patrick.net

There's a problem with air travel right now, tho.

FWIW, I haven't seen or heard any "racial" remarks in any of the Tea Party pics and clips I've seen.
But I don't Google for them, or read every Liberal (or Rightwing for that matter) Blog.

Other than what you guys post here I don't see the stuff you guys keep throwing out there. Which every movement has the lowest common denominator.

I mean by this lots view on all of the Tea Partiers,(Baggers) then Acorn was nothing but a Brothel front.
I mean hey face it, there's Video of ACORN officials setting up a corners and turf. Does that incident encompass ACORN as a whole?

And Patrick if I'm not mistaken, you were a strong Ron Paul supporter, based soley on him being for smaller much smaller Government, to the point, that post suggests.

Say what you want about the Teaparty the Teabaggers, ect...

But just know, not all of these peoples are Dolts you guys make them out to be. Now to say you have issues with the Leadership of the Tea Party, is one thing. But to ridicule the people going to these rallys, does more to undermine your efforts than it thwarts the Tea Party leadership. Chided and Chasted constituents don't covert easy.

I've seen a tea party up close & personal,many of the participants were peaceful protesters. But I also saw about a quarter of them holding racist signs and saying some nasty things about pretty much anyone who disagreed with them. Anyone who claims that they're grass roots, that they're not manipulated and sponsored by Faux news, is deeply in denial. I find it sad that the pundits are making tons of money from the people who are in desperate need - those are the ones buying their books & t-shirts.

The "leaders" of the tea-parties are the pundits and the owner of Faux News, who is making money from the rage that they encourage. They are woefully out of touch with the normal, average guy. It's sad to see them self-promote through anger.

Same thing with the leaders of the parties, and our political representatives. I'm sick of everything being split down party lines. If there was a fire in the senate or congressional chambers, I wonder if they'd help each other out of there or if they'd pick & chose along party lines. I suspect it would be the latter.

You don't have to look hard to find these:

I could have used this post over the past 10 years before I even heard of this current Tea Party Movement. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten into convo's regarding how best to make our country better. Many discussions about enabling others to be lazy by providing too many bennies. I can't tell you how many people I've met that believe there should be NO social safety nets meaning no welfare, no public schools, no Medicare/Medicaid, no SS because if you are so poor and have such a god-awful life you will find a way to improve it because we are in the land of opportunity, you know. With next to zero $$$ that you will be paying in taxes the economy will flourish and charity contributions will spike because Americans are so generous!?!?!

I personally think we are too greedy of a culture to give sufficient amounts to charity to cover all of our needs. And these past decade is a perfect example: give people cheap, easy money and look what they do with it!

Did you all see this survey in the NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15poll.html

It's quite interesting. A few clips in case you don't wanna read a NY Times piece.

A plurality do not think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president, and, despite their push for smaller government, they think that Social Security and Medicare are worth the cost to taxpayers.

...

The overwhelming majority of supporters say Mr. Obama does not share the values most Americans live by and that he does not understand the problems of people like themselves. More than half say the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25 percent think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11 percent of the general public.

...

“I just feel he’s getting away from what America is,” said Kathy Mayhugh, 67, a retired medical transcriber in Jacksonville. “He’s a socialist. And to tell you the truth, I think he’s a Muslim and trying to head us in that direction, I don’t care what he says. He’s been in office over a year and can’t find a church to go to. That doesn’t say much for him.”

...

And nearly three-quarters of those who favor smaller government said they would prefer it even if it meant spending on domestic programs would be cut.

But in follow-up interviews, Tea Party supporters said they did not want to cut Medicare or Social Security — the biggest domestic programs, suggesting instead a focus on “waste.”

Some defended being on Social Security while fighting big government by saying that since they had paid into the system, they deserved the benefits.

Others could not explain the contradiction.

“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”

“A conservative is a man who has plenty of money and don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t always have plenty of money.”
Will Rogers

“Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they’ve stolen.”
Mort Sahl

I was annoyed by one of these anti-tax people on the way out of fred meyer this afternoon. I guess they're trying to get a disasterous CA-style 2/3rds majority for passing tax increases.

I asked the guy if they were going to also require a 2/3rds majority for raising spending, or if they were going to require that spending be properly funded, or that tax cuts be combined with spending cuts. He said "no, this is just about taxes".

