Archive for category Tea Bag Party
This is a Real Facebook Post
Posted by Cliff Lyon in American People, Conservatives, Homophobia, Mormon LDS, Republicans, Tea Bag Party, utah on February 22, 2013
I post this as a classic example of how the right-wing has hacks the most blunt, vulnerable minds.
An actual real FB post
John Edwin Jackson
Would you believe this: A movement rises to strip free speech from corporate America, to take the right to speak from PACs and churches and businesses and any other group that is an “artificial entity.”They would take away free speech — one of the most basic of all human rights — and they would do this right here in America.
The startling thing, to me, is that the movement is winning in so many ways. The startling thing, to me, is that I run into so many people who agree with them. The startling thing, to me, is that while this issue has hardly caught the public’s eye, when it has, people are buying in with it.
The startling thing, to me, is that (if I’ve been told correctly) Montana’s voters have passed legislation calling on leaders to push for a constitutional amendment stripping free speech from corporate America. A citizen’s initiative also passed in Colorado, but it called only for corporate campaigning limits, not actually stripping free speech altogether from corporations. California is considering putting an initiative on the ballot. Voters in about 175 local entities have passed initiatives calling for amending the Constitution, and the governing bodies, themselves, of about 350 local entities have passed measures pushing for a constitutional amendment.
Read the rest of this entry »
Reason Derangement Syndrome
Posted by Shane Smith in American People, Conspiracy theories, Corporate Socialism, Hypocrisy, People Are Nuts, Republicans, Tea Bag Party, The Koch Brothers on February 22, 2013
Think Progress reported yesterday that the painfully unaware State Rep. Dennis Hedke has introduced a bill that would prohibit public funds from promoting sustainable development. An interesting story, and a great example of rightwing hypocrisy and nincompoopery. But I also think it overlooks the real story.
The article points out that Hedke is so blissfully ignorant of his own actions that he can’t see why anyone would question a connection between his day job and his latest bill. This is interesting, since his day job is contract geophysicist for some 30 local oil and gas companies. Conflict of interest? Certainly not!
“I can’t see why,” Hedke said. “I didn’t think about that. It really never crossed my mind. I’d probably just say no.”
The Real World Effects of “Negative Liberty”
Posted by Glenden Brown in Activist groups, Conservative, Environment, Global Warming, Health Care, Iraq, ObamaCare, Tax Policy, Tea Bag Party, Tea Party, This Blog on February 20, 2013
Delving further into Tom Allen’s Dangerous Convictions, Winning Progressive points out four specific examples of how conservatives principles have led to disastrous real world policy consequences:
- Budget
- The Iraq War
- Health care
- Climate Change
Consider the area of tax policy – conservative principles say “tax cuts pay for themselves” despite significant real world evidence that’s not the case. Read the rest of this entry »
Conservative Patriot Gives In: “As half the nation is in sheer awe of this American Idol “rockstar” presidency.”
Posted by Cliff Lyon in Authoritarianism, Conservative, Laugh, Liars (politics), Tea Bag Party, Tea Party, The Koch Brothers, Tribalism & Blind Obedience to Authority on February 19, 2013
I’ve followed this Facebook page for several months. Its one of the best in it’s genre; an excellent reference for study of the authoritarian mind and an excellent resource for tracking the Tea Party memes since 2010.
Its run, and run well, by a single person. Id love to speak with him and find out how I’ve been “dumbed-down.”
He posted the following today:
Conservative Patriots of America: Folks, I cannot do this any longer, it is of NO use. As half the nation is in sheer awe of this American Idol “rockstar” presidency, and the mainstream media is further enabling the STUPIDITY & NONSENSE with the dumbing-down of the citizens, Obama has just played his 115th round of golf — lucky he, huh? Well, how about that UNEMPLOYMENT RATE, or the fact that he met with his now defunct “Jobs Council” only FOUR TIMES before dissolving it — or that National Debt, or that China owns us — I mean, REALLY, WHERE do I begin??
I have sat at my computer for nearly THREE YEARS wasting my time & energy on a matter that cannot be resolved. We are less than one month into the second term, and if any of you have any “foresight,” methinks you will agree with me that NOTHING is going to get done, NOTHING is going to get better, and NOTHING can be done about it. I’ve done what I can & that’s about it, there is nothing more I can do or say. I’ll be hanging Old Glory upside-down for the next four years.
