Who's Responsible for the Racist "Tea Party Comix"?

Teabaggers -- as per usual -- say it was a "plant"

Evan McMorris-Santoro reports at Talking Points Memo:

The progressive webscape has been alight for the past couple days with the story of a truly amazing bit of racism -- the Tea Party Comix. These black and white pages, resembling one of those free zines the nerds among us used to pore through before the days of blogs, are reigniting the debate over tea party racism in the days before the movement's latest diversity-themed event.

Today, some top tea partiers are disavowing the truly impressively bigoted comic books, claiming that they're an obvious plant by tea party opponents. But at the same time, no one seems to know much about them. The mystery is still unsolved and the comics remain.

The books were first flagged by Ethan Persoff, the comic book blogger who brought us the hilarious Defense Department Don't Ask, Don't Tell explanation comic book "Dignity and Respect." Pershoff told Rachel Maddow's blog that he bought the first issue of the comic (there are at least three) somewhere in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Each issue of the comic (there are three out on the net) is very, very racist, pulling no punches when it comes to bashing President Obama with the familiar tea party complaints about spending, fears of a biased judiciary and even the infamous death panels (featuring a bonus offensive image of a large-nosed Ezekiel Emanuel.) There's something else interesting about them, one comic book expert at the Atomic Comics megastore in Mesa, Arizona told me today: they're clearly drawn by someone who knows a lot about comics. Each is a fairly faithful parody of a well-known comic book cover.

See more examples of the pages here, here and here. ...>more

Oregon Teabaggers Rip Off 4chan's Slogan

"We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We are Plagiarists."


Maureen O'Connor reports on Gawker:

We've asked whether hacker website 4chan is a cyberbully. We've asked what they have against 11-year-old girls. But has anyone thought to ask about 4chan's political persuasion? Because Oregon's Tea Party just stole their slogan... >more

Will Sarah Palin Run in 2012?

Notorious Taiwanese CGI Animated Series Explores the Possibility

Jeff Neumann reports at Gawker:

Behold the Taiwanese CGI video that explores Sarah Palin's potential 2012 run at president. Here you will watch Palin pass "First Dude" Todd a joint, dance exotically for campaign funds, come up with "refudiate," and parachute into a Teabagger rally.

Taiwan's Next Media Animation keeps cranking out CGI commentary on American life with remarkable speed: The life and times of Justin Beiber, Tiger Woods's and Al Gore's sexual fetishes, and now the next few years of Sarah Palin's life.

Tea Partiers? Fox News? "Negativity" Against the President? Are These Really Black America's Most Pressing Problems?

"Does 'negativity' against the President keep him from addressing mass black incarceration, unemployment, crushing family and student debt, homelessness & ending US imperial wars abroad?"

From the established civil rights organizations like the NAACP to legions of elected Democrats and preachers and even people like our good friends at Color of Change, the main activity these days is an endless circling of wagons around the president, defending him against the flood of racist bile that spews daily from the likes of Fox News, the Tea Partyers and naysaying Republicans. But is that really where so much of our energy and creativity should be going? Aren't there other urgent matters more deserving of the attention of black America's political leadership, our pastors and spokespeople and self-described activists? Matters like black mass incarceration, record unemployment, and the sinking of vast resources into multiple wars abroad?

Bruce A. Dixon writes at Black Agenda Report:

On July 19, an item popped up on the email listserv of SNCC veterans and supporters.

Like anything on these kinds of mailing lists, it was the opinion of whoever posted it, no more and no less. But it pretty much summed up the current strategic thinking of a lot of what passes for African American political leadership, our black intelligensia and a lot of self-identified activists. It was bright red and in bold typeface several times normal size, and before going out to the triple digit number of subscribers to the SNCC list, it had obviously been forwarded to hundreds more. It went like this, (only much larger):

We call on ALL who support President Obama to take action. On August 4th, the President's birthday, we ask those who support him to wear any campaign item from the Presidential election as a demonstration of our ongoing support. Bring out your old campaign paraphernalia.

If you don't have caps, buttons or tee shirts, wear a red, white, and blue tri-color ribbon or clothing on August 4th. If nothing else, this simple demonstration of support for our President will provide a counteraction to the negativity that spews forth daily. We can do this. YES WE CAN. YES WE WILL.

Mark Your Calendar for August 4th! Pass the word on...

As far as most of the black leadership class --- most of our pastors, politicians, professors and such tell it, those are our marching orders. On the president's birthday, we're all supposed to break out those old Obama stickers, shirts and hats, and like the citizens of Oz in The Wiz, we'll flaunt red, white and blue on the president's birthday. Thus we will show our united opposition to the flood of racist invective against the president. We will demonstrate that we are Thus black America will demonstrate that we are the president's millions strong shield against the torrents of “negativity” that issue forth daily from the likes of Fox News and the tea party. That'll show 'em.

