So a crazy person got up at one of Glenn Beck’s 9/12 get-togethers (and I realize that “crazy person at a Glenn Beck funtion” is redundant) and started ranting about who knows what, and LGF has the video tape and a transcript:
OF course, because Charles Johnson has noted these are crazy people, the usual suspects are amassing to attack… Charles Johnson. The problem for the right is not Charles Johnson, but all the crazy people in the party. Dan Riehl states that the guy talking is a “fairly obvious nutcase gets up in an open mic forum and makes some outlandish claims.”
Oh really? What I heard was pretty standard fare for mainstream Republicanism. Here is a transcript, starting at 2:20:
This is a 50 year plan that is coming into culmination right now. This is not something that just happened with Obama. George Soros is the money man behind Barack Obama. I say, and I know it, I’m in the marketing business…
The only thing missing was a little ACORN love, and this rant from an “obvious nutcase” is fundamentally no different from ANY afternoon at the National Review’s Corner. Nothing he said is any different from anything you would hear on an O’Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, or Glenn Beck show. Nothing he said was fundamentally any different from anything you would hear at the McCain/Palin rallies last fall. You had a Vice Presidential candidate saying the current President didn’t like America and palled around with terrorists. You spent months peddling nonsense about Obama not putting his hand over his heart or being sworn in on a Koran or not being an American citizen. This week, you had the former chief strategist for Bush, a former Republican Senator, and a Washington Post columnist all basically questioning the loyalty of the President. This guy’s fault isn’t just that he is a nutcase- his problem is he just believed the bullshit pushed through the right-wing email lists.
And even then, the problem isn’t one nutcase. The problem is that you are whittled down to nothing but the bitter rump, and you are discovering that not only does the camera add ten pounds, but it also adds a heap of crazy. When you play back the nonsense you have been spewing for the past couple of years, you don’t like what you see. I guess you have something in common with the rest of the country.
The best part about all the attention the tea parties will get the next couple of days is that it will all be on film. The usual suspects are already trying to do damage control, pretending that they will have been infiltrated by no-gooders (who else- Soros funded ACRON!), but that is pure nonsense, and the country is going to get a good look at some pure, undiluted, right-wing crazy.
This righteous rant in the Daily Beast boils it down for what is left of the GOP:
What about the Republican Party right now? Isn’t it on radio and TV claiming to be the party of fiscal responsibility and American power? Bypassing the stupidity of these claims, I am on radio, on what is called right-wing radio, and it is easy for me to see that my loudest colleagues, who compulsively repeat the cant of Conservatism for Dummies, are not sincere students of the Republican Party but rather barkers, hookers, establishmentarian jesters, cultists, and, in the worst instance, just thatch-headed whiners.
But don’t worry. You surround us. And you have teabags.
Morans.
Calouste
I’ve seldom seen someone so quickly and effectively state that no one should pay attention to what they say.
Alan
Realizing the RW is full of loons is the first step on his Road to Damascus conversion. Not that Johnson was ever a right winger. For him it was always about Israel.
demkat620
Do these assclowns realize that most tea is imported? They have chosen a foreign product as their symbol.
Matron Cat-o-nine-tails of Lovingkindness
It’s Friday night, 7:15pm, and this must be the umpteenth Teabagging Beck post of the day.
I demand an Open Thread.
Edit: Please, Sir.
Polish the Guillotines
In honor of this post’s title: Cult of Personality.
Oh — wait… Isn’t this one of the greatest conservative songs of all time?
Morans indeed. Heh. Meh. Feh.
Scott H
95 years. 95 year plan. Federal Reserve Act 1913. Being batshit doesn’t excuse anyone from maths.
Stooleo
Awesome, segment with Rachel Madow and Anna Marie Cox, concerning the tea-bagging.
zoe kentucky
Truly the best part of his rant is his belief that the delayed switchover to nationwide digital tv is all part of Obama’s "brainwashing techniques" and the "brainwashing campaign"– which he said was all started in the 60s.
Aparently you can’t brainwash people via analog. Who knew.
Loneoak
It’s my tea party and I’ll burn books if I want to. Brainwashing books, yeah, those.
joes527
@Stooleo: Couldn’t disagree more.
Madow is smart. I mean she is _really_ smart. She could be laying down some historical context that would lay this whole "tea party" movement bare.
Instead she is riffing on Beavis and Buthead.
Heh-Heh-Heh. They said "teabag"
I really liked her on the radio, but since she moved to TV she has been an absolute disappointment.
Just Some Fuckhead
Brick Oven Bill looks a lot more normal than I thought he would.
JenJen
I just sent that link over to a few of my friends with a "WTF!" subject line. The "BURN THE BOOKS!" lady is batshit crazy, but not much better than the dude who is about to Go Galt on his taxes. How does he propose getting away with that? And, wasn’t Meghan McCain the last person to get laughed out of a room by claiming the GOP’s problem was all in the marketing?
When did this "colleges brainwash people" thing start? My degree is in Music Theory and honestly, nobody ever brainwashed me. Didn’t take that much history or political science, but I definitely had a few wingnutty professors, and although their political bias was very clear, they weren’t doing any brainwashing.
What is that about?!
By the way, for some more chewy nutbar goodness, be sure to read Nicolle Wallace’s latest embarrassment in The Daily Beast; one thing I really love about her "pieces" is that the commenters tend to run 99:1 against her:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-08/why-is-obama-apologizing-for-america/
Alan
@Stooleo:
Wow, I’m surprised Anna Marie Cox was able to keep a straight face throughout. I was rolling.
geg6
The poor cops here in the ‘Burgh are just a glimpse of the, most likely, death throes as conservatism (as it exists now). These people are truly frightening and the deafening silence about the Beck connection to the cop killer is not preparing the nation for what is bubbling up out of the right’s swamp. Thankfully, my local media does a better job. And I think people here are stunned and aghast.
Zuzu's Petals
Well, I have a bit of a quandry here …
As it turns out, I will be finished with a dental appointment across the street from the site of the Sacramento Teabag Party, about an hour before it starts.
As curious as I am about the turnout, and as desirous as I am of taking some pix or even video to post on YouTube, I dislike the possibility of being harassed as an "infiltrator" or even photographed myself.
Any thoughts? Any ideas for disguises?
JL
It’s the first time that I linked to lgf and didn’t have to take a shower afterwards.
Laura W
@joes527: As much as it pains me, I’m gonna have to agree with you here. I find myself muting her more often then not pretty much as soon as she reveals her segments at the top of the show. While I like her a whole lot, and was emailing MSNBC often begging for her to get her own show… I believe I said a few months back that she is just too cute by half sometimes. I couldn’t even watch the teabagging thing with Ms. Cox last night. Like high school girls twittering in the cafeteria. I was embarrassed.
She’s done some good work, but I had hoped it’d all be good work. I never thought I’d use this word in relation to her, but "frivolous" is starting to come to mind.
Zach
I’d totally go to one of these if I didn’t live in 99.9% Democrat Baltimore City. We’ve got our share of crazy, but it tends to be mixed with too much lazy for this degree of organization.
geg6
ZuZu’s Petals, camo is always tasteful when mingling with wingnuts, I’m thinking.
asiangrrlMN
Ok, I had resisted all attempts to assimilate me into the Borg by NOT watching this stupid video, but I caved. I watched the first thirty seconds and the last minute, and that was enough for me.
It has to be said. These people are stupid. There. I feel much better.
Oh, god. I felt I should watch the whole thing in order to comment, and my brain hurts.
P.S. My, what a diverse group of people they have there.
P.P.S. OK, the conversation-ender happened at 2:22 p.m. (coincidence? I think not). "Infiltrated by the Communist Party." Yup. That did it. No more listening for me. Besides, if the Communist Party has been in power for fifty years, what the hell were Nixon, Reagan, and both the Bushes? Sheesh.
Suck it up, non-liberals! You lost!
—–
I love Rachel Maddow. I think she has done some serious, substantial work. I liked the teabagging thing (though I am not a big Ana Marie Cox fan). I would cut the Kent Jones section, but Rachel will tackle subjects that other commentators won’t touch.
I don’t begrudge her some moments of lightness because she has some serious heft in there.
JWW
To John the FAG,
I had comment #8, you are a wuss. Do you sleep well?
Ed in NJ
Well, I’m sure that the internet will be chock full of scenes of sheer racism and stupidity, but the networks and 24 hr news stations will be sure to distill the highlights down to what will appear to be a legitimate populist uprising.
