I was struck by how much coverage yesterday’srather small-looking Tea Party rally in Washington got in the national media. Slate‘s Dave Weigel has a piece(3/31/11) explaining that the event wasn’t as “extreme asDemocrats would like it to be,” as the subhead says.
But the movement’salso not nearly as popular as the media coverage would lead you to believe. As Weigel notes, this rally was rather sparsely attended–especially if you weren’t counting reporters:
About 200 Tea Party activists trod over damp grass to hear their leaders respond to [House Speaker John] Boehner. There was at least one reporter for every three or four activists. They were there to hear conservatives rip into Republicans for statements like the one Boehner had just made. “I think there are more press than Tea Party Patriots here,” joked freshman Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., in an aside to one of the organizers.
Liberal media! The Tea Party media blackout continues….
Talk about blanket coverage.
And could you imagine if there were the same ratio at the massive protests against budget cuts and union busting?
Think of the boost to those states’ economies.
Just the bar tabs alone …
You actually made me laugh out loud Doug. Thanks.
It may be easy for Fox and others to minimize, if not ignore, the worker uprising in Wisconsin and other states while trying to make the Tea Party look like a legitimate grass roots party, but it’s going to be hard to avoid reporting on the recalls that will take place this summer and next January.
no doubt the rally will be held by some all you can eat place, ever notice these people are all fat slobs? yes and would you like extra fries with your hatred?
De nada, Mark. You have to laugh at these laughable excuses for journalism to keep from screaming in rage.
Actually, it’s best to do both, isn’t it?
The tea party as a party is small as I have said all along.Tea party as the ideal for this country is massive and growing with every passing OBama day.
Yes, another shining example of “Our Liberal Media.”…….I heard NPR waste three minutes on this non-event.
The approval rating for the Tea Party dropped to 32 percent in a CNN/Opinion Research corporation poll released Wednesday, the lowest it’s been since January 2010.
Forty-seven percent of Americans said they have an unfavorable view of the movement, a higher negative percentage than ever.
The biggest drop in the tea party movement’s favorability came among people who make less than $50,000 a year. In October, 30 percent in that income group said they had unfavorable views of the tea party. Now, 45 percent say the same.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/52207.html#ixzz1IOeAflb0
Helen all this has been projected and expected by “our”tea party.You see Dems thought and believed this was a movement of some third party to take power.And so they began a dirty tricks campaign to paint it this way and that.Many Republicans feeling the heat did as well.They could not believe that a “party”so empowered could be out there not to take power but to change those IN power.We in the party will grow with the excesses of Obama, and fade if he acts in accordance with our constitution.That goes equally to those on the right.In the coming elections our “power”will be felt massively against those who flaunt the constitution and will be a great help to those who follow it.Why this is so hard for libs (especially)to understand, shows their primary anger at this “mean document”(Obama).
We in the movement have already accomplished so much.Those folks making under 50 K may not come to rallies or may even believe the distorted rhetoric generated by the fleeing cockroaches in our Capital.But we have already effected them.EDucated them to their responsibilities as Americans to adhere to our primary documents. And we are forcing Washington to remember the oath they take to that great work has teeth again.Especially proud are we of the junior congressman just elected who are not playing the Washington “game”. Creating quite a stir among old dog Rs.
So for now we will watch for a time Both parties. Elections are a ways off.And the first shoe has dropped in the effects we are already having on ongoing legislation.So the massive rallies are I believe on hold for a time.We do have jobs and lives you know.The second shoe is going to land squarely on Obama’s pointy head. Have no illusions,(we dont).His moves this week against Libya have again proven that he is a man who believes in circumvention of constitutional power when it suits him.We will be out in force to topple his regime.We will be there to reacquaint America with America.We are not a fly by night force effected by polls that blow this way or that according to the art of politics of personality.We are here for the long haul.Been around for well over 300 years.We owe America a great apology in that we stood quiet for a time as our government was stolen away from her sacred ideals.By both parties by the way.We will free America from those who mean to REMAKE America.In a real sense we cant loose.We still have that oath that the president and his minions have taken(and broken.)..to hold over their head.All of their heads.As long as they take that oath, and we are there to police that oath……….we win.
It amuses me greatly to hear Jon Stewart this week attacking Obama, along with huge sections of his bought and paid for press.Sounds like a tea party rally to me.Sounds like they have heard us.