The "small government" people are full of shit. They just don't want to pay taxes. If they cared about small government, they'd be holding spending revolts, not tax revolts, and they'd be carrying signs demanding an end to medicare, social security, and the wars.

Quite frankly, I'd gladly see an end to the three big spending components of our government, because I think all three are broken. Since I know that isn't going to happen, I'd rather see those three programs properly funded.

Hmmm, tomorrow there's a group meeting up in the park near the White House with weapons. On April 19th. 4/19, why does that seem familiar.... some dude named McVeigh I think....

How could you possibly equate Tea Party people with Timmy? I mean, yeah, they believe the exact same things and espouse the exact same paranoia that he did, but they're not like him. Clearly Timmy was a secret government agent who committed terrorist acts in order to discredit the patriot movement. If he was a real terrorist, he'd have a beard.

I'll be holding my own party at 4:20. :)

Aw, someone had to say it...

hahahaha, Ellie Mae, those 4:20 'earth day' signs are up every where in Portland;O)

What I find interesting in regards to trusting the government, protests, etc is that in general Conservatives have little problem trusting their government with foreign affairs, ie WAR!, but when it comes to domestic policy heck no, 'they are leading us down the wrong path!' And the same can be said for Liberals, in general but vice versa.

If Tea-bagger Palin were in Somalia they would have stoned her daughter.

Whoa, it is an anti-tea party lefty support-group love fest with ellie, vicente, kevin, leigh, and mickey re-affirming their self-worth because of their superior moral position.

The pictures speak for themselves.

simchaland says

The pictures speak for themselves.

The pictures say people know how to use photo shop and take pictures.
They don't tell me if they are true or not.

I remember after the Chinese Olympics people were posting pictures they got from a blog that got from Google, of signs of Mal worded signs, most of them were photo shop alters.

Again though note the first picture, the sign directly over his head.

Liberals are so far out of touch that you choose to group everyone as a whole based on a the outspoken, and not the silent angry ones that are obviously listening to this extreme right wing rhetoric. Why? Oh maybe they are taking their chances over the Extreme Left bipolarization that is going on in Washington.

Both Parties are Off their Meds, lets be perfectly clear here.

All I'm saying, you're not going to win that other 80-90%, that aren't racist ignorant inbreds over by calling them as such, while not at least acknowledging the follies of this administration. There's no common ground other wise. This 2 party system you guys demanded, is poised to bite you in the ass.

NOW you want to call the other party a bunch of Nimka Poops.

Democracy making, sure is hard work ain't it?

It's amazing how conservatives project fear onto Liberals. I'm learning so much about conservatism. Naming qualities that exist within yourself and claiming that these qualities belong to others and not in you is called "projection."

I'll quote a famous Liberal, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The politics of fear and division are the politics of the conservatives. We Liberals prefer embracing others.

The Tea Party is basically a group of angry white people who can't believe that we have elected an African American president. What do you think "We want our country back" means? It means that these people live in constant fear of becoming the minority, which is happening at an ever increasing rate. Being "American" no longer means "being white." That scares these people and unites them in fear. Fear is the root of anger. It's easy to stir fearful people into anger and then rage. It's a dangerous political game that the Tea Party is playing. Our country has a sad history of political assassinations and violence. Almost exclusively the culprits are conservatives who fear change (Kennedy (s), Lincoln, etc.). Lincoln was killed because fearful angry conservative white people in the south didn't want their former slaves, who happened to be black, free. That was a consequence of the Civil War. Lincoln was simply taking away the means of production and wealth for the South. It turned out that by doing that, he gave certain human beings their rights back while the whites lived in fear of backlash from the people they formerly enslaved.

Today Obama is a sign of an America that is emerging. It's an America where whites are no longer the majority and people are moving beyond the shackles of racism to advance to the highest positions in our country. That's threatening to white people who have controlled the Presidency since our country was founded. Fear unites the Tea Party people. It's fear of the non-whites taking their rightful place as equals in the United States of America. The Civil War was really all about the fear that non-whites would become the majority in southern states where they were the majority if they were free and counted as "people." The White Secessionists then wanted to preserve their place at the top of society realizing that they were outnumbered. They seceded and formed the Confederate States of America and started a war in order to enshrine their place as masters over people who had dark skin and were stolen from Africa and enslaved.