Oh, and to the Trolls, P.S. Do NOT talk about Bush’s vacations, the world was a MUCH different place during Bush’s 2 terms — find something else to bring to the table on this presidency. Join us at: Conservative Patriots of America — on facebook.
Here’s a picture from his page that almost made me want to join up with them “patriots.”
Isn’t being anti-choice messing with family?
I sent him a Tweet asking him to contact me through Facebook. I hope he’ll give me an interview.
“My Conundrum:” A Crack of Light In The Collision of a Conservative Mind and Life: Could TeaPartyCommunity.com Be a Good Thing?
Posted by Cliff Lyon in Conservative, Conservatives, Evangelism, Health Care, ObamaCare, Religion, Socialism, Tea Bag Party, Tea Party, Tribalism & Blind Obedience to Authority, Unemployment on February 5, 2013
Update 2.6.2012: It appears teapartycommunity.com blocked my IP, which is exposed by design in our comments. This is remarkable given the amount of effort that must have been invested to not only find this post, but to inspect the comments in order to discover my IP address. My next post on the subject will be about the astounding hypocrisy of the underlying justification for starting TeaPartyCommunity.com
Perusing the new TeaPartyCommunity.com Facebook-like platform, I was riveted by “Cade’s comment” as an excellent illustration of the tension between high self-conviction and low emotional intelligence in the conservative religious mind.
…which compelled me to read the top post “My Conundrum” which struck me as so perfectly juxtaposed to Cade’s comment as an example of the opposite tension, lower self-conviction, higher emotional intelligence. “My Conundrum” is posted also in its entirety below Cade’s comment immediately below.
“Christopher Noyes – Well Cade, you are what we call around here, complicated. Truth is we all are complicated, how we resolve inner conflict plays a big part in determining our character.
First, you did not abuse the safety net, and I do not believe the safety net ought to be removed. The problem with the safety net is the abuse of it that is cultivated and facilitated for either criminal or political reasons. It is there for people who, like you, had an untimely life threatening event, an emergency of life or death. Reforms may not be able to correct the safety net, and I would rather see it in the hands of the church like it was at one time, but the truth is the only way the government got a foot hold into social welfare is the church abdicated its responsibility a long time ago.
Second, God has never left you, he does not despise you, he has brought all of these things in your life for your edification because you are his adopted son and he loves you. Read the rest of this entry »
Les Misérables Isn’t Political – But It Ought to Be
Posted by Richard Warnick in Economy, Entertainment, Human Rights, Occupy Wall Street, Tea Bag Party, This Blog on December 27, 2012
The setting for “Les Misérables” is Occupy Paris – in the 1800s. The heroes of the musical are the 99 percent – idealistic but poor students, orphans, the unemployed and hungry, exploited workers railing against abuses by the obscenely wealthy. The villain of the musical is Javert, a policeman dedicated to crushing a revolt by working Parisians. As a mediocre musical, the show has broken box office records. Now director Tobe Hooper has made the long-awaited film. But the whole “Les Mis” phenomenon has had zero political resonance. I think it’s because the protagonist doesn’t know whose side he’s on.
Marshall Fine summarizes the plot, such as it is:
The story – distilled from Victor Hugo’s five-section, 1,200-plus-page historical novel (full disclosure: Never read it, don’t intend to) – focuses on Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), about to be released from prison after serving 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread. On his way out of prison, his jailer, Javert (Russell Crowe), warns Valjean that he will be dogging him, just waiting for him to violate his parole so he can send Valjean back to the clink.
Instead, Valjean disappears, popping up a dozen years later as the rich owner of a factory and mayor of a small town; these kind of story twists were so much easier in the days before mass media. But he’s still looking in his rearview mirror for Javert. So he’s understandably distracted when his factory foreman sexually harasses and then fires a poor single mother named Fantine (Anne Hathaway). Her life goes so far off the tracks that she’s become a dying, tubercular prostitute when her path next crosses Valjean’s – whose guilt at Fantine’s fate leads to his vow at her deathbed to find and take care of her daughter, Cosette.
Valjean stays one step ahead of Javert, even as Cosette grows from a tot into Amanda Seyfried, who later falls in love with a student revolutionary named Marius (Eddie Redmayne). Marius is involved with an uprising against the return of the French monarchy in 1832 (not to be confused with the French revolution of 1789, which most people assume this work is about). On the barricades, as the students hold off the government forces, Valjean finally confronts Javert for the final time.
More detailed plot summary from SparkNotes.
