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You are here: Home / Fight For the Right to be Stupid

Fight For the Right to be Stupid

by John Cole|  April 15, 20093:20 pm| 130 Comments

This post is in: Clown Shoes

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These guys are really so dumb it hurts:

Outside the White House, protesters threw an apparent box of tea bags over the fence. U.S. Secret Service officers cleared Pennsylvania Avenue and Lafayette Park near the compound and sent in a robot to inspect the suspicious package while the White House went on lockdown.

Solid thinking, teabaggers! Seriously. That is almost a Darwin Awards entry- “Watch me throw this package over the fence while snipers sit on the roof of the White House!” Also:

But a funny thing happened en route to a visually pleasing Tax Day protest. The National Park Service said the tea party protesters didn’t have the proper permit to dump their bags.

…

“We have a million tea bags here, and we don’t have a place to put them because it’s not on our permit,” said Rebecca Wales, lead organizer of D.C. Tea Party.

…

A local think tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said it would allow the dumping of the tea bags in its 12th floor conference room instead. Not quite the same impact, though.

No doubt there will be protests planned to protest the burden of getting proper protest permits. Maybe we can get all of them together to burn their driver’s licenses or something on Independence Day.

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Reader Interactions

130Comments

  1. 1.

    mellowjohn

    April 15, 2009 at 3:23 pm

    have the EPA round ’em all up and chuck ’em in the FEMA concentrations camps!

  2. 2.

    bayville

    April 15, 2009 at 3:23 pm

    Judging from the video from the various Tea Parties, just be glad these "revolutionaries" aren’t burning any bras.

  3. 3.

    Fencedude

    April 15, 2009 at 3:23 pm

    Oh, so we’re throwing things at the White House now?

    Pft, teabags are weak.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRfzbuwuZHI

    Skip to 1:40 or so.

  4. 4.

    mellowjohn

    April 15, 2009 at 3:24 pm

    btw, i can think of a place they can put their tea bags.

  5. 5.

    Bulworth

    April 15, 2009 at 3:25 pm

    That collective teabag burning or dumping over at the rightwing Competitive Enterprises Institute sounds like quite the bang. We liberals won’t ever recover from that.

  6. 6.

    NonyNony

    April 15, 2009 at 3:25 pm

    U.S. Secret Service officers cleared Pennsylvania Avenue and Lafayette Park near the compound and sent in a robot to inspect the suspicious package while the White House went on lockdown.

    Thanks, teabaggers, for wasting tax dollars on security for your antics. I’m sure that closing down Pennsylvania Avenue and running in a robot is only a couple of bucks.

    Stupid. So stupid.

  7. 7.

    Steve

    April 15, 2009 at 3:27 pm

    I’m pretty sure the original tea partiers didn’t have a permit and didn’t particularly care. These guys don’t do civil disobedience very well.

  8. 8.

    The Moar You Know

    April 15, 2009 at 3:27 pm

    I honestly did not think the election of a black man to the Presidency would send the nation off the deep end.

    I thought there’d be some weirdness and the occasional lunatic, like in the Clinton years. This is something quite different. And by different I mean "terrifying and yet hilarious".

  9. 9.

    Dusty

    April 15, 2009 at 3:29 pm

    Thanks, teabaggers, for wasting tax dollars on security for your antics. I’m sure that closing down Pennsylvania Avenue and running in a robot is only a couple of bucks.

    They’re already wasting tax dollars by sending tea to Congress. Every envelope has to get scanned and the contents tested.

  10. 10.

    SpotWeld

    April 15, 2009 at 3:30 pm

    We’re seeing some critical failures in an ability to do long term planning, and people are looking to these nuts for tax advice?!!

    I think I’d rather ask Willie Nelson

  11. 11.

    Bulworth

    April 15, 2009 at 3:31 pm

    @Steve:

    Some revolutionaries these teabaggers. Although considering that the most ambitious thing some of these deadenders have done is answer the door to get the pizza…

  12. 12.

    JR

    April 15, 2009 at 3:31 pm

    All this crazy just 3 months in. There is not enough popcorn in the world.

  13. 13.

    Dave L

    April 15, 2009 at 3:35 pm

    That’s two appearances from the Competitive Enterprise Institute in five posts. I never heard of them before today; anybody else?

    Based on their endorsement of teabag-dumping and sending licensed Rambos off to Somalia, I wonder if there’s anything an outfit like that has to do to actually earn the coveted "think-tank" moniker. The tank part is pretty clearly present, but why is this kind of lizard’s hind-brain cogitation labeled ‘thinking’?

  14. 14.

    Violet

    April 15, 2009 at 3:35 pm

    Dumping teabags in a conference room? On the 12th floor? You can’t make this stuff up. You can hardly skewer it. It’s already parody. It’s like parody of parody with a little tea and parody on the side.

  15. 15.

    asiangrrlMN

    April 15, 2009 at 3:36 pm

    @The Moar You Know: Oh, I knew it would unhinge the right fringe to have a black man as prez. I just thought it would take a little longer than three months.

    @NonyNony: Well, in their defense, they did say they were going to teabag the White House.

  16. 16.

    rob!

    April 15, 2009 at 3:36 pm

    I’m amazed at the sheer lack of SHAME these people have.

    When I was a kid, I was terrified of doing a friggin’ BOOK REPORT if I I hadn’t read the book. But these people can go to a public protest, where there’ll be cameras and reporters, and have not the slightest clue as to what they’re protesting about.

    Under Ronald Reagan, the top tax rate was 50%, but as we all know Reagan=Awesome!

