US tea party

[Topaz]

The Republicans finally held their "tea party" saying that they don't like the way the Obama is spending their tax dollar. Hannity and Cunningham, talk radio jocks and probably Rush, planned this and my question to them where were they when Bush was spending billions on the stupid war in Iraq??? Oh, thats right, Bush gave a tax cut and the rich like Hannity and Rush got millions back and now Obama is taking it away to help pay of the 9 Trillion + debt!

[punked]

Hahaha the tea bagging today was a disaster. There was no support. I actually saw a report which read "hundreds show up at Boston tea party." In a huge city like Boston thousands show up to wait for the bus, hundreds is just a funny report.

[Shady]

Hannity and Cunningham, talk radio jocks and probably Rush, planned this

No they didn't. That seems to be a common misconception. It was mostly planned online and through small conservative groups around America.

my question to them where were they when Bush was spending billions on the stupid war in Iraq???

A lot of them felt the Iraq war spending was necessary. However, they didn't feel the same way about Bush's irresponsible deficits, and sat home the last couple of election cycles because of it, very disheartened of the Republican party.

Bush gave a tax cut and the rich like Hannity and Rush got millions back

No, another misconception. Bush cut tax rates of every tax bracket. And people keeping more of THEIR OWN MONEY, isn't getting anything from anybody.

and now Obama is taking it away to help pay of the 9 Trillion + debt!

No, he's not paying a single cent of the debt. In fact, according to his own budget numbers, he's going to run trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. And he's going to compile more debt then all the previous President's combined, from W all the way back to Washington. That's part of what the tea parties are about.

[BubberMiley]

So this Dick Armey arranged for everyone to be teabagging at once?

[Shady]

actually saw a report which read "hundreds show up at Boston tea party."

I don't know about Boston, but there were 15,000 - 20,000 people in Atlanta's, which isn't bad considering it was held in the evening, when most people just want to relax after work. They couldn't hold one during the day, because unlike Democrat protestors, Republicans actually have jobs, and don't usually have time to protest during the morning and afternoon hours.

So this Dick Armey arranged for everyone to be teabagging at once?

I have absolutely not idea what you're talking about. I think he was a Republican congressman about 10 years ago.

[jdobbin]

No they didn't. That seems to be a common misconception. It was mostly planned online and through small conservative groups around America.

The website is run by a Republican and Republican party people have jumped on board even though it called a non-partisan event. It was promoted with advertising on FOX News paid for by FOX.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30227452/

And while they insist it's a nonpartisan effort, it has been seized on by many prominent Republicans — such as former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey — who view it as a promising way for the party to reclaim its momentum.

[BubberMiley]

I have absolutely not idea what you're talking about. I think he was a Republican congressman about 10 years ago.

I read that this Dick Armey is leading this mass teabagging. How could you do it without a Dick Armey?

[jdobbin]

I read that this Dick Armey is leading this mass teabagging. How could you do it without a Dick Armey?

He certainly is one of the people who appeared as one of the spokesmen.

By the way, did you notice that FOX News labeled the event?

http://mediamatters.org/items/200904160011?f=h_latest

Indeed, Fox News has repeatedly described the protests as "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties."

Edited April 16, 2009 by jdobbin

[Shady]

Here's a great contrast between the way leftwing cable news outlets like CNN covered the tea parties, compared to how they covered infinitely smaller liberal protests. Both clips are from the same so-called "reporter."

Thousands of people there protesting, and all she said was "This is not really family viewing." Whatever that means.

Note her last line of the 5 people that are there protesting. "Mr Obama, are you watching?"

[BubberMiley]

Thousands of people there protesting, and all she said was "This is not really family viewing." Whatever that means.

Teabagging in a public place is offensive to some people.

[Shady]

Teabagging in a public place is offensive to some people.

Funny stuff, I hadn't heard that type of joke ever before.

Anyways, on to real issues. Did anyone else notice that the CNN fake reporter was armed with several Obama Administration talking points?

[Michael Hardner]

They're overreacting, and it will probably work.

[BubberMiley]

Some interesting pictures from the tea party rallies. I like the guy with the sign saying "Taxpayers are the Jews in Obama's Ovens."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/16/1...r_n_187554.html

[Shady]

Some interesting pictures from the tea party rallies. I like the guy with the sign saying "Taxpayers are the Jews in Obama's Ovens."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/16/1...r_n_187554.html

Yeah, that's almost as good as the 'Palin is a c*nt' t-shirts worn by Obama supporters during the campaign.

[BubberMiley]

Yeah, that's almost as good as the 'Palin is a c*nt' t-shirts worn by Obama supporters during the campaign.

Really? That's pretty tacky. But, of course, once again unsourced and unsubstantiated, so given your penchant for completely exaggerating the truth, I guess we can't take your word on that, can we "truth detector/McCain voter"?

[Smallc]

The CNN reporter should be severely reprimanded if not fired. That strayed far from CNNs usually good reporting...as for FOX News and MSNBC...well....they shouldn't even be considered news networks.

[Shady]

Here's some video illustrating the fact that these tea parties were not a soley blame Obama gathering. This is a Republican congressman in North Carolina, being booed off the stage for his support of TARP and other bank bailouts. Enjoy.

[KrustyKidd]

The Republicans finally held their "tea party" saying that they don't like the way the Obama is spending their tax dollar.