Am I the only one who thinks this is just plain dumb? Are the number one problems of black America really the insults and negativity directed at the president by a bunch of crazy people who are not even in power? Are these the times of Shakespeare's Richard III, when the only political yardstick that mattered was whether and how much you did or didn't love the king? Why should Fox News, the tea party, and insults and negativity directed at the president even rank among black America's top ten or twenty problems? And if black America is called upon to make some kind of united political statement in this season of unprecedented joblessness, homelessness, family debt, privatizations and mass incarceration, is flying the red, white and blue to support the president really the most useful thing we can do?

Does “negativity” against the president keep him from addressing mass black incarceration, unemployment, crushing family and student debt, homelessness & ending US imperial wars abroad?

The short answer is no. A longer answer is that we have other matters which are real problems with far greater effect upon the lives of millions of families than the torrent of “negativity” directed at the president. ...>more

Teabaggers Pussy Out Again

Remove Totally Whack Billboard Calling Obama "Socialist", Linking Him To Hitler and Lenin

Luke Meredith reports from Associated Press:
DES MOINES, Iowa – An Iowa tea party group on Wednesday replaced a billboard comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin, calling the sign a bad decision that reflected poorly on the organization.

Workers papered over the sign in downtown Mason City at the request of the North Iowa Tea Party.

"We got it covered up first thing this morning," said Kent Beatty, the general manager of the company that owns the billboard.

The roughly 200-member tea party group had the original sign put up last week. It showed photographs of Obama, Nazi leader Hitler and communist leader Lenin beneath the labels "Democrat Socialism," "National Socialism," and "Marxist Socialism."

After the billboard drew sharp criticism by other state and national tea party leaders, members of the local group sought the change.

North Iowa Tea Party co-founder Bob Johnson said he and other leaders agreed with critics that the image of Obama between Hitler and Lenin was offensive. He said the images overwhelmed the intended message of anti-socialism. ...>more (foto by AP)

This Man is Inappropriately Excited to Meet Sarah Palin

Fan in meet'n'greet at amusement machine expo pops one in front of ex-VP hopeful; possible candidate for Awkwardboners.com


Adrian Chen reports at Gawker:

Sarah Palin was doing a meet-and-greet at the American Amusement Machine Association's International Bowl Expo 2010 last week and, well, it appears one guy she met was a fan of more than just her fiscal policies.

While we're not experts, we're pretty sure the guy in blue's American flag is flying at a bit more than half mast, if you know what we're saying. No? He has a giant hard-on.

(Check out the video at Gawker, here.)

A Blacks vs. Tea Party Free-For-All on the Mall?

“Sharpton called for ‘every Black person in the country’ to come to Washington to prevent Beck from hijacking ‘Dr. King’s dream.’”


Glen Ford writes at Black Agenda Report:
Will established civil rights groups physically confront Glenn Beck’s Tea Party crowd for control of the Washington Mall on August 28? Can the NAACP and labor unions figure out how to hold a March for Jobs in October while pretending that President Obama bears no responsibility for economic woes? No, and Yes. Although there will be no physical fight, jousting with cardboard “cracker” villains like Beck and Rush Limbaugh allows civil rights leaders to appear valiant while avoiding confrontation with real Power in the White House.

We are glad, in principle, to learn that the NAACP and the National Urban League are fighting mad about anything. The object of the organizations’ wrath is media racist Glenn Beck, the FOXtrooper, as evil a mouthpiece for reaction as ever sucked air. National Urban League President Marc Morial announced to a gathering of the National Newspaper Publishers Association that he and other civil rights leaders had every intention of booking the Washington Mall to commemorate the 47th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, only to discover that Herr Beck had already reserved the space. Outraged at such sacrilege, Morial vowed to “bring together all people of good will, not just Black people, on August 28 to send a message that Glenn Beck's vision of America is not our vision of America.”

Rev. Al Sharpton said “there is no way in the world that I am going to allow him to have more people there than us“ and called for “every Black person in the country” to come to Washington to prevent Beck from hijacking “Dr. King’s dream.”

Morial’s counterpart at the NAACP, Ben Jealous, declared that the August 28 face-off with Beck’s Tea Partyers, if that is indeed what is planned, would serve as a “leverage” for an October 2nd March for Jobs originally proposed by the NAACP and the 300,000-strong SEIU Local 1199 United Healthcare Workers East. The October demonstration has since been endorsed by the AFL-CIO and a host of other organizations.

1199 spokesman George Gresham put a telling spin on organized labor’s involvement in the proposed March for Jobs. "I always thought we just can't put President Obama into office, but we have to be constantly out there to support the change we believe in," he said. "I remember what Franklin Delano Roosevelt told the labor movement about reforms: 'Go out and make me do it.'" Gresham, who says he first suggested the march, considers it a counterweight to pressures on Obama from the Right.

Does this mean that NAACPers, Urban Leaguers and labor organizers are all going to show up on August 28 to physically contend with Beck’s Tea Partyers for possession of the hollowed ground on the Mall? Not a chance, if for no other reason than President Obama would not approve, and you can be certain that labor and established Black organizations will do or say nothing to discommode Mr. Obama, no matter how much he disrespects their constituencies. ...>more