This is what happens when you get a group of people backed by billionaires(the Koch brothers aka John Birch Society-aka The American Nazi Party) who are angry but have no idea whatsoever what they ought to be angry about! For those teabaggers who earn less than 50 thousand a year, this is especially true, for you are not only hurting unions, or the so called leftist conspiracy(a manufactured fantasy), you are hurting yourselves. There is no doubt people are angry everywhere and for good reason. Certainly a large portion of this anger is directed at Obama, but not because he is a socialist anti Christ, but rather yet one more corporate bought politician in a long line of those who expand across both aisles and both parties. Sad thing for the tea party is that most Americans are not mad with them but rather at them too because they support the same corporate nonsense and thievery that is the real problem with America! The more the tea party works on destroying organized labor, attacking Social Security and Medicare, attacking teachers and fire fighters or attempting to overturn child labor laws in states like Maine and Missouri, the more the general population will resent them! As for those junior tea party republicans in congress, your days are numbered! That is unless you can somehow coerce the store bought Supreme Court to appoint you permanently. I have no doubt that for some of you even that possibility exists!
I think the Tea Party — in general — needs something like forced school busing to get all their members to national rallies. And Congress — in particular — should foot the bills any and all trips to get TP members to rallies in our nation’s capital.
After all, the liberals have such a choke hold on the MSM that busing Tea Partiers would be the most patriotic way to ensure political and racial balance at Tea Party rallies and protests.
Just throw in a few hundred thousand Negro students from Washington’s public school system — sitting in the back of the buses, of course — and the TPs would look like the rainbow movement they otherwise pretend to be.
What a great opportunity it would be for the TPs to sell athletic shoes, licensed professional and NCAA team athletic gear, and hooded jackets fresh off the assembly lines in the Orient. And what a great opportunity it would be for Washington’s black students to be lectured to death on just how America’s economy is truly the “envy of the world.”
And — I hear the TPers play a pretty convincing game of three-card Monty. In gambling terms, this’d be about the same thing as “the torch is passed” from one generation of con artists to the next.
After all, The Koch Brothers and Dick’s Armey can’t support the TPs forever.
Pelle and michael….write on a blackboard a thousand times “TEA party =constitutionalists”.It is really that simple.Stop the nonsensical scare tactics.
https://fair.org/index.php?page=4236
One more thing Im going to throw out there about Tea party rallies.Been to a ton.Go to a lot of “liberal rallies as well, including the immaculate inauguration.Why is it(and believe me this is a constant)that the lefts rallies are covered in trash after they leave,while the tea party rallies are immaculate?Ive asked the question to people I see littering at the lefts gets together’s, and have received the same answer a number of times.”Somebody will clean it up”.Well I guess that is an answer.Classic in my view
The voting public has gotten a good look at 90 days worth of Teabagging Government [Republicanism under a new name] in action in various Midwestern states and, surprise, they disapprove.
The GOP has to be viewing their losses among Independents with alarm.
Teabaggers are “constitutionalists,” the same way Randites are economists. In fiction.
Dick teabagging is a filthy term .No better than calling Obama the N word.Filthy asides from small filthy minds.The tea party is not Republican or Dem. As a constitutionalist watchdog it is closest to conservatism. ,and furthest from liberalism.As far as getting a look at tea party activism i can only say you aint seen nothing yet.The republican measures this day show that they are starting to understand that” we” mean to turn the spigot off on government spending and largess.We mean to stop kicking the can down the road.Obama has no independents at all…but mentioning that shows you don’t get it at all.You are still playing political brinksmanship games.Trying to say or do whatever it takes to be elected.The tea party will be here long after all this political maneuvering is past.It has been for 300 plus years.We will not change our “tune” come what may .Follow the constitution and the ideals that have formed this great republic and the tea party is right beside you.Try to remake this country according to the whims of the changing winds and political power brokering, and we will be an anchor around your neck.
That’s right, Dick. Oh, and “dick teabagging” is simply describing a sex act that many folks enjoy, both gay and straight. There’s nothing wrong with “tea-bagging,” or “dick-bagging,” or whatever you want to call it. Any consensual adult love is good love, for Christ’s sake. Here’s a translation of the rest of the above gibberish: “Veer from what we say is good for all of us, and we marginalize you. Keep making noise, and we kill you.”
P.S.: “Dick teabagging is a filthy term” has got to be the funniest unintentional grammatical fuck-up (a great pun too!) I’ve seen in some time.
Teabaggers voted Republican at a 9 to 1 rate in the last election. They are simply a subset of the GOP.
