the crazy train.
  • Mum48 · 3 months ago
    Wow, you really think that Barack Obama was elected BECAUSE he was black. How deluded can you get?

    Dr. Manning is a moron, and white men have been in power in this country for far too long. Of course, "these people love the country this country used to be." They probably long to go back to the days of slavery and women not having the vote, to say nothing of our reproductive rights.

    I've got an idea. Take your white robe and your blunderbuss and find a cave somewhere. You need help, but I can guarantee you won't look for it. So, let's get you someplace where you can't hurt other people.
  • HereinDC · 3 months ago
    .
    Carnie Convention came to town today!
  • Liberpassion · 3 months ago
    Brilliant report, Joe!
    I predict your piece will go viral!
    Overheard a great expression we should repeat:
    Democrats are showing Leadership...
    While Republicans show Loser-ship!
    Hey, Jed should make a vid of the dramatic difference.
  • bob915 · 3 months ago
    Be vigilant People! We are the majority, but these folks are still having to be reckoned with.
    Keep posting, be direct, fact based, and use hostile sites
    Volunteer-sign up petitions for Health Care, off to hold forums in your home, reach out to these Medicare folks
    Use your personal health story and forward it to your representative
    Make a file on the nagative talking points and rebut them with facts and figures---send it to the nearest Republican headquarters
    this may not be much, but for now its a start. There is going to be a point where this is gonna go one of two ways. These folks are either gonna stew in their own juice like we did for this POTUS term, or they are going to explode. Pray and be vigilant!
  • mooninthewater · 3 months ago
    A related piece in the New York Times calling a spade a spade:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/opinion/13dow...
  • benb · 3 months ago
    Dowd really nails it.
  • rayso · 3 months ago
    I popped in to see what was going on. There was no anger or vitriol. People seemed very relaxed, enjoying the day, talking with other people from other states. Most people were white and 50ish. Some had families with kids. There were a very few people of color. Some Vietnam vet types, a few people in wheel chairs. A pair of white haired ladies walking and holding hands wearing matching tee shirts saying 'We are part of the Mob'.

    I saw no one that fit Peggy Noonan's demographic in her column this week (i.e. today's college students for whom 9/11 was the major turning point in their lives - I've seen no personal evidence that they exist as described) There was a hip-hop performance on the lineup. I saw one impeach Obama sign. One Obama with Hitler style mustache. Several signs proclaiming that elections would be the way to tilt things in their favor.
  • G · 3 months ago
    EVERY major news site on the 'net has pictures of folks holding up signs accusing Democrats and Obama of being Nazis and Marxists. Signs saying, "I didn't bring my gun, this time."

    I'm glad you enjoyed your Happy Pill, because while I'm sure the folks on the mall were pretty much getting along with each other, they were there to express ANGER. And you must have been in an alternative universe.
  • lmohlsson · 3 months ago
    If you wanted you could find some extreme signs (I'd say 2%) I was there and the biggest comment by far was, take your time and do the right thing before spending our money. Wow, that's crazy and wacked i know......not so much anger but frustration in Obama's attitude of "they" and "them" which is over 50% of the people in the US these days. what happened to bringing people together?
  • Mum48 · 3 months ago
    I don't understand what you are saying. What do you mean by "Obama's attitude of 'they' and 'them' which is over 50% of the people in the US these days"?
  • benb · 3 months ago
    "If I hadn't stood up, Obamacare would be a train running right through this country right now," -- Dick Armey, just-recently-resigned corporate lobbyist who now runs
    FreedomWorks.