    Under Obama, top tax rate to be set at 39%=OHMIGOD WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!

  17. 17.

    Fencedude

    April 15, 2009 at 3:37 pm

    @Dave L:

    I was just having the same thought.

    Its either a coincidence….OR A CONSPIRACY!

  18. 18.

    Tsulagi

    April 15, 2009 at 3:37 pm

    You know, during this pivotal moment in U.S. history with the fate of the nation hanging in the balance, I would have expected live blogging or something at teabagging central, RedState. Nothing. Top of their page hasn’t changed about a Chinese ship saved by dolphins. Maybe Code Pink has the RSSF pinned down and took away their communications.

  19. 19.

    Bad Horse's Filly

    April 15, 2009 at 3:38 pm

    I’ve had a sucky day. So I’m grateful for the opportunity to hate on these people for a little while. And right now, in this moment, I really, really hate these people.

  20. 20.

    vishnu schizt

    April 15, 2009 at 3:40 pm

    Isn’t throwing a bunch of fucking teabags into a river littering with some fine like $1000.00? Who is going to clean all that shit up anyway?

  21. 21.

    GP

    April 15, 2009 at 3:41 pm

    I have been watching this tea bag thing most of the day. Of all the pictures I nave seen,I have to ask.. Why is it I only see white people there…………….

  22. 22.

    Martin

    April 15, 2009 at 3:42 pm

    So this revolution against fascism was stopped cold by an incomplete permit. Who knew the park service bureaucracy could hold back an army?

  23. 23.

    TR

    April 15, 2009 at 3:43 pm

    Judging from the video from the various Tea Parties, just be glad these "revolutionaries" aren’t burning any bras.

    From the looks of it, most of those guys let their manboobs roam free.

  24. 24.

    ksmiami

    April 15, 2009 at 3:43 pm

    Sorry – I sawe this quote by a commenter at First Read and thought it was particularly appropos:

    "Republican Teabaggers, Rabble without a cause."

  25. 25.

    BDeevDad

    April 15, 2009 at 3:44 pm

    Heard on another site:

    I’ll bet they’re wishing they had a COMMUNITY ORGANIZER now.

  26. 26.

    Emma Anne

    April 15, 2009 at 3:45 pm

    This has bugged me from the start. Why tea bags? I am pretty sure the protest on which this is modeled used loose tea. Tea bags are dumb. They are litter, they open the whole thing up to endless suggestive jokes, and they are just generally wimpy.

  27. 27.

    bayville

    April 15, 2009 at 3:45 pm

    It’s not a real protest until someone gets tazered so let’s get real teabaggers.

  28. 28.

    Joshua Norton

    April 15, 2009 at 3:46 pm

    it would allow the dumping of the tea bags in its 12th floor conference room instead.

    Hell, I’ll let them dump them in our conference room. Free teabags for the break room for about 6 months.

  29. 29.

    SpotWeld

    April 15, 2009 at 3:46 pm

    ..this, this is the Conservative "Burning Man", isn’t it?

  30. 30.

    John PM

    April 15, 2009 at 3:46 pm

    Maybe we can get all of them together to burn their driver’s licenses or something on Independence Day.

    I think the answer to that is obvious: On Obama’s birthday, have all of the teabaggers (hee, hee) burn their birth certificates.

  31. 31.

    Emma Anne

    April 15, 2009 at 3:46 pm

    Also: any good coverage yet? I need some funny videos and pictures to brighten my day.

  32. 32.

    AL

    April 15, 2009 at 3:47 pm

    @vishnu schizt: If the protest is sponsored by GE, nobody.

  33. 33.

    Polish the Guillotines

    April 15, 2009 at 3:48 pm

    @vishnu schizt:

    Isn’t throwing a bunch of fucking teabags into a river littering with some fine like $1000.00? Who is going to clean all that shit up anyway?

    And what the hell do you do with a bunch of caffeine-hopped decorative carp?

  34. 34.

    passerby

    April 15, 2009 at 3:49 pm

    And Jason Linkins from HuffPo reported it this way:

    "But! As it turns out, the alternate plan –

    1. Take a million teabags to Lafayette Park,
    2. Dump them on a tarp,
    3. Yell at them,
    4. Clean up the teabags
    -also isn’t happening, because of permit issues.

    "According to reports, the truck filled with teabags pulled up to Lafayette Park, but didn’t have a permit, and so they were loaded back on to the truck and driven off to an undisclosed location.

    "Also, the plan to have a second rally in front of the Treasury Department was scotched after the Secret Service said, "Uhm, no."

    This is so very sad.

  35. 35.

    Argive

    April 15, 2009 at 3:53 pm

    Man, I knew Obama getting elected would make stupid right wingers go crazy. I knew that they would make the Clinton-era crazies look like rank amateurs. But I wasn’t quite prepared for this. Their idiotic attempts at protest rallies have coalesced into a glorious masterpiece of fail that will be hard to top. I can’t really remember the last time I encountered this much total, epic fail.

  36. 36.

    lou

    April 15, 2009 at 3:54 pm

    They’ve already been causing problems for Congress.

  37. 37.

    scav

    April 15, 2009 at 3:54 pm

    If so, Martin, could the park service possibly issue piracy permits?

  38. 38.

    Evinfuilt

    April 15, 2009 at 3:54 pm

    @Violet:
    Yup, dumping tea bags at your own lobbyist.

    Now, that’s weak tea.

  39. 39.

    Phoenix Woman

    April 15, 2009 at 3:55 pm

    @BDeevDad:

    You win the internet today. :-)

  40. 40.