Of course, with the economy collapsing, you are all for

$335 million for education related to sexually transmitted diseases$650 million for coupons to help people make the switch to digital TV

$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts

$400 million for global warming research

$100 million for reducing the danger of lead paint in homes

$2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects

$50 million for NASA facilities that may have been harmed by natural disaster

$200 million for the U.S. Geological Survey to monitor earthquakes and volcanoes

$650 million for the U.S. Forest Service to remove fish passage barriers, forest improvement and watershed enhancement projects

$1.5 million for a National Institute of Health/Institute of Medicine report to Congress

$50.6 million for services for older blind individuals

$400 million for the Social Security Administration’s new National Computer Center

$325 million for Academic Achievement Awards

$70 million for programs to help people quit smoking

$75 million for a super-computer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Since by calling this a Republican event rather than what it was, a bunch of people sick and tired of their money being spent on shit with no rhyme or reason, you are obviously in agreement with the pork listed above. Perhaps you can explain how any of it is justified at a time like this.

[JerrySeinfeld]

What's wrong with people gathering publicly to protest confiscatory taxation, unprecedented government annexing of the economy and over 6 trillion dollars (more than 6 times the amount spent on a 6 year war) spent in just under 3 months?

Free born citizens who value individual liberty and self-reliance over government largess are angry, and rightfully so.

That reporter Susan Roesgen is so mired in her belief that the only way to live is by sucking government teet that she can't even fathom why someone wouldn't want a $400 "credit" from Obama. That's how far gone most people are - she could easil have come straight from Canada.

[WIP]

It's sickening how U.S. conservative and religious media reinvent their own history to suit their present day needs, and the Tea Party protests are just the latest manifestation.

I noticed this three years ago when I was an active member of a U.S. conservative forum; every Thanksgiving, there would be a thread posted by one of the many religious conservatives proclaiming the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as the founding of the nation as a Christian nation. And the annual event included a reading of how the colony floundered because of its socialist beginnings with commune farms, and was saved when the colonists discovered God-given free market economic principles. Lots of things wrong with this mythical reinterpretation of events, the big one being that the Puritans derived their socialist goals from a literal reading of the verses in the Book of Acts which call for giving their belongings for the common good and taking what was needed for their own survival. But every Christian rightwinger who is confronted with the socialist advocacy of his own scriptures jumps right into cognitive dissonance mode and can only respond with unrelated accusations and allegations.

Now, here with the Tea Party, this scheme was given its start when Rick Santelli vented on about how wrong it would be to give some relief to homeowners in danger of foreclosure -- naturally, he sees nothing wrong with bailing out Wall Street firms, but that's another matter. All of the speeches I seen on Youtube clips from the demonstrations only mention the "taxation without representation" principle and use that to frame the Boston Tea Party as a tax revolt against higher taxes. The real story is that Crown taxes were not the immediate cause of the sabotage of three British East India ships, but were instead caused by the Tea Act, which cut the taxes of the BEIC, giving them an uncompetive advantage, a virtual monopoly of the tea trade over other local businesses:

The Tea Act was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (13 Geo III c. 44, long title An act to allow a drawback of the duties of customs on the exportation of tea to any of his Majesty's colonies or plantations in America; to increase the deposit on bohea tea to be sold at the East India Company's sales; and to empower the commissioners of the treasury to grant licences to the East India Company to export tea duty-free.), passed on May 10, 1773.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Act

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/teaparty.htm

[ironstone]

The Republicans finally held their "tea party" saying that they don't like the way the Obama is spending their tax dollar. Hannity and Cunningham, talk radio jocks and probably Rush, planned this and my question to them where were they when Bush was spending billions on the stupid war in Iraq??? Oh, thats right, Bush gave a tax cut and the rich like Hannity and Rush got millions back and now Obama is taking it away to help pay of the 9 Trillion + debt!

Just so you know,proportionally,the rich pay far more taxes than those who are not rich.And Obama is greatly adding to the Uniteds States debt load.

[ironstone]

The CNN reporter should be severely reprimanded if not fired. That strayed far from CNNs usually good reporting...as for FOX News and MSNBC...well....they shouldn't even be considered news networks.

I agree with you about MSNBC but FOX is the best.I used to watch CNN all the time.Then for a while,my satellite provider offered FOX free for a while.I found they were much better than CNN and the rest.And they are pretty balanced too.

[JerrySeinfeld]

I agree with you about MSNBC but FOX is the best.I used to watch CNN all the time.Then for a while,my satellite provider offered FOX free for a while.I found they were much better than CNN and the rest.And they are pretty balanced too.

I think it's funny that the vast majority of the "news" sources out there report the news with a slant to the left, with some "sort of" attempting objectivity but still the left wing bias of the reporter finds it way through somehow (CNN for example), and other much more blatant and unapologetic such as the CBC (which recently had the gall to air a full report on why the pirates are justified in their actions) or the New York Times (which doesn't even pretend to be objective).

And then one - just one - major network comes along that, for a change, slant's it's reporting to the right and the socialists can't stand it. I mean, GIVE US BREAK.

The entire news / media complex is pushing YOUR agenda and you want to shut up any alternative viewpoints?

Sheesh. Talk about tyranny of the left.

FIGHT THE POWER! FOX YOU ROCK!

[Smallc]

the left wing bias of the reporter finds it way through somehow (CNN for example), and other much more blatant and unapologetic such as the CBC (which recently had the gall to air a full report on why the pirates are justified in their actions) or the New York Times (which doesn't even pretend to be objective).

yeah, they're all left wing.... they never manage to be unbiased... and I've never seen a CBC piece doing what you say, so try again. FOX News is the best unbiased source out there of course...

[Smallc]

And they are pretty balanced too.

Yes, having reporters out there taking the side of the people at the tea party...very balanced....