We will all be screaming on Tuesday night about how little the talking heads challenged this craziness.
sgwhiteinfla
If you want to see Charles Johnson get attacked just check out this post from Atlas Shrugs
Warning: EXTREME Wingnuttery abounds!
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/04/neo-nazis-link-up-with-charles-johnson-little-green-footballs-smears-beck-the-gop-and-conservatves.html
Mind you I don’t have a lot of good to say about him either but its very interesting that the reason people who normally would be cheerleading him are now trying to discredit him because he actually called Glenn Beck out. Strange bedfellows and all that.
omen
did you hear what obama replied when he was asked about his cold?
“I’ve had it all week…You can hear it,” the president said. “In London, I sounded like I had acorns up my nose.”
that must have fueled more rightwing paranoia. "ooh, lookie there, he’s talking code."
demkat620
Again, I just don’t get all this anger. This didn’t start with Obama. This has been building for awhile. What in the hell is wrong with these people?
Little Dreamer
@Scott H:
They must have decided to include the years it took to build the Jekyll Island Hotel before the multi-millionaires had that infamous meeting.
(I’ve spent time there btw, pretty nice hotel).
Laura W
@Zuzu’s Petals: I have a GREAT idea for you!
Little Dreamer
@demkat620:
Their Burning Bush doesn’t speak to or for them anymore?
demkat620
@Little Dreamer: No, I meant that they got everything they wanted for the last 8 years and that just made them angrier. What the hell else can you want on top of everything?
Alan
I wish all these Rightwingers like Riehl would leave the GOP for the Constitution Party. Heck that Party may even gift them a booklet of the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and the four Gospels with Revelations for their allegiance.
sgwhiteinfla
Laura W
While I agree that some of Maddow’s stuff is fluffy she still puts on more serious topics than anybody else in primetime cable news. Check out this story from last night that nobody else is really covering but should have been a HUGE story today.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#30145665
Little Dreamer
@demkat620:
All non-GOP to be reduced to beggars, die of a horrible plague and burn in hell for all eternity? That’s the Christian way, isn’t it?
JL
@joes527: It didn’t bother me that Rachel made light of the situation. There are times that I feel that it’s important for Rachel to ask the serious and probing questions but the teabagging isn’t an area that I think needs serious attentions. They are not concerned about taxation without representation or else they would be storming their representatives offices.
LarryB
@demkat620:
Yes, they got everything they wanted and it all turned to sh*t on them, didn’t it? And then America gave them the boot in the polls, ingrates that we are. And now, we’re laughing at them. Why, it’s enough to make a real patriot go…berzerk!
asiangrrlMN
@demkat620: When you see your way of life being challenged from all sides, and you are used to being in the majority, you get angry. When you see others saying what you think is wrong, and you’ve never been confronted with it before, you get angry. When you are in the midst of the worst financial crisis we’ve seen in decades, you’re about to lose your home, and there’s a black man as president, you get angry.
Most of the time someone perceives a loss of power or status, s/he gets angry. How dare someone do this to me?
In contrast, for someone like me, I never expected to be treated equally, so I don’t have that sense of ‘you can’t do that to me’. I know all-too-well that yes, ‘you’ can do that to me.
In other words, I don’t hold myself as the norm so it’s not a shock when I am proven correct.
Did that make sense? Well, it did in my head.
Just saw you latest post. The problem is that most of the people who are teabaggin’ didn’t get an improvement in their lot over the past eight years. They were sold a packet of lies, in other words, but they still think it’s the Democrats’ fault. Many of them also see W. as not a true conservative. It’s easier to blame the big, bad Ds than to think they might have taken the wrong path.
Laura W
@sgwhiteinfla:
Yeah, I know. I’m just disappointed. I expected a lot more, but I realize the cable constraints she probably operates under and bows to. I’m guessing a lot of the fluff is network imposed, and for the same reasons, I usually flip away from KO at the half hour mark since I hate his Worst Person and Oddball stuff.
Sorry for the brevity but power is cutting in and out here with massive t-storms and if I HAVE TO SIT IN THE DARK INVOLUNTARILY WITH NOTHING TO DO OR WATCH TONIGHT I’M GONNA BUST A……
(fortunately, I have plenty of wine, dinner is ready, and a pint of B&J’s Triple Caramel Chunk to try. I was disappointed in Mission to Marzipan, FWIW. Sorry to talk about that here but apparently there is not a Friday Happy Hour Open Thread up yet.)
arguingwithsignposts
Wow, John Batchelor is just as nutty as the rest of them:
Sounds like he’s just trying to ride the publicity wave as the contrarian.
And re: Maddow – she’s done a lot of good interviews, including Powell and Blagojevich, that were not the comfy chair crap that NBC does on MTP, or the other Sunday talking heads.
JWW
I think you are all looking at this one sided.
This is not about President Obama, it is about the entire congress.
If you want to but a home for $200,000. and the bank says no, you look for a house at $150,000. if the bank says you earn enough to buy at $125,000. you look at $125,000.
You ask what’s the point? You can’t print money!
Our nation is printing money we don’t have, that is called debt and that debt belongs to nations we don’t have even decent relations with. If they were to call in that debt, we would no longer be the USA.
srv
We need to start controlling the language, consistently.
Many democrats now shy away from the word "liberal" because it has become an epithet on the right.
Rather than say conservative, or Republican or GOP, we should be saying "the Limbaugh Party" at every opportunity.
AnneLaurie
"The Democrats win just because the Republicans have disqualified themselves as leaders with their greed, cruelty, and surprising clumsiness."
… Because Republicanism cannot fail, it can only *be* failed!
Sorry, Mr. Batchelor — like DougJ, I loved the "barkers, hookers, establishmentarian jesters, cultists, and, in the worst instance, just thatch-headed whiners" stuff, but I think that sometimes the Democrats manage to slow down the infighting just long enough to remind the voters that positive virtues like empathy and optimism can be as utilitarian as the basic Repub tenets of selfishness and xenophobia… excuse me, self-interest and conservatism.
MikeJ
I absolutely refuse to watch Maddow since she has never done a story on Unitarian birdwatchers with the letter "Q" in their names.
Fuck her.
JPK
I actually found the Rachel Maddow teabagging segment hilarious, but I can understand how someone might see it as juvenile. Yes, I agree, there’s a bit too much overall cutesiness to Maddow. On the other hand, she is one of the single best interviewers working in political journalism now. She never backs down from asking the hard questions, and she does it so diplomatically that it’s almost deceiving. She’s particularly good with the few Republicans and "conservDems" brave enough to venture onto her show. For that alone, she’s worth enduring all the lame joking.
El Cid
I’m supposed to look back upon the Reagan era as an era of greater sanity or something?
OMG, the Nicaraguans are gonna kill us, we gotta change their government?
OMG, the big government is oppressing our food producers too much, we gotta cut inspections of poultry farms?
OMG, the government is the problem, but let Reagan run up the biggest deficits and debts ever recorded?
OMG, we got to talk a lot about ‘states rights’ and ‘welfare queens driving Cadillacs’?
This was an example of a sober philosophical movement?
I’m sorry. I simply do not see a large change in the seriousness and the intellectualism of the movement from then to now. All you see is that the crazies have lost power, and so the less suave are dominant.
But the problem that the Republican Party faces is that we are simply no longer under the ascendancy of post-Civil Rights, post-Great Society right wing populist revanchism.
Under that ascendancy, any degree of crazy was okay. Now that they’re dropping like a rock in a muddy pond, suddenly the crazy is not okay.
conumbdrum
Jeez, I always thought of Charles Johnson as one of the wingnuttest of the right-wing bloggers… but if he’s willing to call out Glenn Beck’s idiocy, the guy has at least a modicum of principle under his hat.
JL
OT but I’m in the closet again. Earlier I saw a greenish tint to the clouds and decided to sit in an inner closet even before the sirens went off. It’s pretty dark now but the sirens just went again so I’m back in. My old neighborhood had a few tornados hit before and fortunately no loss of life.
demkat620
@asiangrrlMN: I understand what you are saying. But that isn’t what has made them angry. They were at this level of anger after 2004. It was just a different manifestation.
They were at this level of anger in 2000 and 2002. This has been going on for a long time. Victory or loss seems to have only marginal affect on it.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Laura W:
You were disappointed in Mission to Marzipan? I am gutted girl! I NEVER eat ice cream and I love this stuff. As I said this weekend I am going to make a battenburg ice cream cake with the stuff, I think it will be stellar.
Laura W
@JPK:
Yes, Yes, Yes and YES!