    Dreggas

    April 15, 2009 at 3:55 pm

    I am sad to say my father bragged he was going to a tea party today….I told him how utterly stupid they were but, as usual, my once logical father had his brain snatched by the wingers.

  41. 41.

    ** Atanarjuat **

    April 15, 2009 at 3:56 pm

    With regard to the reckless box tossing over the White House fence, it seems that many rightwingers have suddenly forgotten that we do indeed live in a post-9/11 world.

    I wouldn’t be too surprised if conservative bloggers, realizing how dumb this stunt really was, will try to spin this in the following manner:

    "Remember that veteran-hating ‘rightwing extremists’ DHS report? Obama’s Secret Service deliberately went into panic mode and made this out to be more dangerous than it really was in order to characterize the Tea Party participants as a bunch of — wait for it — rightwing extremists! The conclusion has already been made, and now they’re going to get the evidence, no matter how silly or manufactured."

    But really, have rightwingers really forgotten the Anthrax Attacks that occurred only one week after 9/11? There’s a reason to treat any and all objects hurled at the White House with extreme suspicion, having nothing to do with partisan beliefs.

    -A

  42. 42.

    JR

    April 15, 2009 at 3:58 pm

    @GP: I was tempted to go to my local teabagging to see if I would be the only black person there. Then I decided I already knew the answer to that question.

  43. 43.

    gbear

    April 15, 2009 at 4:00 pm

    "According to reports, the truck filled with teabags pulled up to Lafayette Park, but didn’t have a permit, and so they were loaded back on to the truck and driven off to an undisclosed location."

    The driver was last seen desperately searching his pockets to find the Sam’s Club purchase receipt.

  44. 44.

    MBunge

    April 15, 2009 at 4:01 pm

    Has the GOP driven away the smart or simply attracted the stupid? If Obama launched a war against Belgium and tried to impose wage-and-price controls on underware, would the Democrats also look like this after 7 years or is there something uniquely idiotic about the modern right-wing nutjob?

    Mike

  45. 45.

    Evinfuilt

    April 15, 2009 at 4:02 pm

    But really, have rightwingers really forgotten the Anthrax Attacks that occurred only one week after 9/11? There’s a reason to treat any and all objects hurled at the White House with extreme suspicion, having nothing to do with partisan beliefs.

    Yes they forgot about the Anthrax attacks. That’s why they keep saying there’s been no terrorist attacks since 9/11. truth is incompatible with their wingnut ways.

  46. 46.

    JL

    April 15, 2009 at 4:02 pm

    @Dreggas: Recently I received a note from my brother stating that he could no longer communicate with me because of my support for Obama. The envelope had a stamp of Mary and Jesus.
    Fortunately, my brother’s politics have nothing to do with me as long as he doesn’t become a Tim McVeigh.
    The best advice is shrug it off.

  47. 47.

    NonyNony

    April 15, 2009 at 4:03 pm

    @Emma Anne:

    This has bugged me from the start. Why tea bags? I am pretty sure the protest on which this is modeled used loose tea.

    Tea bags are cheap. You can buy a box of a hundred for a couple of bucks and they’re available in literally every single supermarket in the country – rural, urban, suburban. Finding loose-leaf tea in West Nowhere, Ohio it tougher than finding a box of Tetleys or Lipton.

    Tea bags provide a visual image that comes directly to mind when you think of "tea". Which means it provides an instant "symbol for the cause". If "teabag" weren’t already a slang term for a sex act, using a bag of tea as the symbol of your movement wouldn’t be the worst idea I’ve ever seen.

    The only other form of tea that is as readily available as bagged tea is instant tea – which doesn’t lend itself to being a symbol of a movement and would generate a lot of jokes on its own. The big problem for these guys is that the whole "movement" came about from people too sheltered to understand that just about anything can have a sexual innuendo or scatological joke built around it, so you should really check with a smart and not socially isolated 19 year old to see if, perhaps, your symbol has already been co-opted into the slang to mean something you don’t intend.

  48. 48.

    passerby

    April 15, 2009 at 4:04 pm

    @BDeevDad:

    I’ll bet they’re wishing they had a COMMUNITY ORGANIZER now.

    Heh. I sure hope this brilliant slice of snark gets some air play tonight when they cover this, to borrow Argive’s words,

    glorious masterpiece of fail.

  49. 49.

    Argive

    April 15, 2009 at 4:04 pm

    @Emma Anne:

    Well, when you think about how much wingnuts already distort history, using tea bags instead of loose tea is kind of a small thing.

  50. 50.

    JK

    April 15, 2009 at 4:05 pm

    More idiocy courtesy of Fox News Channel

    Fox News reporter Cody Willard called the recently passed stimulus package fascist, and urged viewers to "wake up and start fighting the fascism" that is coming from the U.S. government.
    Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/15/fox-news-reporter-wake-up_n_187289.html

  51. 51.

    TenguPhule

    April 15, 2009 at 4:05 pm

    This is so very sad.

    And yet so very good.

  52. 52.

    BDeevDad

    April 15, 2009 at 4:07 pm

    @Phoenix Woman: Unfortunately, I cannot take credit. See first comment here.

  53. 53.

    PaulW

    April 15, 2009 at 4:08 pm

    Let’s try to measure this:

    Cost of the teabags being bought simply for being tossed about like wasted junk = $

    Cost of the security needed at Congress and the White House to go through each suspicious package containing tea, because of the risk of other biological contaminants = $$$

    Cost of the patrols and street-level security to keep the ‘protests’ violence-free = $$$$$

    Here’s an idea: why not have the government total up the costs, and send the FRAKKIN BILL TO FOXNEWS FOR PAYMENT! They’re promoting it, THEY PAY FOR IT.

