Suckers

First you have this from Dana Milbank:

Taxes? The nonpartisan Tax Foundation in May described Americans' tax burden in 2009 as the lowest since 1959.

Then you have this from yahoo business:

The 22 statistics detailed here prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America.


The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.

And yet you have a bunch of middle class white Tea Baggers who are yelling about taxes and are going to have a shit fit when the Obama administration allows the tax rate for the wealthy go back to what they were during the Clinton administration.

These two facts should be pointed out early and often when Republicans and the media try to portray the Tea Party as anything other than an arm of the Republican Party.

Nobody is that damn stupid.

Power To The People State Legislatures

I wonder if all or even most of the sheep in the rank and file of the Tea Party realize that they are pushing to repeal the 17th amendment to the Constitution, taking their ability to vote for their US Senators out of their own hands and giving that power to the state legislatures. The same state legislatures where you can find some of the most corrupt politicians in the world.

Some how I doubt it...

Robert Bennett's Fate Kills The "Both Sides Do It" Meme

I know that the mainstream media has been trying like hell to frame everything the far right GOP does as a false equivalency with the Democratic Party but even they won't be able to successfully spin away Senator Robert Bennett's defeat yesterday. In the last few decades nobody can point to a Democrat who was as reliably liberal as Bennett was reliably conservative in voting records who was ousted as an incumbent before even having the opportunity to run against an opponent in a primary. And what exactly was Bennett's great offense? One vote. The vote for the bank bailout that while hugely unpopular probably did in fact keep our banking and financial industry from totally crashing.

Unfortunately in this case rather than trying to draw a false equivalence, the MSM will just ignore it and act as if it never happened. Its sad that unless they can try to paint a story as something both sides do the media would rather just look away than actually have to report the facts. It is what it is...

Congressman Clyburn Ain't Scared Of You Muthafukas!

Over the weekend when the Tea Baggers were hurling racial epithets and spitting on members of Congress, Jim Clyburn came out and said that basically he is not easily intimidated at all. I love his spirit of defiance in the face of all this dangerous and inflammatory rhetoric but I hope that he never has to prove his courage again like he had to back in the 60s.

Tea Party Darling Marco Rubio's Lavish Lifestyle

When will Tea Baggers ever learn? LOL

Marco Rubio was barely solvent as a young lawmaker climbing his way to the top post in the Florida House, but special interest donations and political perks allowed him to spend big money with little scrutiny.

About $600,000 in contributions was stowed in two inconspicuous political committees controlled by Rubio, now the Republican front-runner for the U.S. Senate, and his wife. A St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald analysis of the expenses found:

• Rubio failed to disclose $34,000 in expenses — including $7,000 he paid himself — for one of the committees in 2003 and 2004, as required by state law.

• One committee paid relatives nearly $14,000 for what was incorrectly described to the IRS as "courier fees" and listed a nonexistent address for one of them. Another committee paid $5,700 to his wife, who was listed as the treasurer, much of it for "gas and meals."

• He billed more than $51,000 in unidentified "travel expenses'' to three different credit cards — nearly one-quarter of the committee's entire haul. Charges are not required to be itemized, but other lawmakers detailed almost all of their committee expenses.

Rubio's spending continued in 2005 when the Republican Party of Florida handed him a credit card to use at his own discretion. While serving as House speaker in 2007 and 2008, he charged thousands of dollars in restaurant tabs to the state party at the same time taxpayers were subsidizing his meals in Tallahassee.

snip

Rubio's high-roller political spending belies his image as an outsider riding a wave of antiestablishment fervor and gunning to knock off Gov. Charlie Crist for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination. A Times/Herald review of other legislators' committees shows they typically contributed far more to other candidates and reported vastly fewer credit card payments.

"Having expenditures in the tens of thousands of dollars to pay off credit cards, it's clear to me it was being used to live off of. The Rubios were living off it,'' said state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, a strong Crist supporter.

snip

Rubio has already admitted he used the GOP's credit card to double bill the party and state taxpayers in 2007 for flights from South Florida to Tallahassee. He said he would pay the party back about $3,000 for the flights and consult with his accountant about amending his tax return.