Today we have fearful angry white people who call themselves the Tea Party who really want to preserve their perceived place in American society. In this party there is talk of "revolution" "secession" and "rebellion." It is a uniquely conservative movement spawned from fear of those perceived as "other" because of the color of their skin, their religion, and/or ethnic origin.

The Tea Party movement is nothing but a replay of old white fear sweeping up those susceptible into uniting around the fear that "that black man" is going to remove them from their perceived "place" in society (at the top). It seems we aren't beyond race yet in this country. The election of Obama shows that the majority of Americans are trying to move beyond it. The Tea Party is trying to drag us backward, kicking and screaming to a time where non-whites should fear for their lives, security, health, freedom, and wealth.

I am having trouble infiltrating Tea Party sites to find photos and information on solutions to our nation's problems. No one is accepting my 'join now' app.

Any way, since I can't get on these sites maybe Ten Ounce Trout can tell me what Palin and others are offering for solutions or is it just rabble rousing?

Leigh says

Any way, since I can’t get on these sites maybe Ten Ounce Trout can tell me what Palin and others are offering for solutions or is it just rabble rousing?

Even if so, what's the retort, when they are being effective commiserating with the already damaged people from the Bush administration. Don't kid your self, Obama ran on "Change" and promised results. Secretly there isn't a poor Repulican alive that hasn't secretly had a wait and see optimism for Obama's campaign rhetoric.

Let's put all of the two toothed Red Necks aside for a minute, and show me the Black poor huddled masses that have benefited from any Obama juice?

... I"m still waiting for that one, I'll whip out my 3,000 page list of Corporate interests that have made received hundred of Billions from the Government to date, while you go and scour and find a Poor son of a bitch that got his loan modified and got a job, and is optimistic about this years Holiday season. Or could rest easy tonight knowing they got a job tomorrow or there some Uncle Guber socialized program that will help them out for a while in these tough times...

Oh that right there aren't any, at best the Congress criters are extending Job benefits, but theat means you have to have lost your job recently. This jobless shit has been going on now for well over two almost three years.

Hey now I don't expect much out of these people, but Obama promised to do my dishes if he was elected, he has yet to do one damn dish, but continues to turn the heat up on the pressure Pot, and dirty more dishes.

Time to get this turkey out of the Kitchen the Soup is crap.

To be quite honest I am rather disappointed but I'd like to kid myself with "how much time does he need to undo 8 years of Cheney, I mean Rumsfeld, I mean Bush?"

We are still in Iraq and Afghanistan and we ain't gotta single payer health care system, the only solution in my mind, to fix the problem unless we can adopt Singapore's system which is highly unlikely as we are too entrenched in our highly profitable American system...22% of our GDP!?!?!

Plus, is there any talk of bringing back the Glass-Steagall Act?

I was holding out 'hope' for some 'change' but I think we'd have to demolish capitol hill and start from scratch, oh, and take down K street with it.

Oh, and Palin is coming to our most hippi-est town in Oregon: Eugene

Palin's talk at Lane GOP fundraiser comes with tight media rules

http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/04/palins_talk_at_lane_gop_fundra.html

I didn't buy a ticket, infiltration failed again;O)

"I haven’t seen or heard any “racial” remarks in any of the Tea Party pics and clips I’ve seen."

I guess you haven't seen this sign. Not only is the guy a racist, but he can't even spell the N word!

HousingWatcher says

“I haven’t seen or heard any “racial” remarks in any of the Tea Party pics and clips I’ve seen.”
I guess you haven’t seen this sign. Not only is the guy a racist, but he can’t even spell the N word!

If you look closely you can see he wrote "N%$#@R" on a piece of paper and taped it over another word, likely another misspelled word...

Is the top word "CONGO"?!

Leigh says

Is the top word “CONGO”?!

Nope, it's CONGRESS

Vicente says

Leigh says

Is the top word “CONGO”?!

Nope, it’s CONGRESS

Thank goodness as I was confused!

This one isn't even party specific

"If you look closely you can see he wrote “N%$#@R” on a piece of paper and taped it over another word, likely another misspelled word…

Is the top word “CONGO”?!"

Oh I see only black people can use that word when trying to make a Political/Artistic point?