    from:
    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/...
  • Wesinoregon · 3 months ago
    Yes, the heartland of bigotry and older uneducated. Non-progressives.!!! How can they even sleep at night knowing the very progress they fight will provide the future to others as has been done in the years past.
  • Wesinoregon · 3 months ago
    PLAIN and SIMPLE. Republicans=Nazi inspired propaganda. They use how the NAZI's brainwashed people into believing them. I thought I'd never see the day those tactics would return. BUT, take any group of uneducated peoples and it works like a charm. NO wonder they used it.
  • lmohlsson · 3 months ago
    OK mr. educated. can you explain the health care bill to me? Can you explain to me why we needed to pass the stimulus package so fast and we are still loosing jobs? Can you explain to me why only 15% of the stimulus package has been spent? I'm not a Nazi, just want answers to these and other questions before we commit to increase the deficit by 3 times it's present amount (as outlined by Obama's plan)
  • Mum48 · 3 months ago
    There is no single health care bill. There is a bill that has been written by three house committees, HR3200. There is a single payer bill written by Rep. Conyers which has been around for at least a couple of years - HR676. The HELP Committee of the Senate has a bill (the Affordable Health Choices Act), and the Senate Finance Committee is working on a bill. Details on each of the bills can be found by googling them. Read it yourself if you want to be informed.

    With regard to your questions on the stimulus package and jobs, I'll refer you to any basic economics text. Job recovery is always the last thing to occur in recovering from a recession or depression. And no one said that all of the stimulus money was going to be infused into the economy immediately upon passage of the bill. To do so would not make sound economic sense.
  • Gadavi · 3 months ago
    That's good Joe. And very typical. Not one word about the protestors position, just racial invective. If you can't respond to someone's arguement, call them a racist. Call them the Klan or Hitler. Bring up the Civil War. Heck, I'll bet they we all child molesters as well. And puppy killers. What a lame excuse for discourse. Like I said, typical.
  • Mum48 · 3 months ago
    Sorry, but we all know that if Obama were a white man the crowds would be be significantly smaller. I don't think they have any "position" and I also think talking about the teabaggers and discourse in the same paragraph is pointless. I have watched and listened to the town halls and watched and listened to the "man/woman on the street" interviews with various health care reform protesters, and the vast majority of these people are ignorant and loud and rude, not a lovely combination. And frankly, you need to look up the word "invective," because Mr. Sudbay didn't use it, racial or otherwise.
  • rayso · 3 months ago
    re: "that if Obama were a white man the crowds would be be significantly smaller"

    If you continue to believe this based on what you see reported in the media, you will be at great political disadvantage and your cause will suffer.
  • onlinesavant · 3 months ago
    Suffer how? Sounds like wishful thinking on your part. Here's the skinny: Much of what these yahoos are complaining about (Although they have no real, cohesive argument about anything really And their-en lies an abject truth about their motivations.)are things that they apparently had no problem with, or even supported during the last, truly illegitimate adminstration.Government encroachment upon "liberties"? Bush/Cheney all the way. Lying? Again, Bush/Cheney. Fiscal irresponsibility in government? Obviously, there was a budget surplus before Bush/Cheney, and we all know how they handled that.No "ray". The only thing more gauling than the rank hypocrisy of these people is the apparent ignorance that they have to it. "So", I think they should try a new angle, or at least acknowledge that reality (In the long view.) has not comported with their view of it.Oh, and "racialist" is NOT a word.
  • Mum48 · 3 months ago
    Sorry, rayso, but you're wrong. Knowing who your opponent is and how your opponent operates is a great political ADVANTAGE. It's a necessary part of winning every battle.
  • rayso · 3 months ago
    I agree with you. If you believe that the media is characterizing your opponent accurately and your strategy is calibrated correspondingly, you will win.
  • lmohlsson · 3 months ago
    Ignorant of the facts of the bills that are being voted on, yes, because no one has been abel to expain them yet. Instead of being the salesman, why doesn't Obama sit down and explain the programs being voted on. Can you explain them to me? 1400 pages. The US was formed with a 18 page document.....
  • Mum48 · 3 months ago
    Read the history of the Constitution. It didn't happen overnight and there were thousands of pages in the press and letters, and thousands of hours of debate and discussion that were devoted to its devising. The teabaggers/birthers are ignorant of much more than just the details of the various proposals/bills that are being put forth by Congress. They are ignorant of the facts that govern their very lives. They are ignorant of history and of the meaning of the words they blazon across their signs. And many, if not most, of those who have turned up at the town halls have not come to become informed; they have come to disrupt and disable.
  • lmohlsson · 3 months ago
    Thank you, you make my point perfectly. People are ignorant of the facts because no one knows what they are because they are not being presented in detail by anyone, including Obama. Your point on taking thousands of hours is great too, we should be taking our time on this to get it right. Thanks for a well articulated post bringing up some great points.
  • Mum48 · 3 months ago
    Actually, I don't think I was making your point, perfectly or any other way. What I was intending to point out was that as citizens we are responsible for learning about the issues that affect us. We are not infants sitting in highchairs waiting to be spoonfed. We are adults and responsible for ourselves. The facts are out there, and have been for some time. There is no one plan or one powerpoint presentation. There are several plans and proposals, and even those are subject to debate and change and compromise. The legislators on the various committees in the House and the Senate (and I especially mean the three committees in the House that developed HR3200 and the Senate HELP commitee) and their respective staffs have already spent thousands of hours researching, developing, debating, discussing, writing, summarizing, and presenting their proposals.