The short-lived Paris Uprising of June 5-6 1832 (aka the June Rebellion) was motivated by a reactionary move to replace King Charles X, deposed in 1830, with another king supported by an unrepresentative government. France at the time was suffering a severe economic crisis, and in 1832 the poor neighborhoods of Paris were ravaged by a cholera epidemic. Troops were called in, the insurrectionists were surrounded in the center of the city, and the uprising was defeated.
The problem I have with Jean Valjean is not that he becomes rich, but that he seems resigned to the various injustices meted out to him by the misguided Javert. For Valjean, nothing is political; it’s all personal. Then at the end he saves Javert’s life, which leads Javert (this guy is seriously screwed up) to commit suicide. Valjean only goes to the barricades to save the life of Marius, not to uphold democracy. He is indifferent to the uprising itself and everything else that’s going on in France.
Perhaps worst of all is a commenter on a blog that said the fictional Valjean was a hero because he “was a Taker who decided to become a Maker.” As if we could all just wake up one day and decide to join the 1 Percent if we wanted to. Valjean got the money to start his factory by robbing a church.
No, the true message of Victor Hugo’s story is captured in this quote from another novelist, Anatole France (Inspector Javert would not see the irony):
“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich and the poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”
It’s like House Speaker Boehner’s “Plan B” proposal: Every American can get a tax cut on their first $1 million in income. What could be more fair?
Senator Mike Lee Brings The Crazy
Posted by Richard Warnick in Federal Budget, Mike Lee, National Politics, Republicans, Tax Policy, Tea Bag Party, Utah Politics on November 28, 2012
Via Think Progress:
Cloaking his predilection for the rich as concern for the less fortunate, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) argued Wednesday that raising taxes on the wealthy would primarily hurt the poor.
…“The reason we worry about raising taxes on anyone – even raising taxes on the rich,” Lee argued, is “that will hit the poorest among us the hardest.” Lest listeners get the wrong idea, the Utah Senator insisted, “it’s not that we’re looking out for the rich.”
No, of course not. The fact that trickle-down economic theory has never worked doesn’t mean that Republicans can’t keep pretending that it does!
The Congressional Research Service has documented what we know already: giving tax breaks to the rich helps concentrate wealth at the top, but it does not boost the economy.
Smart Guy Wins!
Posted by Larry Bergan in Al Gore, Democracy, Human Rights, Tea Bag Party, The Koch Brothers on November 11, 2012
The Tea – not a real – Party, is dead.
Rest in agony.
Hatred for the Kenyan Usurper Means Romney Can Get Away With Literally Anything
Posted by Cliff Lyon in 2012 Elections, American People, congress, Conservative, Conservatives, Holly Richardson, Hypocrisy, Liars (politics), Lying, Mitt Romney, Racism, Republicans, Rush Limbaugh, Tea Bag Party, Utah Politics on October 12, 2012
This is the most honest, well-written encapsulation of what we are experiencing in the election.
Fresh lies from Romney, or the Republican Congress
Driftglass Writes: Don’t me wrong: I appreciate the careful documentation the Many Lies of Team Romney during this election season. But I look at those efforts less as the drafting of a bill of particulars against the GOP, and more like Josephus gathering up an armful of books from burning Jerusalem and documenting the great city’s demise from a perspective in the ruins.
Why? Because for the Conservative 47% of the active electorate, the day Willard sewed up the Republican primary was the day it stopped mattering to them what lies Willard shits down their throat. Willard has calculated (correctly) that their bottomless, mindless, berserk hatred for the Kenyan Usurper means he can get away with saying and doing literally anything and then completely reversing himself hours later. And so, unless he transforms himself into a Scary Democrat Negro (hence my graphic), he has the base locked down.Willard has calculated (correctly) that the average “undecided” voter is an idiot who is barely aware that Barack Obama is President, much less who said what when. Lies? Truth? All the “undecided” knows for sure is that people on both side should stop being so mean!
Willard has calculated (correctly) that most of American media is a joke run by hacks with the moral compasses of Tijuana donkey show pimps, who are congenitally unable to call a liar a liar and who get paid on commission each time they say “Both Sides Do It” when a Republican shits the bed in public.
Random Conservative idiots with spluttering apoplexy
Pointing to each morning’s fresh lies from Team Romney, or the Republican Congress, or Boss Limbaugh and his legions of imitators, or random Conservative idiots with spluttering apoplexy, has become the the bread and butter of Liberal teevee, radio and print. And good on them (us) for providing that service.