Obama’s approval ratings among independents is currently at 41%.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/06/jobapproval-obama-inds_n_726281.html
Helen(Obama can expect 18% of independents from latest polls.Some are as low as zero or point one.41%////your dreaming))And tea Party people SHOULD vote 10 out of ten republican…..I Cant figure the “one” that doesn’t vote that way for the life of me.It is exactly the same as 9 out of ten socialists or communists would vote Dem over republican.That does not make them a “subset”.Simply the best choice they can make out of 2 …that reflects their views. As bad as the republican choice often is(McCain)people like Obama have not a clue in their head, or ass- what this country is.Republicans seem to be at least trying to listen to the anger that is directed against government (theirs as well)mismanagement.The left seems to feel the answer is a bigger more powerful fed.As i say….they just don’t get it.Not listening at all.
The tea Party is a guardian of the constitution.That rag that has been dragged through the mud by both sides in recent times.We mean to do out job irregardless of bloviating from either side.So live with it.
Gosh Tim you make “teabagging” sound like a joy filled- full of fun-gum drop and cotton candy compliment.Yet I wonder if someone said i wish i could “tea bag” your mom, or your daughter(over 18 of course)or your wife, if you would still feel such merriment?
Helen Why don’t we call people teabaggers in perpetuity?Such a fun innocent word.We can call gay men fags.The Obama’s niggers.The italians WAps.Jews hebes.Yes yet you get away with it because you are a liberal and actually believe it is your right to call people by names they consider derogatory and hurtful.You see it matters not one wit what Tim or i …or you -think about in calling Obamas beautiful little girls NIGGERS!It matters what they think.And how we mean to respect that.Grow up and stop being scumbaggers
To be clear, I wasn’t talking about Obama’s approval among Independents, I was talking about the recently Elected Midwestern Republican Governors’ approval among Indis within their respective states…
They won their elections with the majority of Indi voters, but after three months of governing as Teabaggers, their disapproval numbers are higher than their approval numbers with those same voters.
If I was the GOP i’d be alarmed.
Dick does anyone call you a teabagger or just a liberal dick?
I should answer your statement i suppose(count to ten….serenity now).The tea party as it were will not be governing to garner high approval ratings.We will be trying to get this train back on the track.It will be blood sweat and tears and little more for some time to come.We will leave political gamesmanship to the pros.The professional liars that is.The Republicans and the Democrats and their respective machines have blown enough smoke up everyones britches for a lifetime.I hope the Tea party will continue to be a place above the fray.AS far as the tea party as a franchise name…it has ebbed and flowed depending on smear tactics, and how well that has been funded.As far as beliefs….the tea party platform is spreading far and wide “infecting” everywhere it lands.Reminding people what America is.And that,not any power grab is the goal.
“Helen(Obama can expect 18% of independents from latest polls.Some are as low as zero or point one.41%////your dreaming))”
Here are all the polls on “Obama’s Job Approval” done in March 2011 with responses from Independent voters only.
YouGov/Polimetrix 35%
Quinnipiac 39%
Fairleigh Dickinson 39%
DailyKos/SEIU/PPP 42%
YouGov/Polimetrix 42%
CBS 46%
CNN 45%
ARG 40%
DailyKos/SEIU/PPP 46%
FOX 47 %
YouGov/Polimetrix 38 %
CNN 46%
PPP 46%
DailyKos/SEIU/PPP 42%
YouGov/Polimetrix 37%
DailyKos/SEIU/PPP 53% [either a misprint or an obvious outlier]
Ipsos/Reuters 37%
Resurgent Republic 39%
Any poll showing zero percent is an obvious lie…..Even in the states where Obama got crushed in 08 like UT, WY, or ID he still got 35% of the vote.
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds that 68 percent of self-identified teabaggers and 56 percent of self-identified Republicans want the GOP to refuse to compromise on budget talks, even if it means shutting down the government.
66 percent of self-identified independents want Republicans to compromise to avert a government shutdown.
The poll suggests there are limits to the tea-party movement’s popularity. In the new survey, 29% felt very positive or somewhat positive about the tea party, the same level of positive feeling registered in January.
But 44% felt negatively toward the movement, and the percentage of Americans who feel very negatively jumped six percentage points from January, to 30%.