  54. 54.

    The Cat Who Would Be Tunch

    April 15, 2009 at 4:10 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    I’m waiting for an actual brown Muslim person to be sworn in as POTUS on the Qur’an. Or better yet, a lesbian atheist that refuses to use any religious text and doesn’t say ‘So help me God". Can’t wait to see the fireworks those events will cause.

  55. 55.

    Zifnab

    April 15, 2009 at 4:13 pm

    Back in November, all the comedians were going all, "Oh boo hoo! With George Bush gone, who will we make fun of?" I believe we have our answer.

  56. 56.

    Argive

    April 15, 2009 at 4:14 pm

    @The Cat Who Would Be Tunch:

    How about a black, crippled, Jewish lesbian from a Muslim family?

    Heads asploding left and right, I say.

  57. 57.

    Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)

    April 15, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    Hunter Thompson wanted to heave a bag of live rats over the fence at the Nixon White house.

    These goobers are gonna dump their little teabags in a conference room on the 12th floor.

    Man, that’s just sad.

  58. 58.

    RememberNovember

    April 15, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    @Argive:

    only if they were a veteran. Then they would esplode like Mr. Twiddle.

  59. 59.

    Frodo

    April 15, 2009 at 4:17 pm

    @Argive:

    How about a black, crippled, lesbian Jew from a Muslim family?

    And a mutant?

  60. 60.

    KG

    April 15, 2009 at 4:19 pm

    I’m pretty sure that I know more than a few people going to a few of these protests today. I’m tempted to swing by one, morbid curiosity, more than anything. But the more I read/watch/listen to these folks, the more I wonder, wtf? I just can’t do it anymore. I’ve tried, a couple of times, recently to listen to conservative talk radio, I found myself yelling at the radio.

    Limbaugh, this morning, was a perfect example. Three minutes into his rant about excessive government spending, I’m wondering where the hell was he when his buddy was expanding Medicare, creating DHS, expanding the federal role in education, and starting a war of choice? And then I remember, it’s not about the Republic, it’s about the political party, it’s us versus them.

  61. 61.

    passerby

    April 15, 2009 at 4:20 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    Exactly. It’s fascinating, maybe even morbid, to watch this hate fueled and outdated belief system sputtering in its death throes.

  62. 62.

    asiangrrlMN

    April 15, 2009 at 4:23 pm

    @JL: Are you kidding me? Seriously? What a sad, sad, sad thing for your brother to do. I talked to MY brother after he voted for Bush (twice). I talked to him for all eight years Bush was in office. Your brother can’t take three months of Obama?

    Sorry that you have to deal with that.

  63. 63.

    Zifnab

    April 15, 2009 at 4:23 pm

    @The Cat Who Would Be Tunch: By the time the nation is so divorced from ridiculous stereotypes and smears that its willing to elect an atheist lesbian that openly rejects religious symbolism, we’ll be far past the point in which anyone seriously cares.

    Getting a POTUS to swear on the Qur’an wouldn’t fill me with much more excitement than a POTUS swearing on the Bible… or the Book of Mormon or the Hindu texts or a big ole box of Dianetics guides. I’m not really interested in watching the nation exploring all 31 flavors of crazy before finally concluding that religion doesn’t matter.

  64. 64.

    big woo

    April 15, 2009 at 4:26 pm

    I honestly did not think the election of a black man to the Presidency would send the nation off the deep end

    Sadly, I never doubted for one minute that such things would happen. It became quite clear during the election that for many, the "natural order of things" was somehow being violated.

    All that’s missing is a rope, a tree and one of Glenn Beck’s "them" at each location.

  65. 65.

    asiangrrlMN

    April 15, 2009 at 4:27 pm

    @The Cat Who Would Be Tunch:

    Hey, I’m an Asian American bisexual agnostic deist who is not married, has no kids, and has no desire to have them. I would not swear in on any kind of text, except, perhaps, for the dictionary.

    Will I fit the bill?

  66. 66.

    Tim (The Oher One)

    April 15, 2009 at 4:27 pm

    Under Ronald Reagan, the top tax rate was 50%, but as we all know Reagan=Awesome!

    Under Obama, top tax rate to be set at 39%=OHMIGOD WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!

    Rob, permission to quote please (?) That’s a lightbulb moment.

  67. 67.

    bvac

    April 15, 2009 at 4:28 pm

    I saw someone holding a sign that said "I’m not your ATM" with a drawing of a white hand handing money to a black hand. I’m sure there was no racist intent there.

  68. 68.

    chuck

    April 15, 2009 at 4:28 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    I honestly did not think the election of a black man to the Presidency would send the nation off the deep end.

    It didn’t. It drove Fox News round the bend. They merely have a big bullhorn and delusions of relevance.

  69. 69.

    Ed Drone

    April 15, 2009 at 4:31 pm

    "Republican Teabaggers, Rabble without a cause clue."

    Fixed.

    Ed

  70. 70.

    Gandolph Fitch

    April 15, 2009 at 4:32 pm

    Teabagging — now that is the one (and practically the only) thing GOOPers do well. That and bald-faced hypocrisy.

  71. 71.