During the 2007 and 2008 legislative sessions, records show Speaker Rubio charged more than $3,700 in meals on his party credit card at the same time he was receiving the state's $126 per day "subsistence" to help cover legislators' food and lodging. Harris said the meal charges were for political purposes, though the speaker's successor typically oversees political activities for House Republicans and lawmakers are not allowed to raise money during session.

Rubio received $10,000 for meals and lodging from the state in 2007 and 2008. Still, the credit card records obtained by the Times/Herald showed Rubio regularly dined out at the party's expense — from a $14.24 bill at Andrew's Capital Grill & Bar, to $184.15 at Masa, an upscale "Asian-fusion'' restaurant.

"It would be entirely inappropriate for Marco to use (taxpayer) money to pay for meals that were political in nature,'' Harris said. "As a general rule, the subsistence payments went to subsidize lodging for Marco and any time he spent money for a political meal he made sure that the party paid for it."

For his last year as speaker, Rubio reported a net worth of less than $8,400, despite earning $69,000 from Florida International University, $45,000 from the state and $300,000 from Broad & Cassell. The father of four had more than $900,000 in debts, including two mortgages on properties in Miami and Tallahassee, a home equity loan and a student loan.

To recap, Marco Rubio has used his position as Speaker of the Florida House to pull in big time cash which he has used to finance his own high roller lifestyle. If you think that's something, just imagine what kind of kickbacks he could get working as a US Senator. Yeah, a real man of the people, that guy.

In the race for junior Senator from the State of Florida there is only one true man of the people and that is Congressman Kendrick Meek. He isn't looking to stuff his pockets with this position, he is looking to better the lives of all Floridians. If the Tea Baggers were truly worried about fiscal responsibility HE is the guy whom they would rally around regardless of party.

Or they can keep backing a guy who is going to sell them out for top dollar no sooner than he takes his oath of office.

It is what it is.

Remember Van Jones?

I recall a whole host of Tea Baggers calling for Van Jones' head because he was supposedly a 9-11 truther although the evidence was MIGHTYYYYYYYY weak. And so after enough noise went through the FoxNews megaphone he ended up stepping down. Well now I anxiously await the Tea Baggers denouncing Texas Gubenatorial candidate Debra Medina and calling for her to get out of the race, something that will probably help the more moderate candidate of all of them, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, take down Rick Perry.

I mean fair is fair right? And Tea Baggers want to be consistent...right?

PWAHAHAHAHAHA yeah, they will call for her to step down when hell freezes over, the sheep.

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Another Crazy Tea Bagger

Spending time watching FoxNews and worshipping Sarah Palin leads to stockpiling weapons, gas masks, food, and medicine for the "coming armageddon" evidently.

Will the media ever point out how dangerous the teabaggers are? Or will they continue to act as if this is some legitimate political movement right up and until some other Gregory Girard actually decides to use their stock pile to "shoot people in their heads" before the police take notice of them?

Im pretty sure it will end up being the latter.

Tom Tancredo Can Eat A Dick

From Think Progress:

Tancredo told the audience that the country had elected “a committed socialist ideologue in the White House” because “we do not have a civics, literary test before people can vote in this country“:

The opening-night speaker at first ever National Tea Party Convention ripped into President Obama, Sen. John McCain and “the cult of multiculturalism,” asserting that Obama was elected because “we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country.”

The speaker, former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., told about 600 delegates in a Nashville, Tenn., ballroom that in the 2008 election, America “put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House … Barack Hussein Obama.”

Given that the convention is being held in Nashville, Tennessee, Tancredo’s remarks are particularly offensive. For years, literacy tests were used across the South to disenfranchise African-American voters, who generally had illiteracy rates 4-5 times as high as whites due to historical discrimination and lack of opportunity. Unfortunately for Tancredo, the 1965 Voting Rights Act makes literacy tests illegal.

On a personal note, my father himself had to take a poll test in Mississippi in order to attempt to vote. He himself was a college graduate and a teacher, but in Mississippi they never showed black men their test results. They just told all of them they failed and couldn't vote. But my Dad took the test anyway just because he wanted to show them he wouldn't be intimidated.