Some 25% of those polled said they supported the tea party, down from 29% in February and 30% in November. The highest percentage on record, 67%, said they weren’t supporters.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704101604576247100322182190.html
Helen…The tea party is not a party at all – moniker aside.It is a movement.To re-infuse the constitution Back into the equation.As such ,it is in many ways immune from daily tracking and opinion polls.It has in a loose sense leaders, but in reality they are little more than representatives.Speakers for the cause.Yes they will have massive rally’s -but the real imput is the importance they have placed once more on that mean document(Obama).They have infused it back into conservatism, and shoved it up the bums of the Libs.People calling themselves tea party legislators could just as simply call themselves patriots to the constitution.This power block is simply people aware of Obamas over reach.Slander against them is useless.They speak for that which Obama has taken his solemn oath.We will hold him and ALL legislators to it.Ask how many Americans believe we should continue to uphold the constitution and you will have 95%.That is the true poll.The Tea party.
For Christ’s sake, Helen, they’re “dick-baggers,” not teabaggers, okay? Notice how the Wall seems to relish using racial epithets? It’s like he couldn’t wait to get it in, no? Mr. Gozinya lays out a couple true facts (are there any other kind?), and, just like when you lay out a Mount Everest of cold hard facts, our very own Troll goes apeshit, drops the paper-thin mask of deceitful decorum (just like the Rightist governors in Wisconsin and Michigan and Florida,) and shows his true self–a racist, palvering, authoritarian bonehead. Like his mentors, Michelle Bachmann and Glenn Beck, the misplaced outrage (both phony and real) is never far from the surface. Expect more shrill and desperate caterwauling as the Republican’s assault on our Constitution and rule of law and everyone making less than a million dollars a year becomes apparent to even the dumbest among us.
Teabaggers are simply Republicans that are too ashamed to call themselves Republicans.
The claim that calling Teabaggers Teabaggers is the same as calling African-Americans N*****s takes false equivalency to new levels of absurdity. Typical of a White man’s overblown sense of his own entitlement and pathetic sense of victimization.
One is a two year old political insult, the other a racial epithet with more than a century long sordid history of belittlement, intimidation and violence.
The idea that calling a Teabagger a Teabagger is in the same ballpark as any race or religion based hate speech is a load of bollocks so big that only a Teabagger could swallow it.
Harry and Tim .
In on sense you are correct.It is false equivalency.But it serves a point.One mans insult is anothers empty word.(Tims idea of a thin veil is ludicrous in the sense that he has no veil at all in calling people repulsive names.)But that is ok because he is a lib?So no I will refrain from calling Libs scumbaggers or moles or whatever name.That is simple common decency.See call Tim a tea bagger and he laughs.Call me a nigger and I laugh.It is about respecting the OTHER person.So i expect you all to of learned something and refrain from calling others by your own mean spirited monikers just as you would want people to do by you.You know the golden rule.Lets see if it even exists on the left.You are now up to bat.I wont talk much of it again.I have just read a great piece on people who use the term.It is not flattering.It points to these people as low types beyond educating.I can live with you proving that daily by being unable to grow and have a respectful discourse.
Tim one last thing.Got Children?When they learned of the boston tea party,did you correct their teacher and call it the boston tea bag party explaining the definition?I actually believe you would God help them.
Michael e. as always you are a f**king idiot just like Olbermann used to say about Palin. You make no sense and distort most every real issue and like most teabaggers oversimplify in the extreme. As in, “America, love it or leave it” used to be the call from the stupid people who are the teabaggers of that day think that because you point out this country’s hypocrisy and unfairness reflects an attitude of throwing the baby out with the bath water should be the rule.
As for the name teabagger it was the right wing who started it.
http://www.politicususa.com/en/olbermann-teabagger
http://www.nrd.nationalreview.com/article/?q...
http://www.mediaite.com/…/is-teabagger-an-epithet-rachel-maddow-teaches-a-tea- party-history-lesson/
I apologize to all for use effing term in a previous post.
Tim N “There’s nothing wrong with “tea-bagging. Any consensual adult love is good love”
Michael e “Gosh Tim you make “teabagging” sound like a joy filled- full of fun-gum drop and cotton candy compliment.Yet I wonder if someone said i wish i could “tea bag” your mom, or your daughter(over 18 of course)or your wife, if you would still feel such merriment?”
How odd. You could put any sexual act into that statement and it would still be inappropriate. Not because the sex is “icky,” but rather the context makes it impolite.
Not to mention the suggestion that most women don’t enjoy oral sex.
“One man’s insult is another’s empty word.”
Sorry, no white man gets to call an Africian-American a N*gg*r” and then say it’s just an empty word.
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