    Napoleon

    April 15, 2009 at 4:34 pm

    @big woo:

    I never doubted it for a minute either, but in a way it is a very good thing for moderates and liberals (assuming no one gets hurt). I have long thought that a large chunk of the right harbors a large bodies of beliefs that if brought to light would shock 60% of the population. I could never understand why the Dems did such a poor job of pushing them to center stage. I thing Obama’s election, combined with the accross the board beatings the right have taken at the ballot box (along with an assist from technology that allow almost anyone to tape anything at any time) has caused the right to leap in front of the camera’s with their right wing spew the I have been hearing privately from rock rib conservatives for 30-35 years.

  72. 72.

    Evinfuilt

    April 15, 2009 at 4:34 pm

    @The Cat Who Would Be Tunch:
    If only I wasn’t born in England…
    Transgendered, married Lesbian Atheist… Though I’d prefer swearing on the Constitution itself, its what really matters.

  73. 73.

    roseyv

    April 15, 2009 at 4:34 pm

    So, wait. These guys seriously planned an entire event around what boils down to, essentially, dumping a quarter-ton of litter on a public park, and it never occurred to them that they might need some kind of special permission from the city to do that? Seriously?

    Maybe this is more of a grass-roots thing than it seems.

  74. 74.

    Napoleon

    April 15, 2009 at 4:37 pm

    @bvac:

    I’m sure there was no racist intent there.

    I forget where I read it today but one quote from a teabagger I read today was something like "sure everyone should be able to have health insurance, but when you are driving around with fancy rims on your car and a cell phone don’t complain to me".

  75. 75.

    Evinfuilt

    April 15, 2009 at 4:38 pm

    @roseyv:
    No one could have expected that it was illegal to dump trash on public party!!!

    Nope, it definitely came from the top of the party.

  76. 76.

    Head of the Class

    April 15, 2009 at 4:38 pm

    Hilarious, FreedomWorks issues warning to "protestors"–via TPM

    DON’T BE DUPED! The term "teabagging" has strong sexual connotations. Be wary of anyone with a camera asking you if you are a "teabagger" or if you enjoy "teabagging" or similar leading questions – they are trying to make a fool of you.

  77. 77.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    April 15, 2009 at 4:39 pm

    @Tim (The Oher One): That’s a lightbulb moment.

    And it leads nicely to pointing out that the top marginal rate in the 1950s, the Glorious Conservative Utopia Years of Perfection, was 90%.

  78. 78.

    Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)

    April 15, 2009 at 4:39 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    I honestly did not think the election of a black man to the Presidency would send the nation off the deep end.

    I’m as cynical as they come, and even I’m surprised by the depth of hatred. There’s really no other explanation, is there?

  79. 79.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    April 15, 2009 at 4:41 pm

    @Napoleon: one quote from a teabagger I read today was something like "sure everyone should be able to have health insurance, but when you are driving around with fancy rims on your car and a cell phone don’t complain to me".

    What, nothing about countertops?

  80. 80.

    Sloegin

    April 15, 2009 at 4:41 pm

    This is good.

    I suspect more than a few vaguely disaffected Fox viewers will have had quite the winger meltdown moment today; going to a rally, looking around, and realizing the people around them have totally lost it.

  81. 81.

    Tonal Crow

    April 15, 2009 at 4:44 pm

    @JK: If the wingnuts really want to fight fascism, they could commit suicide. Or donate to the ACLU.

  82. 82.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    April 15, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    @Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon): I’m as cynical as they come, and even I’m surprised by the depth of hatred. There’s really no other explanation, is there?

    I am also a weapons-grade cynic but I’m not surprised by the depth of hatred. I’m surprised by the length of the clown shoes and the patheticness of the pathos and the abjectitude of the stupidity.

  83. 83.

    jibeaux

    April 15, 2009 at 4:47 pm

    Transgendered, married Lesbian

    Well, *now* my brain hurts.

  84. 84.

    Dennis-SGMM

    April 15, 2009 at 4:48 pm

    … A local think tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said it would allow the dumping of the tea bags in its 12th floor conference room instead.

    I bet they sang patriotic songs in the elevator on the way up. Take that, Obama!

  85. 85.

    Bubblegum Tate

    April 15, 2009 at 4:49 pm

    @asiangrrlMN:

    You’ve got my vote!

  86. 86.

    ColoRambler

    April 15, 2009 at 4:52 pm

    "sure everyone should be able to have health insurance, but when you are driving around with fancy rims on your car and a cell phone don’t complain to me".

    This doesn’t make any sense now, but I guess it might when you can go to the grocery store and buy a nice chunk of health insurance for $9.99 ($19.99 if you want a camera and an MP3 player with it). And though they’re not my auto accessory of choice, I’m pretty sure one month’s insurance premiums (still fortunately mostly employer-covered, thank FSM) would keep me in fancy rims for a very long time.

  87. 87.

    SGEW

    April 15, 2009 at 4:52 pm

    That’s two appearances from the Competitive Enterprise Institute in five posts. I never heard of them before today; anybody else?

    I mostly knew of them as the major global warming denial unit, funded by Ford, ExxonMobil etc., who also dabbled in other pro-corporate (Pfizer, Coca-Cola) and right-wing (Scaife, et. al.) lobbying. Oh, and they also fought anti-smoking laws, citing "research" that second-hand smoke is jest fine an’ dandy.

    Nice to see that they’re branching out and diversifying their portfolio in the post-Bush years.

  88. 88.

    Napoleon

    April 15, 2009 at 4:55 pm

    Awesome, over on the front page of DKOS Jed L. is reporting that Cavuto was picked up, when he did not realize it, saying he thought 5k were at one of the events (his estimate) then a few minutes later "on air" he said the number was 2 or 3 times that.

    Fair AND balanced.

  89. 89.

