From his Web column today (4/16/10):
After initially dismissing the tea types as an unimportant sideshow, the media are drinking deeply from that particular cup, especially with today being Tax Day and all.
If by “dismissing” Kurtz means “featuring on the network evening newscasts,” he might have a point–since that’s how last year’s Tea Party Tax Day protests were actuallycovered.
But Kurtz has always had weird ideas about how much coverage the Tea Party events should receive. A year ago he criticized several newspapers for not devoting enough coverage to the protests–though the actual protests, uhh, hadn’t happened yet: “The Washington Post has done zip until today, with a story on two planned D.C. parties on Page B-4…. The Los Angeles Times did a 500-word piece on a small protest in Hermosa Beach and has a media piece today.”
Update: Amy Gardner and Michael Ruane have a news report in the Washington Post today (4/16/10) on the Tea Party protests that would seem to meet even Howard Kurtz’s standard for boosterism, particularly with this passage:
The showing, while smaller than the crowds that gathered in Washington on Sept. 12, made clear that the ire and energy that have defined the tea party movement since it became a force last summer have not abated.
Funny, you would think that smaller crowds would be a sign that the “ire and energy” of the Tea Party movement have abated. Isn’t that what “abated” means?
The simpleton Birthers along with the Tea baggers are the same whiners that were crying when the McCain/Bailin ticket lost. Now that their yelling and screaming failed to stop the health care debate and the bill from passing they are crying again. Let’s face it the Republicans had eight years to deal with health care, immigration, climate change and financial oversight and governance and they failed. The Republicans are good at starting wars (two in eight years, with fat contracts to friends of Cheney/Bush) but not at winning wars as seen by the continuing line of body bags that keep coming home. Instead of participating in the health care debate of ideas the Republicans party turned inward to their old fashion obstructionist party (and their Confederacy roots). In my opinion the Republican Waterloo loss was caused by the party allowing a small portions (but very loud) of the republican party of â┚¬Ã…“birthers, baggers and blowhardsâ┚¬Ã‚ to take over their party. I will admit that this fringe is very good at playing â┚¬Ã…“Follow the Leaderâ┚¬Ã‚ by listening to their dullard leaders, Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush, Savage, Sarah Bailin, Orly Taitz, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the Blowhards and acting as ill programmed robots (they have already acted against doctors that perform abortions). The Birthers and the Tea party crowd think they can scare, intimidate and force others to go along with them by comments like â┚¬Ã…“This time we came unarmedâ┚¬Ã‚Â, let me tell you something not all ex-military join the fringe militia crazies who don’t pay taxes and run around with face paint in the parks playing commando, the majority are mature and understand that the world is more complicated and grey than the black and white that these simpleton make it out to be and that my friend is the point. The world is complicated and people like Hamilton, Lincoln, and Roosevelt believed that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now it’s about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. Although some Republicans are trying to distant themselves from this fringe most of them, having no game plan/ vision for our country, are just going along and fanning the flames. For a party that gave us Abraham Lincoln, it is tragic that the ranks are filled with too many empty suits. But they now claim they have changed, come on, what sucker is going to believe that? All I can say to you is remember Waterloo.
Before anyone lays too much criticism on the Tea Party movement, we would do well to try to understand their motivations and goals. To that end, here are some questions that might stimulate a constructive conversation and help find common ground:
1 In general, what parts of your freedom have been curtailed the by the Obama administration?
2 Can you tell us how the Obama administration has taken specific steps to curtail the basic liberty of the American people?
3 Which of the Obama administration’s policies are the most socialist in nature?
4 How should the federal tax burden be spread across various income levels?
5 Where does the government intrude most harmfully in the lives of Americans?
6 Does the Tea Party receive encouragement and support from your church?
7 Was your community affected by ACORN before they shut down?
8 The state of Virginia is planning to require literacy tests for new voters. Will that be helpful in keeping the wrong people from voting?
9 How far should the government go to reduce pollution: from power plants, cars and trucks, chemical dumping in rivers and lakes, etc.?
10 What is the first thing we should do to solve the problem of illegal immigration ?
MONTANA: JUST BECAUSE NOT EVERYBODY AGREES WITH YOU…THEY ARE EMPTY SUITS? AND YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WITH COMMON SENSE….YOU ARE AS NARCISSTIC AS YOUR BROTHER OBAMA….HE ALSO BELIEVES HE IS GOD……..AND YOU ACT LIKE YOU ARE TOO….!!!
SAVE ANY RESPONSES, I ONLY TALK WITH THE REAL “GOD” OF THE WORLD.
I consider myself part of the Tea Party movement. I’ll take a few:
2) Limited government and property rights are two essential pillars of freedom. Bush, Obama and Congress have simply made yet another attack against these pillars in a long line of attacks going back to day one of the US Govt. After 8 years of Bush stomping on the Constitution we get these massive bailouts and ridiculous socialistic schemes like Cash for Clunkers, mandated commercial activity (HCR) all of which are attacks on limited government (Nothing in the Constitution allows this) and attacks on property rights (wealth redistribution to private companies).