If you guys were Republicans ragging on a predominantly "Black" group(I say predominantly because there are some Black Tea Bag party members)
You guys would be all over the racist thing.

You guys posting the pics of the Obama Monkey and racial epitaphs that some seriously disturbed people posted on the internet, out of context and assign them all White Republicans is no less ignorant than the Assholes that made, posed, or created those pictures.

Lovely, more subtle hate from the right...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/DEAR-LORD-THIS-YEAR-YOU-TOOK-MY-FAVORITE-ACTOR-PATRICK-SWAYZIE-YOU-TOOK-MY-FAVORITE-ACTRESS-FARAH-FAWCETT-YOU-TOOK-MY-FAVORITE-SINGER-MICHAEL-JACKSON-I-JUST-WANTED-TO-LET-YOU-KNOW-MY-FAVORITE-PRESIDENT-IS-BARACK-OBAMA-AMEN/111712585523370?ref=nf

Note the fan photos. Looks like the site has been infiltrated! hahaha

Tenouncetrout says

You guys posting the pics of the Obama Monkey and racial epitaphs that some seriously disturbed people posted on the internet, out of context and assign them all White Republicans is no less ignorant than the Assholes that made, posed, or created those pictures.

Pfft! The truth hurts, doesn't it? Did I hit a little too close to home with my comments? Projection seems to be the name of the game for Republicans/Conservatives/Tea Party people.

Nomograph says

simchaland says

The Tea Party is basically a group of angry white people

I think it’s more like a right-wing version of the hippie movement, consisting of a varied group of people who are loosely bound together by a mutual dislike of government in general and Obama in particular. Health care was their Vietnam protest.
Most of the folks are relatively normal but the racists and wierdos get all the press, since they sell more ad space.

@Nomo,
a very good post.

Tenouncetroutm fwiw I think it's less racism than classism.

We have a very sizable underclass here that doesn't get the social services goodies that the Eurosocialists dole out. The TP movement is pissing in that wind ("TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY").

Conservatives can deal with black people fine, as long as they are mainstreamed, ie. act white. It's the Other that has them in fear. Moving beyond the puerile name calling, they don't want to pay for this Other's social needs (health care, education, housing, whatever).

This is proper conservative ideology of course and nobody should have a problem with it.

Aside from black Americans, there's also the sizable hispanic near third-world population that we've acquired over the decades.

Tea Party people were around 100 years ago with the Chinese Exclusion act of 1882 and the Immigration Act of 1924. Jews, chinks, spics, japs -- we Americans had enough of them and didn't want any more.

Because they were different.

Noam Chomsky gave a speech recently in which he advised that tea-partiers be listened to as they have legitimate grievances. At least to stop making fun of them.
That such an icon of left-wing thought would do this should help one to pause for reflection, at least.
The country has been handed to the banksters, and all sides of our lower-class debate would do well to know our enemy.

MCM says

Whoa, it is an anti-tea party lefty support-group love fest with ellie, vicente, kevin, leigh, and mickey re-affirming their self-worth because of their superior moral position.

Sure - welcome to the party.

I've got some signs of my own, courtesy of Huffington Post:

monkframe says

Noam Chomsky gave a speech recently in which he advised that tea-partiers be listened to as they have legitimate grievances. At least to stop making fun of them.

That such an icon of left-wing thought would do this should help one to pause for reflection, at least.

The country has been handed to the banksters, and all sides of our lower-class debate would do well to know our enemy.

A point well-taken.

On April 15, about 1000 TP protesters were in Union Square in SF.

Some of them are former anti-war protesters from the 1960's. According to them, the real TP is anti-war since according to the Constitution, only Congress can declare war and by following the Constitution, our military involvement in stupid wars (Iraq) would not occur.

They also stated that the Founding Fathers never contemplated our military stationed in 68 foreign countries around the world.

They had support from local progressives who claimed that the TP is a true grass-roots movement centered in populism and thus the TP are true progressives.

Further, Ariana's brilliantly simple piece in HuffPo displays an awakening on the Left that maybe, just maybe the TP'ers are on to something relative to Wall Street banksters:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/shorting-the-middle-class_b_543523.html

~Misstrial

Misstrial says

Some of them are former anti-war protesters from the 1960’s. According to them, the real TP is anti-war since according to the Constitution, only Congress can declare war and by following the Constitution, our military involvement in stupid wars (Iraq) would not occur.
They also stated that the Founding Fathers never contemplated our military stationed in 68 foreign countries around the world.

