Sharpton Marches, Teabaggers Sit; Honor Restored, Dream Reclaimed

Word Of The Day: "Doughy"



Mike Flugennock writes:

From Our Better Late Than Never Department:

The Washington Post, possibly suffering a massive brain seizure due to the heat, referred to the Beckapalooza at the Lincoln Memorial as a “grassroots” event. Oh, absolutely; I’ve lost track of how many up-by-the-bootstraps, grassroots mobilizations had rallies with custom-built stages, state-of-the-art sound, high-end multi-camera video production and five or six Jumbotrons.

And, oh, did they use those Jumbotrons — to crank out a steady diet of smarmy, syrupy video trailers full of classically empty nationalistic propaganda language about the Greatest Country In The World and the Greatest People On Earth. The stage production may have been pure Albert Speer, but the video pieces were pure Reifenstahl. For a bunch of people who cherished freedom and hated being made to do something, they sure did enjoy being told what to do. Not even the most craven, tweedy Liberals enjoyed being bossed around more than this bunch.


The Posse and I could only stand in awe at the high number of pasty, doughy, Twinkie-fed folks who turned out to help Restore Honor. It’s almost a good thing Glenn Beck didn’t schedule a march, because he’d have been sued by the families of the nearly 100,000 heart attack and heatstroke victims among the roughly 200,000 who Restored Honor on Saturday. It was at this rally that the folding camp chair would become symbolic and synonymous with your slackly-rallying Teabagger.

I thought it was interesting that Beck made such a bit deal about his people not bringing signs. Did they honestly think they could cover up the rank hate and racism that oozes out of them? They may not have had signs, but we saw some nasty t-shirts at that rally. Besides, we’ve already seen plenty of them for the past year and a half, so it’s not like the rest of us don’t know who they are, and where they’re from, and what they stand for, and what they’re about... >more

A Tea Party Fairy Tale

Fearful Old White Men

Don Monkerud writes at CounterPunch:

Current attempts to revive that Boston Tea Party of 1773 are marketing gimmicks to masquerade conservative forces bent on defeating Obama and destroying any attempt to reform the present gridlock political system. Examining the history of this faux-movement reveals the actors behind the curtain.

One of the earliest revivals of the Tea Party involved 100 people meeting in Seattle to protest the stimulus bill passed by Congress to keep the U.S. from descending into another Great Depression. After bloggers and libertarians spread a call for protest on the Internet, the media blew it into a major event.

Right-wing groups poured funding into the nascent movement. These groups included: Americans for Prosperity, a pro-tobacco, anti-healthcare and anti-tax lobbying organization; and FreedomWorks, a lobbying firm devoted to opposing taxes, immigration, healthcare reform and solutions to global warming. Koch Industries, an oil, mineral, ranching and securities conglomerate, funds both of these groups, while the Sarah Mellon Scaife foundation, with interests in oil, industry and banking, funds FreedomWorks.

After Fox News began promoting the Tea Party as a social movement, their crowds grew. Fox News entertainer, Glenn Beck, invited viewers to "celebrate with Fox News," by attending tax protests in Washington on April 15, the date federal tax returns are due.

A mere 3,000 Tea Party supporters attended the rally and grabbed the headlines. More people rallied across the country in support of Single Payer Healthcare Reform but they received few headlines. After much smaller groups of Tea Partiers protested in several cities, right-wing entertainers such as Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly giddily talked about "a growing movement" for weeks. Soon Republicans Sarah Palin, Dick Armey, Ron Paul, Grover Norquist and Newt Gingrich jumped on board, hoping to revive their failed political careers.

Seldom has so much been made about so little... >more

Latest Grayson Campaign Ad Rocks

At last! A "Leftie" who really gets the "End Of Days" Aesthetic!

Effects of Tancredo Literacy Test Ripple Across Nation

Millions of Teabaggers' Voting Rights Revoked in Massive FAILfest

By now, most of you are discussing Tom Tancredo's proposal -- put forth at the recent Tea Party shindig -- that America return to Jim Crow-era literacy tests to determine who should be allowed to vote. Recently-uncovered photographic evidence from Teabagger rallies across America suggests that this measure could end up strangling the nascent Tea Party movement in its crib. (Tip of the tricorn hat to reader Pat at Lady Liberty's Lamp.)

Raving and Drooling: Teabaggers' National Powwow Kicks Off With A Bang

Noted Suit'n'tie Klansman Tom Tancredo Calls for Jim Crow-era Measures Against Immigrant Voters, Rails Against "Cult of Multiculturalism"

You'd have thought Dr. Who had brought some good old down-home segregationist yahoos back with him from the 1950s the way infamous racist nutcake Tom Tancredo carried on about the intelligence of voters who elected Barack Obama in his speech to the first National Tea Party Convention this past Thursday. As usual, and like all your average Teabaggers, Tancredo displayed his ignorance by referring to corporate centrist Obama as a "socialist idealogue", declaring that Obama won the White House due to the lack of "...a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country," according to a report posted at ABC News.

Also -- and, as per usual -- Tancredo made the arrogant assumption that this country only legitimately belonged to white people: "This is our country...let's take it back," raved Tancredo, to a reception lacking only the chants of "Seig Heil" to identify its real values and intentions at a convention featuring former Alaska governor, Vice Presidential candidate and beauty queen Sarah Palin as its keynote speaker (for a fee of $100,000).

Putting the lie to the Teabaggers' claims that they aren't racists, outfits like the National Socialist Movement and Stormfront -- you know, the Nazis -- enthusiastically echoed Tancredo's attitudes on immigration and culture after Thursday's speech. The VNN Forum was especially raving and drooling. Tomasz Winnicki of London, Ontario, Canada snarls:

"Ahhh... democracy... where every university mathematics professor's vote is just as equal as that of any jobless mental retard's on welfare. I caught an interview of someone from the Tea Party movement on CBC radio while driving home from work one night. I don't recall whether it was Tom Tancredo himself or someone else from the Tea Party but I recall thinking 'Wow... one or two more steps in the right direction and these guys will turn racialist like us'. Why is it so hard for those 'conservatives' to realize that civilization is a function of race?"

But, wait! There's MORE! Those of you who follow the TW with any regularity are familiar with the escapades of one Marcus Epstein, racist paleocon and co-founder of the Robert Taft Club (their Web site is apparently 404), arrested as a result of a racist violence incident in Washington DC and executive director of the Team America PAC, founded by none other than Tom Tancredo! Well, folks, it also turns out that despite that incident and the criminal charges stemming from it, Little Marcus is still serving as executive director at Team America. D'ohhh! Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy, there, Mr. Tancredo!