    Napoleon

    April 15, 2009 at 4:57 pm

    @ColoRambler:

    That is what makes it doubly stupid. Say the rims in question were $200 a crack. What does that get you, couple of months of insurance?

  90. 90.

    Tonal Crow

    April 15, 2009 at 4:57 pm

    @Dennis-SGMM:
    All together now:

    Mine eyes have seen the glory of the bagging of the tea,
    I can’t stand to pay my taxes ‘cuz I worship O’Reilly,
    I’ll Go Galt and then those lib’rals will be screamin’ "We’re sorry!"
    Oh, freedom’s marching on!

  91. 91.

    Tax Analyst

    April 15, 2009 at 4:58 pm

    Maybe we can get all of them together to burn their driver’s licenses or birth certificates on Independence Day.

    fixt.

  92. 92.

    Tonal Crow

    April 15, 2009 at 5:01 pm

    @Tax Analyst:

    Maybe we can get all of them together to burn their driver’s licenses or birth certificates V***ra prescriptions on Independence Day.

    Fix’t.

  93. 93.

    AkaDad

    April 15, 2009 at 5:01 pm

    In harsh economic times as these, I appreciate having a day when I don’t have to pay to get tea-bagged.

  94. 94.

    Charles

    April 15, 2009 at 5:05 pm

    Stupid rules are still stupid rules. Tossing tea bags over the whitehouse fence is reminiscent of the vietnam vet protesters throwing their (or someone else’s) medals back.

    I’d prefer the teabaggers act stupid by themselves, can we not go all Boston? Throwing what is obviously a box of tea bags over the whitehouse fence is no reason for locking down the place. It’s a staged protest, we’ve known it was coming for weeks. Pretending it’s a bomb is something worthy of as much ridicule as the protest.

  95. 95.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    April 15, 2009 at 5:06 pm

    @Napoleon: What does that get you, couple of months of insurance?

    A couple of weeks, if you’re doing COBRA.

  96. 96.

    The Cat Who Would Be Tunch

    April 15, 2009 at 5:08 pm

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Perfect! Let’s draft you to run against Palin/Bachmann in 2016, as long as you don’t have any loony ideas that are remotely close to the right wingers’ in terms of idoicy. Evinfuilt can be on your ticket as VP. Since ACORN and liberals are experts at birth certificate forgeries, the inconvenient truth of her being born in England is just a minor detail.

    And sorry Argive, since we’ve already elected a black person as president (which obviously proves that racism is dead in the US), there is no need to elect another one regardless of the variant.

    @Zifnab:

    I’m not really interested in watching the nation exploring all 31 flavors of crazy before finally concluding that religion doesn’t matter.

    Unfortunately, I’m not sure that you have much choice in the matter. The only way for people to get used to the idea that it doesn’t matter which of the ’31 flavors of crazy’ a president subscribes to is for them to live through it. So until then, let’s sit back and enjoy the comedy gold that erupts each time a person with an aura of ‘The Other’ gets elected. Like tea bagging.

  97. 97.

    passerby

    April 15, 2009 at 5:08 pm

    @Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon):
    Moar and Monty, I think we’re seeing them come to grips with the end of the white privilege paradigm that has been running under the radar for these people. There’s a colored man in the oval office who, in their minds, ain’t supposed to be there dad gummit.

  98. 98.

    ColoRambler

    April 15, 2009 at 5:11 pm

    That is what makes it doubly stupid. Say the rims in question were $200 a crack. What does that get you, couple of months of insurance?

    Hardly — that’s about one month’s premiums for the dirtest-cheapest individual plan, for a healthy young single person, with a deductible marginally less than the national debt, and coverage limited to "we’ll patch you up if you’re hit by a bus". The total monthly cost of my health insurance, for a basically healthy family of 5, is just south of 3 figures these days (again, mostly employer-paid, thankfully). So each month’s insurance is a whole set of rims, plus change.

  99. 99.

    Trollhattan

    April 15, 2009 at 5:12 pm

    The Sacramento baggers are in the midst of their prom at present. No Malkin sighting, and I couldn’t hang around and listen to any more droning waiting for her show and toss some exotic meat at the crowd. The only "name" speakers when I was there were Michael Reagan and Cliff Clavin. No, really.

    Perhaps two thousand there, certainly the most white folks I’ve seen in one place since my last trip to Salt Lake City. The DHS right wing terror memo was probably the meme o’ the day. God, I loves me some paranoia, but the irony gods are probably at work increasing the very recruitment upswing it cites. Also.

  100. 100.

    asiangrrlMN

    April 15, 2009 at 5:16 pm

    @Bubblegum Tate:

    Thank you. One down, only a hundred million to [email protected]The Cat Who Would Be Tunch: Brilliant idea. Me and ACORN are likethis. The only thing upon which the rightwingers and I agree is that we are nothing like each other.

    I would love to have Evinfuilt as my running mate.

    Let’s start a grassroots campaign!

  101. 101.

    Krista

    April 15, 2009 at 5:16 pm

    Jed L. is reporting that Cavuto was picked up, when he did not realize it, saying he thought 5k were at one of the events (his estimate) then a few minutes later "on air" he said the number was 2 or 3 times that.

    I can’t be the only one who’s wondering if at least 10% of the attendees at these things were lefties who just went for the lulz.

  102. 102.

    Mike G

    April 15, 2009 at 5:25 pm

    They think the Federal Reserve is evil. Maybe we can get them to burn all those green rectangular pieces of Federal Reserve paper in their wallets in protest.

  103. 103.