It does, however, beg the question, “Who the Hell are they talking to?” Because there is no referee in this fight, kids.
There is no umpire, here: no impartial judge; no jury of 12 men good and true.
For us, the playing field will never be level and we must stop playing as if it were, because there is no cavalry coming to rescue us…but us.
And most importantly; remember that however long the odds or however discouraging a given day might be, we are a hardy and tenacious stock and our clear understanding of who we are and where we came from gives us a secret weapon that no movement based on a contempt for reality and a tissue of lies can match: the power to summon giants.
Address of John F. Kennedy upon Accepting the Liberal Party Nomination for President, New York, New York, September 14, 1960…
I am as guilty as the media is for investing too much energy pointing out the lies only to have them fall on deaf ears. The soaring level of hypocrisy, obvious as it is outrageous, among the righteous, morally superior, religious and/or otherwise just plain racists is sufficient evidence to anyone who is paying attention that morality is unilaterally customizable on an ad hoc basis for the pedestrian religious right (Republicans) in this country.
So I will no longer entertain moral arguments from religious Republicans. From now on, I shall withhold my otherwise generous respect and civility in discourse with these well-groomed, Bible-thumping cretins. For the first time in my life, I finally understand how entire nations stood by and watched and/or helped Hitler exterminate millions of innocent men, women and children without a shred of self-examination. They were merely Republicans by a different name.
One more thing:
Calls for civility, especially from some in the Mormon community deserve your contempt. They are a gratuitous demand we excuse the “Many Lies of Team Romney” we’ve see during this election season. The uncommon duplicity, distortion and noise coming from Republicans is as violent assault on our Democratic principles as the illegal Republican assault on our voting rights.
Civility is speaking out against this assault. Incivility is defending it.
The grown-ups
Posted by Shane Smith in 2012 Elections, censorship, Conservatives, Tea Bag Party, Veterans on July 5, 2012
When the conservatives started buying french wine and champagne to pour down the gutters after France had the nerve to say there where no WMDs in Iraq, i assumed the children had taken over the GOP. Did it occur to any of them that after you buy the stuff, it doesn’t really matter what you do with it? I mean they got the cash, does it matter how you waste it? (by the way, how did that turn out? Find those weapons did you? Proved those frenchie frogs wrong did you? Anyone apologize for “freedom fries”? No, I thought not) When the lunatic right started calling themselves “teabaggers” I started to suspect that we didn’t have any adults left in conservative politics. When they started marching around with tea-bags stapled to their hats I really did think it was too late.
When Mitt started the campaign with things like driving in circles and honking the bus horn at Obama rallies, well let’s just say my opinion of his level of class was confirmed. Watching GOP members censor women for daring to speak out about abortion (as if that is an issue women are allowed to have an opinion on! Ha!) and later for using the (gasp!) word “vagina” (I do declare get my fainting couch!) was almost anticlimactic. Watching the GOP campaign and pretend to govern is a bit like watching third graders try to run a country. Backwards third graders. The girls have cooties, the boys spend all their time proving a manhood they don’t have, normal English terms are off limits and I suspect the height of sophistication is fart jokes.
But even given that history, even if those are your peers, some people manage to stand out from the crowd as the most immature of the children.
Behold, dead beat dad, offender of war veterans, and all around class act, Joe Walsh.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the party of Lincoln. Who, if we could wrap him in copper and mount him in a ring of magnets, could single handedly solve our power problems, due to the unbelievable speed with which he is currently spinning his grave…
Live Streaming the Utah State Republican Convention
Posted by Cliff Lyon in 2012 Elections, Activist groups, Bob Bennett, Carl Wimmer, Conservative, Conservatives, Holly Richardson, Liars (politics), Mike Lee, Mormon LDS, Orrin Hatch, Republicans, Rob Bishop, Tea Bag Party, utah, Utah Legislature, Utah Politics on April 21, 2012
Will Hatch survive?
Utah Republicans eat their own!
Tea Bagger express pulling out
Posted by Shane Smith in 2012 Elections, Conservatives, Health Care, Liars (politics), Orrin Hatch, Tea Bag Party on February 15, 2012
Shorter Orrin Hatch: please let me be a factually challenged tea bagger!
“Look, we all know that Planned Parenthood does 400,000 abortions a year or more, and yet that’s supported by the federal government. They claim that money isn’t, uh, they don’t use federal funds, well, about 95 percent of all they do, from what I understand, is abortion.”
Facts: your words have no relation to them.
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