    I do feel that (and possibly we may be in some agreement here) if we need to take additional time (and more thousands of hours, if need be) to make sure that the final proposal which goes up for votes in the House and the Senate is a proposal that does all the things that progressives and other true health care reformers would like to see, then we need to take that time. If, however, it is just a tactic to stall, to shove true health care reform into a closet for another 10 or 20 or 30 years, then it becomes a completely different issue. Big Pharma and the multi-million dollar insurance industry will have won the day. And I'm not sure that I trust our corporate-sponsored legislature to come back to the bargaining table at some future date and do what needs to be done.
  • rayso · 3 months ago
    Thank you for the comment. There is rampant racialist sentiment on this blog and apparently in the progressive way of thinking. I don't believe it helps with the movement's credibility to use such a churlish argument to discredit one's opponents.
  • Mum48 · 3 months ago
    Sorry rayso, but the "rampant racialist sentiment" is in the minds and hearts, and on the signs, of the teabagger/birther element.
  • rayso · 3 months ago
    Incessantly calling those one disagrees with "rascist" qualifies eminently as "racialist sentiment"

    Racialist: "An emphasis on race or racial considerations". You emphasize racial considerations in others which you have not proved exist and are therefore racialist. Rational people in a post racial age see right through you.
  • bogenrim · 3 months ago
    Perfect example of people who can sure dish out the piss and vinegar but whine like petulant two year olds when they have to take it. None of these fools has any credibility when it comes to civility in the "discourse." Give me a break...
  • JM · 3 months ago
    I watched a bit of the Teabag Show on CSPAN yesterday...I loved seeing all the signs in the crowd about how incumbent politicians are the problem, yet Jim DeMint then doesn't get booed off stage?

    IOKIYAR.
  • rayso · 3 months ago
    Perhaps the sign should have said 'majority' incumbents.
  • bogenrim · 3 months ago
    These folks are the same ones shouting with clenched fists and snarls "You keep your filthy government hands off my Social Security and Medicare!!" with a straight face, and this seems to get by most of the media. Somebody please explain this to me, or better still, give these ignorant idiots what they want -- I sure could do without the 7.65% being taken out of my paycheck.
  • lmohlsson · 3 months ago
    FYI, unless you are paying $15,235 per person in your family in taxes, you are being subsidized by the rich and businesses. I barley cover that amount in my family, the issue to me isn't paying taxes issue or even that we are being told that we have a responsibility as "rich" people to give. My issue is that I feel a good portion of the taxes I pay are being wasted in bureaucracy, poor management of government projects and the fact that those receiving my taxes are not asked to be resposible.
  • bogenrim · 3 months ago
    Don't you think the "fiscally conservative" republicans would have been able to weed out most of the waste and abuse in the 6 years that they had control of both the WH and Congress? If so, then why did the deficit explode and government get even bigger and more intrusive during those years? Oh, that's right, they were too busy rubbing their ball sweat all over 9/11 because they were humping it like a bunny to score cheap political points...
  • dude1394 · 3 months ago
    Why would you expect any black folks to attend when they are the remaining 15% who think Obama is doing a great job? They voted for him at a 95% clip..