I just want 60 damn minutes of her five times per week, less commercials.
I love the woman. I just want to love more of her more often.
(er…..)
Brachiator
This is going to be interesting, and could be way better than secession. The only logical conclusion of the rants of the tea-baggers is that the present government is not the legitimate government of the United States, and that the people who voted for Obama, especially the ones who are supposedly easy to identify because of their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and lack of concealed weapons by their side, are not really Americans.
So the question is whether any but a handful of morans will join up for this.
LarryB
Too long. How about "Limbaughgers".
Litlebritdifrnt
@JL:
Stay safe, and do everything you can to protect yourself. Tornados are nasty pieces of work. Again, stay safe.
Zuzu's Petals
@geg6:
Yeah, I definitely would fit in, that’s for sure.
@Laura W:
Ah, memories!
joes527
@sgwhiteinfla: That segment was solid, but straight newsreading stuff. Good choice of a story. Fine interview. But she didn’t bring any particular insight to it.
This drives me nuts because I have seen her (or at least heard her) cut right to the heart of an issue that no one else can quite nail down.
The tea-bagging thing was particularly painful because it was so obvious. There is at least 1 production video on youtube that does a much better job of being funny. The blogs had been laughing at it for weeks. That segment was purely "me too" and thin at that. (yes, folks have used the term teabag stupidly, but tea party is what most of them call it most of the time and Rachel really had to stretch things to avoid that truth)
Don’t get me wrong. I think she is great. The problem is that she is better than her show.
JL
@Laura W: Well crap, I’m sitting in a closet and I can’t drink because of medication that I’m taking.
Nicole
@sgwhiteinfla: Wow. That is a horse-and-buggy full of cray-cray. I think I made it through the fourth comment before I needed a drink.
JWW
To go along with comment #28
If we don’t have the money, where is it going to come from?
Our earnings. That would mean taxes. Taxes that will go to pay for projects each of you may love or hate. The real question is, are the taxes and what they pay for constitutional? I would say not many of them are. Yet we continue to buy into the spending, yet you would never do such a thing with your indiviual family spending.
DanSmoot'sGhost
Well, about 17 years ago, I had lunch with a guy that I was working with on a contract assignment, and he made essentially the same speech that your crazy guy in the video made. Just put "Clinton" in place of Obama, it was the same speech, complete with the "I’m not paying taxes any more, I quit. You don’t have to pay taxes to these communists."
To make a long story short, the gentleman went to jail for tax evasion about 3 years later. He was as mad as a frickin hatter. And stupid to the bone, in ways that made for great stories and lots of laughs. He and his wife were talking about rebellion, tax revolt, and communist infiltration, just like these people are.
There isn’t much new under the sun. This is America, where you are free to be crazy and say crazy things. God bless the crazy people.
kay
This whole post was great, and I enjoyed it immensely.
It’s like a controlled rant, with a sense of exasperated resignation and acceptance.
Just a beautiful thing. Pitch-perfect.
AnneLaurie
That’s what ice cream was invented for. Especially if the tornado takes down your power lines, you’ll have to clean out the freezer anyway (/grin).
JL
@Litlebritdifrnt: The mutt and I are fine. She’s sharing her bed with me. Although I must say, she rolled in something because she stinks!
sgwhiteinfla
joes527
That story was bigger than just newsreading. The question is did whomever cut those lines do it as a prank, or was it the prelude to an attack? The fact that it was that successful and all that had to be done was to cut a few wires should have people concerned. I mean this is silicon valley we are talking about. It shows that we are a lot more vulnerable in places people don’t think about. If you take out the power, phone lines and internet in a city how does anyone who has an emergency get help? Something to think about.
Besides that I think she is entitled to have fluff on her show every now and again but there is no way anybody can describe her show as mostly fluff. Its not even close.
joes527
@DanSmoot’sGhost:
Yeah, but this time the brainwashers have DIGITAL TV!!!
asiangrrlMN
JL and Laura W, be safe. Laura W, I see what you’re saying about Rachel now. You want the deep, incisive stuff all the time. I would be down with that.
demkat620, I still think it has to do with knowing on some level that the whole premise W. sold them was a crock of shit. They heard how much better everything supposedly was, but it wasn’t for them. I dunno.
Brick Oven Bill
Three in a row on Glenn Beck! This is again evidence that Balloon Juice is the best place to get news. For instance, when all of the other left-leaning blogs were railing about Rush standing up to Obama, the Balloon Juice audience was informed to not pay any attention to Rush Limbaugh, the businessman. The person to pay attention to was Glenn Beck, the operative, the Balloon Juice audience was told. This was like three months ago I think.
And now whoever sends out these lists of subjects to talk about on the left leaning blogs is now sitting in her basement with a bottle of Vitamin Water, some imported cheese, a pack of Marlboros, on which she paid $0.60 more in federal tax than she did a month ago because she makes more than $250,000/yr and can afford to subsidize other people’s social entitlements, and a cat.
Glenn Beck. Click.
Glenn Beck. Click.
Glenn Beck. Click.
O Ba Ma.
This lady should have been reading Balloon Juice last January.
DanSmoot'sGhost
@joes527:
When I was a kid, it seems to me that the crazy people were sure that it was Roosevelt, the Russians, the communists, the niggers and the Catholics that were out to destroy America.
I heard these assertions regularly enough that I was moved later to look into them and see if there was any truth to these rumors. I could not find corroborating evidence to my satisfaction, but hey, I was a callow youth, what the hell did I know?
I have posted before about a lady named Nancy Luft, who is the greatest character I enountered in my journeys to the land of what we used to call the "conspirowackos" on the intertubes. She was convinced that Sputniks were causing hurricanes, terrorism and had even sparked (pun intended) the American Civil War. She is dead serious and so sincere, you find yourself wanting to be nice to her.
I love America. The freedom to just be batshit crazy and say whatever you want. It’s a great thing.
Litlebritdifrnt
@JL:
When Cueball was lying by me this evening (thunderstorm coming through) I heard those strange noises coming from his stomach, you know the ones, where lethal farts are beginning and growing, and you know at some point that he is going to let loose with the most vile smell ever in creation. He just did that.
kay
"Marketing got us into this mess, and marketing will get us out!".
I don’t know. Is that really a soul-stirring battle cry?
Can you see it etched on a coin? It’s not doing anything for me.
Laura W
@joes527:
I’m gonna shut up now and let you speak for me on this subject.
You do it far better, in fewer words.
@ AnneLaurie:
Ben and Jerry’s Triple Caramel Chunk will have to be consumed, plus the remnants of last night’s Mission to Marzipan, which I suppose I could choke down if need be. And just for DougJ’s info, Las Rocas Garnacha probably goes well with caramel ice cream. Just guessing.
Ash
I have a Republican friend (ex-friend now I guess…), who I used to consider nice and normal. I just read his new blog on how we need to nuke the "tree-dwellers" of Somalia cause of the whole hostage thing and how it’s Obama’s Jimmy Carter moment.
These people are no longer the fringes of Republicans, it’s the norm now. We all knew that already of course, but it’s never hit quite so close to home.
Library Grape
"But don’t worry. You surround us. And you have teabags."
So much Win.
DanSmoot'sGhost
I will skip the list of things that were not as bad, but the worst I ever encountered was a rotten egg.
I mean, knocked me on the floor.
That was 26 years ago, and I can still feel it.
Damn.
Little Dreamer
I want to know how long that bald guy in the video shined his head before he decided he was photogenic. ;)
Laura W
@Brick Oven Bill:
Bill, if I were you, I’d have a word or two with Matron Cat-o-nine-tails of Lovingkindness up at #4 since it appears that her very stern, overbearing, demanding, threatening nature is the only thing that stood between you and four in a row. Frankly, I’d ask to have her banned for a week.
Library Grape
@El Cid:
"the government is the problem, but let Reagan Bush run up the biggest deficits and debts ever recorded?"
Fixed.
AnneLaurie
Truly. Could they have picked a commodity better designed to be conveniently forced into a variety of human orifices?
(I’m just talking about the cartooning possibilities, of course.)
Library Grape
@Brachiator: @Brachiator:
Yes, please, and thank you… Creation of the New United States of Jesusland FTW!
Ejoiner
I think we are witnessing a new "permissive state" among the wingnuts – our media (a la FOX news, Glenn, Sean, Rush, etc.) have all made it ok for the wingnuts to really get out and scream their paranoid rages across our nation. Formally our media censored out most of the crap but then someone (rhymes with rails) figured out how to make ratings gold out of their deranged political/cultural rantings. Its just taken a decade or so for the envelope to get pushed to this extent (remember when porn and smoking pot used to be underground and not fit for polite society?)