4) Your government was created to protect your rights, not redistribute your property. The Constitution was originally written to prevent an “Income tax”. All taxes had to be usage based like the gas tax which pays for roads (you can avoid the tax by not driving). Or they had to be spread evenly. Treating one individual “special” for whatever reason was not allowed. True equality means people are not judging your value to society and forcing you to pay more arbitrarily, and a government that was created to secure our freedom should never be a means for the majority to bilk the minority for whatever reason they might use to rationalize away the blatant immorality of such a policy. 1% of taxpayers shoulder the burden of 43% of the total income tax. How do you feel about being a freeloader? Not to mention letting rich people keep their earnings instead of filtering it through government stupidity would be the biggest economic “stimulus” possible.
5) War on Drugs, Income based taxes (capital gains etc), Zoning laws / building permits, Medical Care (states prevent competition across state lines / HCR)
10) Eliminate entitlements like free public education and anchor babies, make legal immigration more sensible – i.e. don’t deport people when their student VISA expires. But we already have one of the most liberal immigration policies of any country in the world.
BIGJER, You finish by saying you only talk with the “real God of the world”. It isn’t all about talking, it’s about listening.
I think this piece puts things in perspective:
Tea Partiers: White Nationalism on the March
by Glen Ford
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/15-5
There may be many confused and ignorant folks among the TPers, who, given the straight skinny, might suss the real meal deal, but I think Ford’s put his finger on what drives this movement, and pretending otherwise is a fool’s game, isn’t it?.
As for my bona fides on this subject, I grew up around these people, in Miss’ssippi in the ’60s – not that much has changed since.
So this ain’t no supposition, I tell ya whut.
Doug, the fact that you can post that with a straight face shows what a loony shut-in you are. You haven’t actually met anyone from the Tea Party movement have you?
“Naturally, the average Tea Partyer – when sober – will deny having “a racist bone” in his body, but any group whose unifying characteristic is daily engorgement on Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck is, by definition, racist. Anyone who tries to tell you different, is far too tolerant of bigoted behavior, assumptions and speech to be anything but a closet racist, himself.”
Wow you FAIR readers are so smart and enlightened.
What’s funny is you guys are the racists for even thinking that being against welfare is racist.
What is needed in this debate is not criticism but some constructive alternatives.
Ben, you’ll forgive me if I don’t relish the thought of meeting you. Something about ad hominem attacks from persons I don’t know puts me off.
I’m looney that way.
But for the record, I’ve met plenty of TPers in my time.
Of course, at the time they were (and many still are) members of the White Citizens Councils (now renamed the more PC “Citizens Councils”).
My daddy was one.
And my daddy was a stone racist.
I’d imagine not every TPer is, but it’s interesting how so few of them ever condemn their fellow travelers who are out front about their hatred for “the other”, isn’t it?
Y’know, the ones who screamed “Nigger!” at black reps? The ones who want every Latino stopped and asked for their “papers”, and shipped back to “where they came from”, perhaps after a few good whacks to the balls just for fun, if they’re found wanting?
Which sort of brings us back to the “founding fathers”, doesn’t it? After all, they were the descendents of the original “illegal immigrants” weren’t they? But unlike the ones today who work in horrible conditions for a pittance so they can support their families back home because NAFTA and other US policies have destroyed their ability to make a living where they were born, our “forefathers” simply took over the continent, raping, enslaving and murdering anyone who got in their way.
So much for “property rights”, eh?
And speaking of, their “property” consisted of human beings, didn’t it, taken from their property across the ocean. And God help any who tried to escape.
Well, *somebody’s* God help them. The white man’s God was too busy justifying the abrogation of the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, wasn’t he?
Jerry asked for some constructive alternatives. We might begin with understanding that neither major party gives a good goddamn about anyone without beaucoup bucks, and that the only way we’re going to create “change we can believe in” that’s more than an empty slogan is to reject the propaganda that devides us and embrace our common humanity.
I’m willing to do that with anyone who reciprocates, towards me and towards others.
Are you?
Right you are, Doug L. Ben’s kidding himself, like so many other Baggers and their numbskull sympathisers. Like the Baggers, Ben does not understand what side of the bread his butter is on. Fact is, the vast majority of FAIR readers are more enlightened than the average Bagger–a real bummer for you, Ben, but goddamn, there’s nothing we can do about it. Certainly there’s nothing you can do, B.O., until you come out of your reactionary coma.
I’ve read many of your posts here, Doug L., and they are always good and to the point. I can’t say that for B.O.–just the few here today strongly suggest that he needs to get out more . . . terminally witless and devoid of reasoning. Too bad, though every word he writes proves the opposite point he’s vainly trying to make
Tim, I appreciate the props, but let’s not engage in Ben’s propensity for character assassination. Human beings are complex creatures, and he may be showing only one facet of his personality here. He may be a loving husband and caring father, and a good friend.
Or not. We don’t know. We only know him by what he writes here, and neither of us thinks that speaks well of his humanity, do we?
So let’s stick to that, and hope he’ll do likewise.
Make sense?