    What an idiotic comment, typical, but abnormally idiotic.
  • lmohlsson · 3 months ago
    So....how's that Hopey Changey Thingey goin' for everyone?
  • woodka · 3 months ago
    pretty well for me, actually. Feeling far better about our future.
  • bogenrim · 3 months ago
    Sure beats the prospect of a Juan "get off my damn lawn" McCain presidency. Guess spending 8 years with G.W. Shrub's cock in his mouth didn't work out so well for Mr. more-of-the-same, eh?
  • georgesenda · 3 months ago
    81.5 % of Americans are white according to the NY TIMES 2009 Almanac. Given that figure statistically the crowd would overwhelmingly be white.

    As for your crowd figures, I have seen links thay said that both CNN & ABC said 2 million. ABC later tried to retract the figure.

    Don't you think it a bit odd that so many mainstream news orgs used the phrase " tens of thousands " as if they were in lockstep and dared not report the true figures ?

    The London Daily Mail reported the figure as UP TO 2 million. They are not under pressure that US news orgs are given that they want continued access to Obama.
  • Mum48 · 3 months ago
    The London Daily Mail is a very conservative tabloid style newspaper which has been sued successfully for libel on numerous occasions. What that means is that they have lied about someone and are being held accountable for that lie. It's editorial stance lines up totally with teabagger/birther philosophy. (As an aside, in 1934 one of their owners wrote an article in support of Britain's Nazi sympathizers, "Hurrah for the Blackshirts." The paper hasn't strayed for very long or very far from that philosophy in the years since.)

    The organizers of the event estimate the crowd at about 30,000. ABC NEVER said the crowd was 2 million. They did say that the DC fire department had reported 60-70,000. CNN NEVER said the crowd was 2 million - no how, no way. I would suggest finding more reliable links in the future.
  • G · 3 months ago
    According to the US Census Bureau traditional "whites" are 66% of the US Population in 2008. Hispanics are 16%. That would be the 81% mentioned.

    While I'm sure there's an exception to prove the rule, I don't see Hispanics in the TeaBagger crowd pictures and videos I saw.

    In the nutcase world, yelling MSM is a way to simply disregard the organizations which actually still employ journalists to try to go out, do research, and report facts.

    Estimating crowd size is difficult, for sure. I've looked closely at the pictures and see no similarity in crowd size to the huge turnout at the Obama inauguration.

    Does size matter? I guess it does because there's so much dispute about size here!

    I guess if 2 million had shown for a protest on the mall it would mean something more than the MSM upside estimate of 60,000

    But the London Daily Mail? Get real, Lord George Due of Gesenda.

    The MSM would lie "in lockstep" about the protester crowd size to continue getting access to Obama?

    Lord, you need to take your meds, your paranoid schizophrenia is showing.

    The
  • wigwam · 3 months ago
    I think your take on this is rather condescending and stupid, although I agree that the teabaggers and the right-wing in general are unhinged. I am completely baffled by your criticism of these people for being "angry" and "overweight." Being angry in and of itself is nothing to criticize people for--there are plenty of injustices in the world that call for anger. Homophobia, for example. Criticizing them for being fat and old makes you look arrogant and bitchy and exactly the kind of elitist snob that give Democrats a bad name.

    Honestly, this group of people are clearly hateful and out of their minds, but your take on it is very disappointing and shallow.
  • wasthere912 · 3 months ago
    Where were you???? I was there and I did not see angry people. I also saw many young families with young children and babies. You saw what your biased, liberal mind wanted to see. You are pathetic.
  • Mike_Licht · 3 months ago
    It was hard to estimate DC Tea Party crowd size with so many walker-wielding Medicare recipients protesting government healthcare.

    See:

    http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/...