Now, the Lefties have their own special versions of what we are currently witnessing but the last election calmed most of that stuff down. The Righties have been slowly churning in a pressure cooker for years – they won elections but didn’t see any of their aspirations realized and now they lose elections to the ultimate embodiment of their paranoid fears. And major media outlets and politicians codle them to reap the ratings and votes. Its going to get much worse before it gets better (I think Beck is going to be the parakeet in the coal mine much like McCarthy was in his time).
steve s
Can someone who knows Javascript please write us a little Greasemonkey dealy that will let us create a ‘killfile’? I’m getting really tired of reading that BOB idiot.
kay
@Ash:
I like the pirates story because there is (apparently) this whole industry and group of people with genuine expertise on pirate-related matters, so it’s not political, it’s fact-based and calm and rational.
They’re teaching us. I had no idea. They’re like "well, Wolf, in my 30 years experience dealing with pirates, you can’t take that approach…"
I’m really enjoying listening to captains and sea-related tradespeople (is there a NAME for this occupation?) telling Wolf Blitzer why we can’t just blow everything to smithereens, out in the big ‘ol international world ‘o the sea.
They have this separate universe going on, with rules and such, and it’s not political, and it’s not "American". It’s…trade.
Library Grape
@Brick Oven Bill: hmm, BOB becomes harder to understand with each passing day.
Library Grape
@steve s: john could solve it by banning his ip but, well, freedom for trolls and all that…
Polish the Guillotines
@kay:
Close your eyes and imagine Spongebob Squarepants saying it and it suddenly all makes sense.
AnneLaurie
Ha! I raise you: Try a skunk that has been badly surprised to discover that the egg it just opened was really, really rotten. On the Jones Beach, Long Island dunes, back in the late 1960s, when the automotive fumes were still leaded and before the beach clean-ups.
It was a late summer evening, and our first warning was the trickle of fellow beachgoers fleeing in advance of THE STENCH.
Mike in NC
But they didn’t get quite everything they were promised. The politicians they elected did manage to wreck the economy while lining their own pockets — which was all they really cared about, after all — but they also failed to "cure" the queers, force everyone into church on Sunday, impose government censorship on what you can read or listen to, outlaw all abortions, lay minefields and barbed wire fences along the Rio Grande, etc. etc.
kay
@Polish the Guillotines:
That actually works, so thank you.
When he said "they infiltrated our businesses" for some reason I thought of my first job, which was waiting tables at an IHOP. That’s when I snuck in. In my blue uniform.
After that, I was in, and they were screwed.
DanSmoot'sGhost
@Library Grape:
Bob has just run out of faux chinstroking patter and has gone straight for the annoytroll all the time.
Not very original.
MY BECK IS BIGGER THAN YOUR OBAMA.
Yes, Bill, we admire your great and strong Becker.
Thrust it high, big guy.
Brick Oven Bill
Laura W makes an excellent point. I will have to make a comment about Glenn Beck on the Open Thread posted above which could potentially get us up to rating of three and a half in a row. I am going to a Glenn Beck get together tomorrow, by the way.
I have been to a few of these now and I recommend that you check one out for yourself. They are not Democrat or Republican deals, the way I see it. Although there are probably more people who voted Republican than Democrat. I have witnessed no whackos.
There is a cross section of people, with small businessmen, contractors, and military types probably over-represented. They are fun events and sometimes there are adult beverages. Perhaps I will hold one at my house and if John will let me, I could provide a remote live blog from deep in the bowels of a Glenn Beck inspired get-together.
Glenn told people to sell when the market was at 14,000 and said that it would fall to 7,500. That was pretty insightful.
El Cid
@Mike in NC: This is exactly it. Their 40 year ascendancy was fueled by the implicit promise that if only the crazy right ever got full power, they’d create the fake 1890s / 1920s / 1950’s wingnut paradise they’d always dreamed of.
Darkrose
@joes527:
But that would mean taking them seriously, and legitimizing these idiots. Mockery is the most appropriate response.
Also, my exhaustive sampling of lesbian households–mine–reveals that teabagging is especially hilarious when you don’t do boys. Testicles? Are hilarious.
Darkrose
@steve s:
Cleek has the best killfile ever: you can change every post by a killfiled troll into a comment about pie. I don’t have the link, but I’m sure someone else does.
steve s
I’m not necessarily interested in banning the guy, but it would be nicer if I could avoid BOB-related dumbassery. I like the commenters here, but it’s annoying to skip over the 35% of comments related to things he said. It would be nice to have a ‘hide BOB-related crap’ button.
freelancer
This hasn’t been mentioned yet (I think), but I’m tempted to call Poe’s Law on the video. How do we know this isn’t a brilliant spoof, as in a Drinking Liberally where the game is Poker-faced Wingnut Oneupmanship? The woman shouting "burn books!" sounds like she’s chuckling insincerely, as if she knew the farce of what she said. I can almost hear her cheerlead for genocide with the same amused nonchalance.
Little Dreamer
Hmmm, you didn’t happen to just move into the apartment below me recently, did you? Do you perhaps yell a lot? I might consider my new neighbor a "dark rose" too, a VERY dark rose.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Oh noes! Who will save us frum teh ebbil ZOG?!
Dr. Loveless
A friend of mine has suggested that we go to the nearest teabagging party with hand-painted signs saying, "TOSS OBAMA’S SALID[sic] BEFORE HE TOSSES YOURS."
As for bad smells, nothing in my life experience compares to the humongous dump that a feral cat once took in the bushes outside my bedroom when I was in high school. That’s the first and only time a smell actually made me spontaneously vomit.
Little Dreamer
I think it’s great that after Republicans masqueraded as Democrats in the primaries to try to get more influence for their candidates, they are now being infiltrated at their little tea parties. Haha!
Little Dreamer
Oh, Damn it! What the hell did I say that put me into moderation?
Darkrose
@Little Dreamer:
Nope, not me. We don’t yell much, except when we’re talking politics or when someone in out pick-up group in game has done something really, really annoying.
freelancer
@Little Dreamer
I’m guessing when you quoted me, the link I had to Urban Dictionary carried over in the html, perhaps?
DanSmoot'sGhost
So did every contrarian financial rag and blog on the planet.
Not really.
I sold all my stocks last summer. Do I get a tv show?
DanSmoot'sGhost
@Little Dreamer:
The moderation filter is a little like Keno Pop(tm). It just … does whatever it wants.
Little Dreamer
Oooooh, I see.
Zuzu's Petals
@kay:
If they are sea-going Americans, they are Merchant Marines. Or if you prefer, merchant mariners.
And yes, the officer ranks are highly trained professionals. My son is one of them.
Little Dreamer
Gee, I just thought they were seamen.
David
I’m beginning to feel sorry for these people — they’re on the verge of realizing they’ve been scammed.
Brick Oven Bill
Well aren’t you fancy-smancy Dan. You may have sold your stocks last summer. But you have no place to be bitching about a TV show.
Behold, I am the Messiah of Doom, and I cannot even get my own TV show.
And mock the people stocking up on ammo all you want, but look at what has been happening to the price of ammunition.
Svensker
@Litlebritdifrnt:
What’s a battenburg ice cream cake? Parochial ‘murkens want to know.
Brick Oven Bill
Re: Merchant Marines
I have been pretty tough on Obama with his misrepresentations on the campaign trail and his behavior in office, and this is justified because he is a civil servant. But it is also understood that modern politicians sometimes have to be dishonest in our current system.
But he is doing a worse job as Commander in Chief. It is embarrassing.
I understand the need to have a warship at the scene of the hostage situation. This is a sign of strength and is proper. Having an American destroyer towering over a life raft with no gas for its putt-putt engine sends the correct message.
Sending a second warship to the scene sends the wrong message however. An Arleigh Burke class destroyer does not need backup to take on a life raft with no guns or means of propulsion. This will be a scene out of South Park.
Thoughts and prayers with Captain Phillips who sacrificed his personal self interest for his ship and crew. He is a brave man.
Svensker
Smells: The contents of a refrigerator that died right after we left for a two week vacation during a very hot summer. It was unbelievable. All the maggots in the neighborhood were vomiting. We had to throw out the fridge — could not be cleansed of that SMELL.
Little Dreamer
This statement coming from a conservative on the heels of the eight year long Bush II trainwreck is just priceless.
kommrade reproductive vigor
And thanks for yet another earworm. Also.