Wow! What horrible anti-American concepts! It is terribly anti-American to be against war and imperial expansionism. These Tea Baggers need to be re-educated by REAL Americans. Where's the Ministry of Truth when you need them?

"Conservatives can deal with black people fine, as long as they are mainstreamed, ie. act white."

Here yee here yee let it be said there's no such thing as a prejudice Democrat, and ALL Republicans are spital spewing raving lunatic Racists, who can't contain them selves from spinning into a racial epitaph. That expect nothing more than the Blacks know their place in the world.

It must be one damn small mental box, you Bastards live in.

Every Tea Party leader or member I've seen interviewed, talks about 3 things:

1) Taxes
2) Healthcare
3) Obama=Marxist

If the Teabaggers want to "get out the message" that what they are ACTUALLY about is anti-war, or anti-something-else, well frankly they suck at it. They get plenty of air time to say something different, but the first thing out of their mouths is always that priority list above. Cutting taxes i.e. "starve the beast" is the Republican mantra for about 3 decades now so you can see how people'd get a mite confusified.

If the rank & file are primarily about being anti-imperialist and it's supposedly a grassroots populist movement, well why they hell are they letting other people speak for them? It's not that difficult to have your appointed spokespeople mob the camera and shove the loons aside.

Now you can SAY oh it's a liberal media conspiracy, but is Fox News liberal?

the lack of a leader and the lack of a chosen spokesman and the lack of an individual to target to smear is (I feel) why the leftists are so nervous about the patriot/conservo/freedom movement. See you in Nov.

1) nobody is pro-war. most conservos are pro-military for obvious reasons, we want to stay free.

2) nobody is anti-healthcare. most conservos are pro-individual responsibity and pro-market force. Having an auto pay system removes both completely with the only winner being the docs, pharms, and politicos that dont have to live with the game they rig. Another benifactor is those who CHOOSE to not be responsible. Rewarding irresponsible behavior is a major problem with leftists.

3) nobody can deny the obvious - Lord Barry is absolutly following Carl's guide to a tee -- but maybe he is just a puppett for those who put him in place, so as an individual Barry may not actually be a Marxist ..... but, as a speaker/policey maker/leader/politician he is absolutly something really really really close to a Maxist/Stalinist/Maoist/communist/socialist .... a kind of Pelosi-lite.

RE: rank and file: does not apply to the patriots. And that is why the liberal/progressive/leftisits hate HATE H A T E and are afraid of the freedoms we possess. See you in Nov.

So how would this personal responsibility thing work with health care?

Sorry you work in a job that provides no bennies and you have chosen food and shelter instead of health insurance and now you are in the ED. Do we not treat you, do we deny coverage? Or say that you do have insurance but crappy insurance or heck, even good insurance and you drink your liver to death or eat your way to near death. Do we not treat you because you lack personal responsibility?

Do you wanna be that person at the patient's bed side that says, "we are discontinuing care due to a) lack of insurance b) lack of adequate insurance c) poor lifestyle choices."

So what solutions have the conservo's come up with to deal with our very expensive health care system?

And why doesn't Palin, who seems to get a heck of a lot air time, take the time to offer solutions?

BTW, there were a lot of left of center folks pissed about the bank bail-outs we just don't get the airtime.

I recall seeing a few opinion pieces but not much else. And funny how it's all Obama's fault. How quickly we forget Bush's 'don't ask, don't tell $$$$$$' he gave in the first round.

And where was the Tea Party during this 8 year war. Why has it taken them 8 years to come out against it?

Hmmm, fear?!?! Not so sure if it's fear. So what will happen if all these evil Dem's and Rep's get voted out? What are their competitors looking like? More of the same? I see McCain trying to reinvent himself after how many decades in the Senate. What are the other potential folks looking like?

Sure, some may get voted out but who will get voted in? Will they put the lobbyists in their place, far away from DC? Will we pull out of the ME wars and shut down at least 25% of our bases around the world? We will slash Medicare and SS? Privatize them?

Interesting times. I'm not nervous as I don't expect much change from Cheney/Bush era politics. Been there, done that. I'll know what to expect. No fear.

And, NO, I don't miss 'him' yet.