I would LOVE to see Tom Tancredo try to give this same speech in front of black folks with no security, but somehow I don't think that would ever happen.

Pussy.

Hope It Was Worth It

I am not sure what the percentage is of tea baggers who truly believe in their cause and really do believe that the tea bagging movement isn't really Republican but just "anti establishment", but for those poor ignorant souls I certainly hope they have reciepts for whatever money they donated to the Tea Party Express PAC, considering the fact that about 2/3 of its spending went to GOP firms.

Man, you have to be a special kinda dumb to have bought that line of bullshit anyway though so I doubt many of them will be asking for their money back lol.

A Tea Bagging Schism?

Evidently the "real" tea baggers are beefing with the "fake" teabaggers. I am sure hilarity will eventually ensue LOL.

That's A Big Ass Difference

I still vividly remember right wingers gloating over the fact that the news outlets were reporting that the Million Man March did not number a million people. Most outlets did have estimates well over half a million but the sheer fact that it was promoted as a Million Man March primarily geared towards African American men and it didn't actually reach a million people was seen as something to be embarrassed about by the wingnut crowd.

Well I wonder what the hell they have to say about this:

Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, the group that organized the event, said on stage at the rally that ABC News was reporting that 1 million to 1.5 million people were in attendance.

At no time did ABC News, or its affiliates, report a number anywhere near as large. ABCNews.com reported an approximate figure of 60,000 to 70,000 protesters, attributed to the Washington, D.C., fire department. In its reports, ABC News Radio described the crowd as "tens of thousands."

Yeah, check how many rubes mistook less than 100,000 for 1 million. I wonder if they will laugh and mock all the teabaggers for such a meager turnout even on a weekend when presumably nobody had to work.

Rachel Maddow Ties It All Together

Rachel Maddow took the opportunity last night to take an indepth look at the orchestrated and unAmerican townhall teabagger revolts. But bigger than that she pointed out how many in the mainstream media are trying to keep their head in the sand to the fact that these are not honest brokers. These aren't people who come to these townhalls just to ask questions because they are mad. They don't want answers. They only want to shut down dialogue whether its from other members of the audience or from the Democratic member of Congress themselves. In their neverending quest to try to be balanced the media is refusing to report the facts. They can not be allowed to get away with this! Pass this clip along to your friends and family members who might actually be buying the "grassroots" frame.

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Rachel also took the opportunity to tie the current tactics by the GOP to hurt health care reform efforts into the so called "Brooks Brothers" fake riots that occurred during the recount down here in Florida after the 2000 elections.

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The "8 Mile" Strategy

I don't claim credit at all for this but I AM happy that someone was smart enough to understand how to exploit their advance knowledge of what was going to happen at their townhall. And it goes to show that taking the winds out of their sails before they can get started actually works.

10. And then in opening remarks, I blew the Tea Baggers' cover. Roughly, it went like this:

Meetings like this one continue a democratic tradition more than 2500 years old, that of the ancient Greek "Ecclesia." The term means "those called out"—called out to discuss and decide civic matters, and to defend their ancient Greek city-states, to defend their democracy. And you all were called out by notices in the local papers, radio stations, by e-mail and internet, to discuss Health Care Reform and Clean Energy with our Representative tonight.

So know this: efforts to disrupt and thwart public discourse on civic matters are profoundly anti-democratic. But, that's an obstacle we face tonight. It's public knowledge that groups known as Tea Baggers intend to disrupt and thwart the public discourse on Health Care Reform in meetings like this during this month's Congressional Recess. They want Democracy to fail. So, let's face this obstacle together.

The Tea Baggers' instructions are also public knowledge. If some people stand up, shout out and sit down; if some try to rattle us and the Congressman; if some pretend numeric superiority; if some try to stifle intelligent debate; then we can compare that behavior to the Tea Baggers' instructions and draw our own conclusions.

I can only hope that other Democratic Congresspersons pass the word about how to handle this situation going forward.

(h/t Micheline