Are you, Doug & Tim having some sort of contest?
SGEW
@Little Dreamer: Bill is not a "conservative." He is mentally deranged. And yes, there is a difference (though it is a subtle one).
gex
@JPK: I think the point of mocking the tea bagging by Maddow and Cox is to point out how juvenile the protest is. These guys (the protesters) started out with tea party and switched to using the verb tea bagging knowing full well what the slang means. You can tell by watching them, you can tell by the signs. These good "family values" folk have their *kids* out there holding signs saying "tea bag Obama".
They deserve to be mocked and giggled at.
lilysmom
Over at LGF one commenter asked, "Where are all the sane Conservatives?" Would it be rude to say, "Now registered as Independents?"
vacuumslayer
Yes. Strap a camera to a pitbull. Put lipstick on it.
Raymond
Here in Houston, they can’t decide where the teabagging will happen. One radio station had someone on to clarify, but then ran commercials stating both places as the site.
I know this stuff is top down now. The Houston one illustrates the problem with that.
I hope to find a perch to photo them from somewhere in between.
Jrod
One destroyer? That’s just perfect. Two destroyers? That’s just tacky.
Thank you, BoB, for informing us of the exact number of ships required for pirate negotiations. How many would Bush have sent?
Anne Elk (Miss)
Oh come now……French overtures? German augmented sixth chords? Neapolitan chords? and all that Latin (and Catholic!) mass music?
Huccome you din’t learn no good ‘merikan music, huh?
kay
@Zuzu’s Petals:
Thanks. I read a book on modern piracy 2 years ago and really enjoyed it, so I knew a little. I know more than Wolf Blitzer, for example. A coupla terms, like that.
But. I’m impressed with the seamen. I love that they’re not running around like maniacs, screaming about blowing things up. They’re the polar opposite of the "terrorism experts" we’ve heard from for so long, it seems. They’re calm and professional.
vacuumslayer
I’m askeert. I’m feeling surrounded. And I think I smell the faint whiff of…tea…is that tea?…in the air…
kay
@Jrod:
I love how conservatives somehow know that sending the second ship is wrong.
Other than mentioning that, they won’t be weighing in further.
That’s helpful. Pirates, the budget, the economic collapse. They’re freaking experts on what other people are doing wrong.
FlowFlow
@Brick Oven Bill:
Umm, basic economics.
1. There’s two wars going on, the military is using a lot of ammunition.
2. People thing Obama’s going to steal their guns, so they’re buying a lot of ammo. "Lifetime supplies" as one gunstore owner put it.
That’s called demand. And when the supply doesn’t increase with it, prices go up. Maybe I should have opened an ammo plant last year with the money I saved by getting out of the stock market last summer. I almost didn’t, simply because Glenn Beck told me to. Now excuse me while I douse myself in fake gasoline.
kay
@Zuzu’s Petals:
And, I hope your son likes his work and stays safe while doing it. It’s hair-raising out there. I was reading about the French Navy’s attempts yesterday to rescue a pirate-taken hostage. It’s a really, really difficult problem to solve.
Brick Oven Bill
Obama’s only saving grace is that he sent the USS Halyburton, which is close enough, as the backup warship (a frigate). Sigh. Bush would not have done any better. In contrast:
Jefferson sent in the Marines (“to the shores of Tripoli”). In this battle, eight (8) Marines surrounded the gun emplacements of Derna, overtook them, and turned and fired the guns on Derna’s population, winning the battle.
The British shortly afterward bombed the population of Algeirs. Following the English bombing the Muslims freed their Christian slaves and this was the last the West heard of the pirates until recently.
There is no need to turn guns on population centers in 2009. We simply need to send special forces to the pirates houses, and snatch their loved ones. Then do a hostage exchange.
Personally, I would then give notice prior to blowing up the fancy pirate houses, as an incentive to not practice piracy in the future.
Little Dreamer
@SGEW:
I know, I was trying to not be rude.
The definition of that word conservative seems to have split into two different (and actually not very compatible) meanings recently.
Jrod
Yes, in stark contrast to Obama’s foolishness in sending another ship to Somalia, Jefferson knew that eight dudes were enough!
Sure, that was 200 years ago, and it’s a very different situation, but Obama should still do exactly as Jefferson did to deal with the Barbary pirates. Who didn’t come from Somalia and operated in the Mediterranean rather than Africa’s east coast, but heck, that’s a minor difference that shouldn’t result in any kind of change in tactics.
Remember kids, if your president is not exactly like Jefferson, he’s a failure!
Brick Oven Bill
Oh no. Obama is sending in a third warship, and a big one, the USS Boxer. This is to intimidate four guys with AK-47s in a life raft.
“Steel in his spine.”-Joe Biden
The world is watching this.
Jrod
God forbid the US uses overwhelming force. Obviously, Obama would do better to send just barely enough force to get the job half done, like we did in Iraq. Iraq worked out good, right?
Also, the knowledge that the US won’t hesitate to fill their coast with warships couldn’t possibly have any sort of deterrent effect on the pirates. Why, the only things that deters pirates are cursed doubloons! Arr!
D-Chance.
Cole began the quoteblocking three sentences too late on the Batchelor piece. Perhaps he didn’t want his readers to know that he guy he was quoting also thinks Nixon and Reagan were… Democrats?
SGEW
In fairness to Bill, he has unequivocally stated that he believes that slavery was "bad." [1] So: being exactly like Jefferson is not necessary. However, you must adhere to the founders’ beliefs on the poll tax, popular representation, and women’s suffrage in order to meet Bill’s standards of American Values. Left unclear are beliefs about the one drop rule, upholding treaty obligations with the Native Americans, or the true nature of phlogiston.
Also: Fancy pirate houses! In Somalia! Priceless.
[1] It was a welcome statement, if, frankly, a tad surprising- thankfully it seems that being an admitted racist does not require one to support the actual corporal subjugation of "less-developed people." It’s a sliding scale of noxiousness, apparently.
Brick Oven Bill
Pleasant people of good hearts are everywhere and are of all complexions SGEW. And then there is a saying about what happens to lawyers first.
Dave C
@Brick Oven Bill:
Surely this is a piece of complicated performance art?
SGEW
Mighty big of you. I’m glad to hear that you don’t think that being "pleasant" isn’t racially predetermined (as opposed to your beliefs about one’s ability to be "developed," or one’s inherent intelligence). But I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised; after all, all them ethnic folk sure are "happy," what with all that singin’ an’ dancin’ and those "happy feet" and all. You know. Pleasant.
Yes, you kill them all when you are planning on violently overthrowing the government through premeditated murder followed by a military coup.
(cf.)
Everything you write is far, far too revealing for your own good.
For my part, I think we should keep the lawyers around instead. And who knows? One of us might keep your racist ass out of jail one of these days.
[edit: All apologies for continuing to engage with our resident racist, sexist, crypto-aristocratic troll. It’s a sickness, I know. -SGEW+(redacted)]
dobrojutro
Brick-o-bill. Just maybe Obama is sending more warships to escort other vessels in the area rather than to surround a dinghy on three sides with a destroyer, frigate and an aircraft carrier.
Brick Oven Bill
No SGEW, you shut the lawyers up. And then you take a few hostages, and get Captain Phillips back to his family.
I do enjoy the projection though and note that you are assertive, which I respect. The Ukraine?
Jrod
@Brick Oven Bill: There was no projection, Bill. That line from Shakespeare was spoken by a man who was planning to murder the king and usurp the government in a coup. That’s what "First thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers" actually means: that pulling off an illegal coup is easier without nagging lawyers around.
But forget all that. I want to hear more about your plan to free Cpt. Phillips with eight marines and a couple olde-tyme corvettes.
slightly_peeved
The US tried that plan before. It didn’t work out that well.
Lesley
He’s in the marketing business.
What’s he selling? Cheetos.
Dennis-SGMM
(Knocks on door) "Hi, I’m Petty Officer Don Wilson. My fellow SEALs and I were wondering if your husband happens to be a pirate. No? Well, have a nice day."
Chuck Butcher
It appears that the US Navy is aware that the pirates are trying to bring into play several other pirate siezed vessels, which are considerably larger than the life boat. I would also guess that part of their intention is to prevent any other small craft from intervening. BOB you might try remembering that the English gave the Spanish a bit of a lesson about smaller craft versus larger craft hundreds of years ago – like Elizabeth I – the Boxer is home to jets and helicopters. In a match up between small fast crafts and helicopters, the choppers win.