    That One - Cain

    April 15, 2009 at 5:33 pm

    @JL:

    @Dreggas: Recently I received a note from my brother stating that he could no longer communicate with me because of my support for Obama. The envelope had a stamp of Mary and Jesus.
    Fortunately, my brother’s politics have nothing to do with me as long as he doesn’t become a Tim McVeigh.
    The best advice is shrug it off

    Wow.. I don’t think I’d let political affiliation come between siblings. That’s not family values to me.

    cain

  104. 104.

    JL

    April 15, 2009 at 5:37 pm

    @That One – Cain: Hate and bigotry aren’t family values either. The stamp was touching though.

  105. 105.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 15, 2009 at 5:42 pm

    @That One – Cain: If politics isn’t tearing yer family apart you aren’t doing it right.

  106. 106.

    Gordon, The Big Express Engine

    April 15, 2009 at 5:48 pm

    Fairly sizable crowd in downtown houston – probably north of 500. Maybe a thousand. I am 65 stories up and block away. Wish I could drop something on them…

  107. 107.

    Tax Analyst

    April 15, 2009 at 5:51 pm

    Tax Analyst
    Maybe we can get all of them together to burn their driver’s licenses or birth certificates on Independence Day."

    Well, I just see that "John PM" made a similar comment 1st back at comment #30. I hadn’t read through all the comments yet when I posted mine.

    And here I thought myself so clever (sigh).

  108. 108.

    AnneLaurie

    April 15, 2009 at 5:58 pm

    I think the answer to that is obvious: On Obama’s birthday, have all of the teabaggers (hee, hee) burn their birth certificates.

    Oh, I’d *pay* to see that protest! Not very much, to be sure, but if all us DFHs offer a modest sum, perhaps we can spark something?

  109. 109.

    AhabTRuler

    April 15, 2009 at 6:02 pm

    If politics isn’t tearing yer family apart you aren’t doing it right.

    Amateurs. My family can tear itself apart over whether to use ‘awakened’ or ‘awoken’.

  110. 110.

    Krista

    April 15, 2009 at 6:14 pm

    Amateurs. My family can tear itself apart over whether to use ‘awakened’ or ‘awoken’.

    Hell, all my family has to do is uncork a bottle of Merlot, and you can practically set your watch to when the battle will start.

  111. 111.

    Tax Analyst

    April 15, 2009 at 6:20 pm

    @Tax Analyst:
    Maybe we can get all of them together to burn their driver’s licenses or birth certificates V***ra prescriptions on Independence Day.
    Fix’t.

    I suspect that if they were able to produce Weapons of Mass Erection they might hurt themselves. You know how these guys like to make things explode.

  112. 112.

    Mary-A

    April 15, 2009 at 6:22 pm

    @asiangrrlMN:

    ooohhh! Can I be your FEMA director?

    No, I don’t have any experience handling vast and complicated crises. When did that become a prerequisite?

  113. 113.

    Tonal Crow

    April 15, 2009 at 6:37 pm

    @Tax Analyst:

    I suspect that if they were able to produce Weapons of Mass Erection they might hurt themselves. You know how these guys like to make things explode.

    Yeah. The teabagging easily could get out of hand, what with all those GOPers with "wide stances", not to mention the 2M4Mers.

  114. 114.

    smiley

    April 15, 2009 at 6:38 pm

    It’s a staged protest, we’ve known it was coming for weeks. Pretending it’s a bomb is something worthy of as much ridicule as the protest.

    Given how many threats this White House has probably had to deal with, that’s excellent advise. Thanks.

  115. 115.

    gwangung

    April 15, 2009 at 6:40 pm

    I’d prefer the teabaggers act stupid by themselves, can we not go all Boston? Throwing what is obviously a box of tea bags over the whitehouse fence is no reason for locking down the place. It’s a staged protest, we’ve known it was coming for weeks. Pretending it’s a bomb is something worthy of as much ridicule as the protest.

    Glad you’re not in charge of security for any of my operations.

  116. 116.

    Tonal Crow

    April 15, 2009 at 6:49 pm

    @Charles:

    Throwing what is obviously a box of tea bags over the whitehouse fence is no reason for locking down the place. It’s a staged protest, we’ve known it was coming for weeks. Pretending it’s a bomb is something worthy of as much ridicule as the protest.

    And you knew, without checking, that it was a "box of tea bags" how?

  117. 117.

    Jay in Oregon

    April 15, 2009 at 6:58 pm

    Rush Limbaugh, imam of the Republican Party, has issued a new fatwa:

    President Obama is a monster who ordered the execution of three black Muslim kids!

    They were kids. The story is out, I don’t know if it’s true or not, but apparently the hijackers, these kids, the merchant marine organizers, Muslim kids, were upset, they wanted to just give the captain back and head home because they were running out of food, they were running out of fuel, they were surrounded by all these US Navy ships, big ships, and they just wanted out of there. That’s the story, but then when one of them put a gun to the back of the captain, Mr. Phillips, then bam, bam, bam. There you have it, and three teenagers shot on the high seas at the order of President Obama.

  118. 118.

    Cris

    April 15, 2009 at 7:05 pm

    @Jay in Oregon: Holy shit, Rush is objectively pro-pirate.

  119. 119.

    Tax Analyst

    April 15, 2009 at 7:08 pm

    Tonal Crow
    @Tax Analyst:
    I suspect that if they were able to produce Weapons of Mass Erection they might hurt themselves. You know how these guys like to make things explode.
    Yeah. The teabagging easily could get out of hand, what with all those GOPers with "wide stances", not to mention the 2M4Mers.