If you’re going to opine about military tactics it would be a good thing to have some clue about them to avoid looking egregiously stupid.
Hiro Protagonist
@demkat620:
They wanted to be right, and they weren’t. Now they’re just bitter, and they’re blaming everyone but themselves.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Maybe Obama is sending the other ship because four other pirate ships, including their mother ship, a captured German cargo ship loaded with weapons and pirates, are coming out to save their brethren of the high seas who are holding the Captain hostage?
But what do I know, I only pay attention to facts. BOB operates on a whole ‘nother wavelength/spectrum/plane of existence. Facts are just a nuisance to BOB, unnecessary bilgewater.
Much like everything else he says.
M. Bouffant
Don’t let your pal BOB determine the terms. I believe it’s Gen.
Betray-usPetraeus who’s sending the ships, probably on the recommendation of the senior Naval officer in the area. I doubt that the Prez is micro-managing or even giving any specific orders in the whole deal.omen
bob baer had a pretty interesting scenario in his book about attacks launched against oil cargo ships.
Martin
They didn’t, actually.
What they wanted was to be right, that the worldview they had faith in would be proven true. Bush wound up being a false prophet, and their faith is shaken. Notice how they mix up things that are clearly faith based, like creationism, with the conspiracy theories, with real issues that they manage to get backward, like Obama’s so-called tax hikes, which so far have been almost nothing but tax cuts.
What’s really interesting about all of this, is that I can’t think of any forces on the left that have any power which are trying to drive people to clear departures from reality, yet there are a whole host of forces on the right, clearly with power, that seek to primarily do that. It’s really quite curious. It’s as though the GOP knows they can’t gather enough actual conservatives to win, and they’ve already rounded up the religious nuts, so now they’re going after the nutjobs just to bolster their numbers.
Martin
Clearly BOB needs to read the news more. The French tried to free hostages aboard one ship today, one hostage died. A Norwegian ship was released today. At least 4 other hijacked ships with hostages are moving toward the life raft.
Not knowing what more will develop out there, sending more than one ship seems more than prudent, especially if we want this to end. A US destroyer can easily repel 5 commercial ships if you don’t mind it blowing them to hell and back, but ships with hostages are a whole other ballgame, and firepower has limited value out there. We need something more like a blockade to keep these vessels isolated, and that’s hard to do with one ship.
dslak
And BOB can’t use tags properly. (Update – Ooh, it’s been fixed!)
El Cid
Fixt.
** Atanarjuat **
This comment on the Oliver Willis blog neatly summarizes my own take on the Left’s burn-the-books hysterical misdirection:
http://www.oliverwillis.com/2009/04/10/tea-party-attendees-call-for-book-burning/#comment-147978
That’s right, liberals. The actions of a few can always be extrapolated to accurately judge the behavior of the many.
Pffft.
-A
El Cid
Attanut: You mistake the derision. Everyone is condemning the mainstream, the source, the very core of the ‘tea party’ non-phenomenon. The extreme weirdo individuals at the fringes are just slightly more amusing than the weirdo individuals at the core. They are the comedy icing on the hilarious fruitcake.
kay
@El Cid:
It’s the risk you take. My new House member (special election) is attending a tea party. He ran as a moderate. His father was a moderate GOP House member, so he ran on his last name. I was told he was a moderate. He’s not, which I knew because he ran on his father’s name and served in the statehouse, prior to the US House.
He’s full-bore wingnut. Sadly, I get his ridiculous robocall "newsletter". Yup. Crazy as a loon.
The tea party was organized by a local crank who writes monthly letters to the editor about the federal reserve. The House member probably doesn’t know this; it’s a gerrymandered district, and big geographically. Oh, well. He’s going to find out. We don’t get a lot of House member visits. I’m sure it will be covered by the local press. I can hear the whining already.
El Cid
@kay: Right now I’m hoping to continue to watch the only formally right wing opposition party degrade into the Neo-Confederate / Bircher / Anti-Fluoridation alliance.
There’s a threat that the populist right ‘fringe’ (encouraged heavily by the organized pushers) will once again turn to cowardly violence, but the populist right will very quickly find that they are anything but the trigger to some wider revolt — they will quickly find that the vast majority of Americas are tired of the tantrum right’s shit. This is no 1990s buildup to the Reagan Revolution II; we’ve already been there, done that, and everyone hates them.
zoe kentucky from pittsburgh
Add my household and 3 other lesbian houses on my block– testicles are indeed hilarious.
As for Maddow’s tv show, it is very different from her radio show, but I think that is intentional. Her tv show fills a very big void on cable news tv. There are far too many angry, take-themselves-really-seriously pundits on tv, which makes watching her truly enjoyable. She’s deadly serious when she needs to be and mocks them when she should. She’s a breath of fresh air in a room full of stale blowhards.
** Atanarjuat **
@El Cid:
Right, Al-Seedy. Condemning the mainstream by the actions of the weirdos at the fringes of the tea party movement. That’s exactly what you, most of the Obama Juicers here, and the rest of the hard left blogosphere is doing.
I’ve yet to see a sober analysis by any liberal vis-a-vis the actual mainstream members of these tea parties that DOESN’T include the inflammatory kooks as examples to deride the entire phenomenon.
Just don’t be too miffed if the courtesy is returned when conservatives judge your own future protests. Fair’s fair, after all.
-A
El Cid
No, retard — did you fucking read what I wrote?
I am not condemning the mainstream by the actions of the weirdos at the fringe.
I am condemning the ‘mainstream’ of the ‘tea party’ idiots itself; I am amusing myself further by the fringe.
Again, nutball: the ‘mainstream’ of the ‘tea party’ non-movement are ridiculous idiot shitbags. The mainstream. The core. The essence.
Again, the ‘tea party’ fools are idiots because of their very core, not just because they also have a ‘fringe’.
You do not surround us. You are not the mainstream of U.S. society. All of you are fringe idiots. And the fringe of a fringe is just nuttier.
Spoof or not, try not to be so god-awfully stupid.
kay
@** Atanarjuat **:
I would be happy to discuss the idea behind the tea parties.
Let me see if I have it: you don’t want to pay taxes to fund policy you don’t agree with, right? Me neither. Now what?
I’m working and filing taxes on April 15th, just like I worked and filed taxes when you were in power. And paid for a lot of crap I opposed. Because I GET IT. I get what losing means in a representative electoral system. It means the other side advances policy. This is a big shocker on the Right?
bago
@Brick Oven Bill: So… according to BOB a show of overwhelming force is a sign of weakness… Right.
CuriousBlogSampler
The Bitter Rump
reflects what is left on the losers side of the victory not of socialism or communism or liberalism but of corporate capitalism plain and simple. The crazies are the last contorted screamers, expressing resistance, frustration and deep, even murderous-fighting anger at their losing, lost position. They are the last of the small holders, the last of the local populaces who in the past were the majority, those who have grow up their livelihoods in the parochial confines of a relatively local political economy and social ecology — parochial in all the senses of the term, good bad and ugly, from the yeoman self-reliant we esteem to the deeply prejudiced, sexist, often racist small-mindedness of most such local cultures. They are the one who for many historical social reasons, have not made some kind of a separate piece with corporate capitalism in the form of relatively well paid jobs on the vast insides of the organizations that corporatism has developed, organizations that have confiscated ownership of the means of a more competitive production in virtually every sector of the economy—more competitive in the short and middle run, long enough to drive out the small holders. The bitter rump of Republicanism is what is left of it, bitter, contorted, often barely recognizable but then — yes, just recognizable enough to attract a last nostalgic look and waning backward hope, as in the Alaskans and Gov. Palin. The image of the frontiers-woman incarnate — and not all image either.
The Tea Party folk are these mouths and figures of the bitter ends of the victory of corporate capitalism.
jnfr
@steve s:
cleek has.
TR
Unless you’re going to claim that Glenn Beck is somehow at the fringes of the movement he’s leading, then it seems like the weirdos are the very heart and soul of this thing.
Which was essentially the point of the original post — that the nuts aren’t fringe elements to the teabagging crusade, they’re the direct result of the nuttiness coming from the center of the teabagging movement, but other conservatives are too blind to get that.
Thanks for proving the point.
Martian Buddy
Martin:
I suspect it’s the other way around; by turning conservatism into a pseudo-religion where adherence to the orthodoxy is the greatest virtue, they’ve managed to drive away practically everyone who isn’t a member in good standing of the Church of Supply-Side Jesus. The absolute number of whackjobs likely hasn’t increased significantly, but they constitute a much greater percentage of the party base these days.
** Atanarjuat **
Al-Seedy and TR:
Liberals continue to insist that the entire tea party movement is composed of screaming, spittle-flecked idiots who gibber incoherently against their own self interests. Who could argue against the obvious, right?
With all due respect, most Obama Juicers and the hard-left blogosphere in general harbor deep-seated prejudices against conservatives and anything they do. Of course leftists will spin the motivations of the tea party phenomenon in the worst possible way. If any of you actually considered the reasons that engendered tea parties in the first place, you might start to wonder if your vote for President Obama was wise after all.
And that just won’t do. Hence the endless smearing and pretending that tea parties are solely attended by arm-waving kooks.
Meanwhile, I just slipped into my size 32 Levi 505’s from last summer and they still fit well. If any you here on Obama Juice have to suck in your gut to accomplish the same, you might consider working out and cutting back on the snacks, rather than spending countless hours sitting at the keyboard in your Quest to Crush Conservatives.
Just a helpful thought.
-A
TR
An idiot like yourself?
SATSQ.
TR
This is your fundamental error. I *have* considered the reasons, and I’ve decided that a tax plan that gives 95% of Americans, myself included, a number of significant tax cuts is not something I should regard as a "tax hike" and certainly not something I should take to the streets to protest.
I’ve considered the reasons for the tea parties, and like most Americans, deduced that the only reasons are craven political self-interest (from the organizers) and serious head trauma (from the participants).
Conservatives like to stamp their feet and whine that no one’s paying any attention to what they say.
The problem, however, is that we *are* paying attention to what they say. We simply find it to be utter nonsense, worthy of derision and contempt, and little more.
El Cid
Attanut: I need spend zero time working to insist on this; I simply let the tea party idiots prove it themselves.
Be clear about this: I don’t mock the ‘tea party’ non-movement, nor the tremendously lost and losing Republican Party of neo-Confederate Bircherite shit-heads because I think it’s somehow my responsibility to argue against their awesome time. I visit blogs such as this because it entertains me. The death throes of 40 years of right wing assholism gives me joy. I’m watching your precious movement flop about on sidewalks across America.
In no way whatsoever do I feel threatened by your blubbering insistence that you represent anything other than the same 28%-ers who just got their asses kicked yet again in this past election.
And I don’t know why you’re motivated to discuss your pants size, but it’s kind of creepy. If it makes you feel better to think your losing non-movement is more authentic because you sit in your Cheeto-stocked basement imagining that liberal blog readers are not as authentically yeoman manly as ye, hey man, do it. That may be your only source of satisfaction in the coming years in the crazy wilderness.
** Atanarjuat **
@El Cid:
Yes, of course, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and staying in shape is "kind of creepy." Your upside-down values are truly fascinating, Al-Seedy.
I should have realized that trying to suggest something healthier than expending impotent rage at a popular and growing movement such as the tea parties would be dismissed by a die-hard partisan like yourself, but hey, I still made the effort in good faith — which is more than I can say for your own endless WingnutZ R moranZ crusade.
As to the rest of your stale, recycled diatribe, what can be said other than the fact that if THIS is what you do for entertainment, then the pharmaceutical industry will be happy to supply you in the future with all the medication you’ll need to control your stress levels and keep your flabby heart ticking, such as it is.
Keep fighting the good fight and bang that keyboard with righteous fury, Al-Seedy. President Obama appreciates your sacrifice in keeping tax-paying, patriotic Americans at bay. The nerve of them, protesting instead of submitting meekly and properly to authority.
TR: Well-stated, and civilly written (for a change), but I disagree with your conclusion. "Most Americans" have yet to learn of the tea party phenomenon that’s gathering more steam with each and every passing day. The final outcome has yet to be determined of the actual impact of these events, so please, slow down and see what develops.
Thanks.
-A
TR
But why would that make any difference at all?
Currently, "most Americans" are siding with Obama, by a 2-to-1 margin. His approval ratings are in the high 60s, with the approval for his recovery plan in the low 60s. Meanwhile, the approval ratings for the people who are leading the opposition — and loudly making the exact same idiotic claims as the teabaggers — are in the low 30s.
Do you think discovering the mere existence of these tea parties is going to somehow change all that? "Oh, I didn’t agree with the Republican stance before, but now that they’re waving around Lipton tea bags, I *totally* get their argument. Count me in!"
Sorry, but I’m not buying it. And neither are most Americans.
El Cid
Attanut: I wish all you fat, flabby, right wing, pale, reactionary, failed small businessmen Southern dumbass morons would stop going on the liberal intertubes cruising for the hot gay sex you so desperately want. God bless you for trying to make people think you’re a hot, slim-waisted cowboy leading a ‘tea party’ revolution, but I’m just not interested, and there are plenty of online forums where you can openly seek to be manhandled by a Mao-cap wearing, whip-wielding stud.
[BTW: Most Americans think of little girls wearing pink dresses at small tables with stuffed animals, or maybe English aristocratic foppery, or rigidly obedient Japanese women and traditions when you say “tea party”, and not faux manly would-be yeoman revolutionaries. FWIW.]
dobrojutro
Hey there *****Lalanejurat****. You leave some pretty long posts yourself there slim. Leave the self-gratifying posts over at P90X.com. Freak.
El Cid
Attanut: Again, let me clarify for the dumb, fat, uneducated, failed, parents’ basement-dwelling lazy Southern right wing rednecks in the audience, such as ‘spoof troll’ Attanut: I’m not expending rage at your little frilly pink lace "tea parties" with your fine china and whining about being oppressed — I’m laughing at you and begging for you to receive all the public exposure you possibly can.
Charles
Demkat620:
"They" got everything they wanted; our neighbors who bought their bullshit did not. That’s why they’re angry.
TR
Agreed. I’d charter tour buses and take groups of registered independents out to watch these circle jerks if I could.
El Cid
They’re totally adorable. I would like to believe that the Democratic Party was clever enough to be the dark force behind the ‘tea party’ stuff, because they’re doing so awesome at being the revolting public face of their entire jackass party.
But you watch and listen to the real ones attending these things and they really are 100% convinced that if only more Americans could see their whoopin’ and hollerin’ that, yeah, this time, yeah, instead of completely losing 2 elections in a row and getting the lowest party ID figures ever, um, yeah, this time all of Uh-merika is going to rise up and be on their side.
It’s really, really fun to watch. If these were celebrities their agents would have all quit by now in embarrassed disgust.
** Atanarjuat **
@El Cid:
Wow.
Just wow.
Al-Seedy, I knew you were a scorched earth, die-hard liberal dead-ender, but I had no idea that you were also such an egregious homophobe.
Contrary to your belief, promoting an active and healthy lifestyle and being in shape does not equate to being a "hot, slim-waisted cowboy." That imagery was straight out of Brokeback Mountain, wasn’t it? The homophobia positively reeks in that comment of yours.
I fear to learn what other neurotic, hateful prejudices are nurtured in that cholesterol-ridden heart of yours.
Again, I say, WOW.
TR: Well then we’ll just have to see what "most Americans" will do after President Obama’s policies solidify further and affect everyone’s lives as the year progresses. I suspect that the tea parties that you and the surprisingly homophobic Al-Seedy keep ridiculing are only the beginning, and other grass-roots movements will emerge in the inevitable backlash against a heedless administration.
Thanks for the chat.
-A
TR
Suspect all you want. The evidence points the other way, but when have you ever been one to let facts get in the way of your beliefs?
El Cid
@** Atanarjuat **: I’m not a homophobe. If you’re gay, and you’re talking about your fantasy slim waist because you think that’s attractive, go for it. Be open and honest about it. I’m sure someone will be interested in you for who you are, and not for who you’d prefer to be.
If you can’t be honest about your own sexuality, please stop trying to prod me for details on my physical appearance. It’s really creepy, and I hope you don’t do the same with the children in your neighborhood.
Given that you’re a short, weak, fat, flabby, pasty-white failure consisting on the Cheetos Plus diet in your folks’ basement, I’m sure you have all sorts of weird temptations that I hope you’ve learned to restrain.
If it’s health you want to promote, go to your local tea party, and tell all your fat, flabby, lazy failed ‘conservatives’ to lay off the fatty meats and junk food all the time. You’d appear as a real hypocrite, given that what you know of healthy eating and physical fitness are taken from magazines you took from the barbershop, but then, since you’re part of a movement consisting of nothing but 100% hypocritical loudmouth failures, I’m sure teh fat blue line will be honored.