    Maybe for their next protest they could throw wet-suits and dildos.

  120. 120.

    Tonal Crow

    April 15, 2009 at 7:09 pm

    @Jay in Oregon: I always knew that Limbaugh was soft on terrorists, but it’s nice to see him admitting it so clearly.

  121. 121.

    Comrade Darkness

    April 15, 2009 at 7:57 pm

    John, Dude, I just noticed the URL says p=20000. Do you really have 20,000 posts?? Let’s see 2009, 2002 – (1/x) (it’s an rpn calculator…) 20,000 * , 365 ÷ yields 7.8 posts/day. Huh. Yup. 20k posts. Wow.

  122. 122.

    SGEW

    April 15, 2009 at 8:01 pm

    @Comrade Darkness:

    I find it to be very appropriate that the 20,000th post here on B-J is titled "Fight For the Right to be Stupid."

    Three cheers for being consistently wrong! Hip hip . . .

  123. 123.

    Comrade Darkness

    April 15, 2009 at 8:08 pm

    I honestly did not think the election of a black man to the Presidency would send the nation off the deep end

    Fortunately, this country has container ship loads of undertapped black talent we can now draw upon because it is more readily recognized. I think we’ll pull through. Watching the tea party protests flounder has given me more optimism than I’ve had in a while. These people are in inherently incompetent. They may get lucky and manage to do some real damage but they are too full of shit to even do basic research into organizing a frigging protest, that greatly reduces the chance they can navigate their way to page two of the Anarchists’ Cookbook.

  124. 124.

    asiangrrlMN

    April 15, 2009 at 8:10 pm

    @Mary-A:

    Well, Mary-A, I would have to vet you.

    Ok, I vetted you.

    20,000th post? What do we win??????

    You’re in like Flynn! Heckuva job, Brownie!

    P.S. Rush Limbaugh….There are somethings that cannot be said aloud, even on this blog.

  125. 125.

    Charles

    April 15, 2009 at 8:22 pm

    Frick guys, have you been to a grocery store ever? They’re 3 or 4 inches long and maybe an inch and a half square. Even if this teabagger had a really good arm, it was over 100 yards from the building.

    The secret service DOES have some REAL concerns on their hands. It’s a crowd of people who don’t like the president, they could do any number of things that are truly dangerous. The machine gun get together was what, 2 weeks ago? Throwing a tiny package maybe 40 or 50 feet (they’re light, I don’t expect they fly very well) isn’t going to be one of them.

    Post-9/11environment is a rightwing excuse to stifle dissent, first amendment still stands, right? Their right to protest is our right to protest. You know that story from Boston, right? How did we know those neon aliens flipping us off weren’t a bomb? Oh yeah, because that’s silly.

    So I didn’t like Bush, why can’t I throw a shoe in ceremonial protest?

    For the record, I’m glad I’m not in charge of security either. President of the United States isn’t a safe job. Being the first black president only makes it worse. A giant hat tip to those that sign on to protect them.

  126. 126.

    TenguPhule

    April 15, 2009 at 8:28 pm

    President Obama is a monster who ordered the execution of three black Muslim kids!

    JFCNTZYM.

    Only 36 hours ago, Rush the Hut was calling Obama a pussy for not carpetbombing them.

    How his listeners do not get brainwhiplash from listening to him is beyond me.

  127. 127.

    Paul L.

    April 15, 2009 at 8:38 pm

    @TenguPhule:
    Actually Rush is mocking your side.
    Democracy Now: Somalia Piracy Began in Response to Illegal Fishing and Toxic Dumping by Western Ships off Somali Coast
    I am waiting for progressives to say that the Captian overstepped Obama’s order and should be tried for war crimes.
    Even funnier John Amato now has a post condeming Rush for the parody when his site has the above post excusing the pirates.

    Anyone know when Kos first used this quote?
    “First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.” -M.Gandhi
    I want to throw back in the left’s face for the tea parties.

  128. 128.

    PhoenixRising

    April 15, 2009 at 10:31 pm

    @The Cat Who Would Be Tunch:

    Or better yet, a lesbian atheist that refuses to use any religious text and doesn’t say ‘So help me God".

    But I don’t WANT to be the President of this insane, collapsing bucket of crazy country.

    So you’ll have to seek your entertainment elsewhere.

  129. 129.

    PhoenixRising

    April 15, 2009 at 10:46 pm

    $200 is about one month’s premiums for the dirtest-cheapest individual plan, for a healthy young single person, with a deductible marginally less than the national debt, and coverage limited to "we’ll patch you up if you’re hit by a bus"

    Um, right except for the part that when I did in effect get hit by a bus, they didn’t pay for the patch job until my lawyer sent them a sternly worded letter.

    If I weren’t gay married to her–and providing certain services as a quid pro quo for the best legal talent that shares my pillow–they’d have stiffed the hospital and ruined my credit.

    I tell this true story ad nauseum because the HDHP that covers me and the munchkin for $200 a month is what the ignoramuses in the GOP want everyone to own a piece of. Instead of access to health care.

    If the ER would have accepted 20 inch gold spinners as a substitute for tens of thousands of US dollars, I’ve have boosted a set. Learning to steal hubcaps, unlike arguing with for-profit bureaucrats who get paid for every claim they delay or ignore, has the potential to work out in the end for someone.

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  1. Live Post: Tea Parties in the United States « Citizen’s Daily Brief says:
    April 15, 2009 at 5:35 pm

    […] EDT: LOL, teabaggers not allowed to throw teabags at the White House and are stuck with all those leftover […]

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