El Cid
Also, the proper title is Assayid, meaning "Lord", from the Arabic, which is one possible origin of the term "El Cid", who is of course known from the song / poem. En buen ora, cinxo su espada.
Mike in NC
I’m thinking there’ll be more than a few news reports about "noted pedophile arrested at anti-tax tea party" on April 15th.
Marc
I am very much looking forward to the teabagger parties. Republicans are coming across as spoiled children, and their base is feral.
For many years liberals have been told they are responsible for every anarchist kid on the side of a million person protest. Now I want the cameras rolling and I want the GOP associated with Stormfront and the militia movement. It is a fitting end to a loathsome party.
Oh, and ata – according to wingnut rules, if memory serves, speaking ill of the commander in chief in a time of war is the *opposite* of patriotism. Why, if the situation was reversed I think that you’d even call it treason.
Have fun at your treason party!
Red
:::jaw drops:::
These people redefine *batshit crazy.*
I truly wish I had gone to the trouble to print up t-shirts and bumper stickers with the most insane drool-worthy crackpot slogans on them, and sold them to all these nutzos. "Barack Obama was born in Kenya!" "I [heart] Sarah Palin!" and other fartings on t-shirts and stuff would be sold like hotcakes.
But you know, I might not have been able to come up with slogans that were *batshit crazy* enough.
** Atanarjuat **
@El Cid:
Of course you’re not a homephone, Al-Seedy. That’s why the description of size 32 Levi 505’s immediately compelled you use the imagery of a "hot, slim-waisted cowboy" as a slur to bash me with. That’s pretty fucking sick, no question about it.
I’m not sure what kind of repressed psyche it takes to veer so quickly into gay-bashing when cornered in a debate, but I’ll be sure to remember this next time you storm so rabidly against another positive conservative development, such as the upcoming tea parties on April 15th.
-A
Jrod
When people finally realize the massive injustice of a progressive tax system, which was invented by Obama in Kenya, they’ll come around to the tea party side!
Also, I’m super-super sexy, which further proves my point.
Jrod
A, Cid was remerking on the fact that nobody here gives a fuck how fat or skinny you are, and by telling us about it you creep us right the fuck out.
Weren’t you going to explain how it’s not, in fact, bug-fuck nutty for people who are receiving a tax break to be in the streets protesting a tax hike? Maybe you were going to explain how a shift of 3% on the top marginal rate is rock-solid proof that Obama is a foreign sleeper-agent terrorist commie? Maybe you could explain how the Lily Ledbetter Act is the first step toward Communo-fascism?
El Cid
I love the fact that spoof Attanut thinks he’s getting out of the hole he’s furiously digging in his his fantasy awesome straight leg manly cotton classic Levi’s 505’s.
Look, Attanut, we know you would rather be proud to tell us all how you wear a special Star Trek commemorative muumuu to make you more comfy in the two chairs you zip-tied together in your parents’ basement. We all see your strange warbling about your nice slim jeans and desperately needing to know how much I weigh as a cry for help. This means people care. You should cherish that.
It’s okay that you like double cheeseburgers and hate vegetables. I grew out of that stuff a long time ago, but you need to start taking your health seriously. All those repressed homoerotic longings can be bad on the heart, or so I see from so many Republicans and fundamentalist Christians dying from heart problems.
Mike in NC
And the downside to this is what?
Jrod
Funny how right-whiners inevitably scatter like cockroaches under the kitchen light when someone asks them what, exactly, Obama has done to warrant massive protest or armed insurrection. We all know the answer is HE’S BLACK! but nobody wants to admit it, or come up with a a better reason.
No, really, these teabag parties are protesting the evil of raising taxes on billionaires! We poor to lower-middle-class white people are highly offended that Obama would shift the tax burden to roughly the same place Clinton left it! Plus, where’s that birth certificate? No, the one that was released didn’t count, because *mumble mumble mumble* so there!
JWW
Yeah John,
The mirror does speak. Only you are looking at slate, there is no reflection you have to deal with. Yes, Glenn is an ass but he has done more for our soldiers and the current situation than you have been brave enough to write.
Nobody knows your face and it seems doubtful that you know yourself…
RodM
Marketing crazy. Seems to be selling pretty well, maybe you get free crazy with the purchase of tea? Or is it free tea with the purchase of one crazy theory? That’s one of them marketing things thing they’ll have to figure out, to market them back into power.
"Dammit they got them black helicopters, they should be our black helicopters! Their black helicopters (BH), want to take our guns, our BH want to protect you from terrorists and immigrants! Everyone knows listening into every conversation, e-mail and combing through massive amounts of data to profile every American is superior to brainwashing! They want to brainwash us folks and they’ll have to pry my mind from my cold lifeless body! Give me ignorance or give me death!"
lulz
bruno
to atanarjuat
You keep responding to the personal attacks, which is a convenient way to keep avoiding having to explain what the ‘tea parties’ are all about.
You have eluded several times about what they are not about, but I am still waiting to hear from you exactly what they are about, according to how you understand it.
If you can’t explain it, we are left with believing what some of the conservatives have been saying. If you think it is not fair to show some of the crazy ideas talked about during the parties, why don’t you speak up and educate us on what exactly they are about.
It seems to me that there are many politicians and pundits on the right who are falling over themselves to headline and/or host these parties. Kind’a like the french revolutionary politician who said: "There go my people, I must follow them as I am their leader"
There also seem to be a lot of disgruntled and misinformed people attending those events. I feel sorry for them. Why? Instead of doing some critical thinking they prefer to engage in group think, reinforcing their idealistic Utopian ideas. Unfortunately, considering the state of the economy, I think it is fair to say that their philosophy has actually failed. It’s not as if their elected representatives didn’t have a crack at it the last 8 years during the Presidency, the last 16 + years in congress, and as obstructionists when in the minority.
What else do conservatives want? Proclaiming to having a mandate because of barely winning an election (2000); yet when losing decisively, still assuming it is a center right nation.
When are conservatives who vote Republican going to treat liberals who vote Democrat by their very own standards? Remember those nuclear option threats? Up or down votes? Disagreement with the Commander in Chief is treasonous?
I digress: Please indulge me: What do the tea parties stand for? What are their beliefs? What solutions do they have for our country? (condition: your explanation should be based in reality; not some Utopian wish list)
Bob Powell
The irony here is that the Boston Tea Party wasn’t about what Americans have been led to believe. It was not a protest against taxes; it was against NOT TAXING the world’s largest transnational corporation, The East India Company. It had been exempted from paying taxes on the tea it exported to the American colonies. The Tea Party protested U.S. markets being exposed to unfair and destructive "free trade" competition. It was a demand for the kind of (gasp) protectionism that has allowed the U.S. to develop as an economic power as explained in Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang (12/07). On the history of Boston Tea Party, see America’s First Anti-Globalization Protest: The Boston Tea Party By Thom Hartmann.
The fundamental problem (aside from the Fed-created speculative bubble and the lack of regulation that permitted all that "toxic debt") is that what’s called "free trade" has undermined the US economy and wages. The Smoot-Hawley specter is raised whenever anyone raises the issue of protecting the U.S. economy. They’re lying; google "Smoot-Hawley Fiction".
EriktheRed
@Ash:
Send him this:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/13/719443/-LOON-WATCH:-Right-wing-fail-in-pirate-standoff
DTG in STL
Ed Schultz just gotten taken for a ride. As did many of us.
I think that video is hilarious, but a little detective work shows that the videographer – the chick who yells "Burn the books!" – is a parody artist ala Stephen Colbert.
She’s one of us. And she is a genius.
I looked through her YouTube account, and I found another video from the exact same party that she shot.
Guess how she tagged the video?
glenn beck, project 912, morons, hicks, hillbillies, uneducated retards, fox news.
She’s pretending to be one of them, but really she is making fun of them.
I have to hand it to her – she did good. She blended in perfectly with that crowd, and she got the guy to agree with her when she said we should burn the books with "that evolution crap" in it.
But it’s clear she’s not a genuine wingnut – she’s a pretender infiltrating behind enemy lines and parodying these morons. She’s a Canadian hipster chick who lives in downtown Toronto and has "I hate Jon Stewart, John Oliver and Samantha Bee. Glenn Beck is the best!" in her profile.
But she did great. And she was so convincingly authentic that Ed Schultz just played the video on his MSNBC show showing her screaming "Burn the books!" and he seemed to believe that she was being genuine.