A Zombie Halloween for Tea Partiers

Yes, I know this cartoon is snarky, but then I am a liberal.   As a self proclaimed liberal, I have become used to being called a moron, Fascist, Commie idiot, tree hugging, latte drinking jerk  and worse by rage filled right wing trolls, so it's about time I descended to the Tea Party level and stopped trying for civilized discourse.  Whatever happened to real political discussion with people who don't bellieve the way you do?  It seems to have disappeared forever from the American political scene  .

 Its disappearance is the reason  I've basically stopped writing here and stopped watching all TV news. The "one from the right and one from the left" talking head formula leaves me less than satisfied and stimulates an awful, mud-slinging attitude rather than a spirit of compromise. Add to that all the doomsday, conspiracy theory stuff and I have just about had it.

But here it is, Halloween, and why not take one last swipe at Fox News and the Tea Party before I exit stage left. ( notice I am exiting stage left and NOT stage right)    Don't get me wrong..... I'm not taking this blog down, I just don't have the stomach to post here these days.   I may get my groove back and find myself impassioned about the American political scene once again. You never know.  In the meantime, thanks to everyone who has read and commented and been generally supportive over the years.  I'm getting offline and going out to go trick or treating..... I may be gone till Christmas or the New Year, who knows.  I'll let you know if and when I come back..... meanwhile, enjoy Halloween and don't eat too much candy.

Momma Politico Tells It Like It Is on American Jobs

If you don't already know Momma Politico, let me introduce you. She is a fellow liberal, progressive blogger who is informed and passionate.  I find her blog a " must read" and I'm thrilled she is now co-hosting  A World of Progress Radio , every Sunday on Blogtalk Radio.  I'm even more thrilled that she agreed to do a guest post here-- Read on an enjoy. Oh yes, and don't forget to  follow her on Twitter at @Mommapolitico

Hey, there, my fellow Politicos! I'm Perry MacNeil, blogger at Momma Politico. My blogpal, Political Packrat, has so generously offered me a guest post here at her site, and I am delighted to accept her kind offer.

And right now we find ourselves in difficult times. Unnecessary debt ceiling battles. Over 14 million Americans unemployed. Millions more so discouraged over the length of time they've been unemployed that they've just quit looking - and are not even included in the unemployment figures anymore. Yet the top 1% of this nation still holds 50% of the wealth, and pays little or no taxes, despite the tax rate they are slated to pay. The Rethugs claim they're being "teabagged" into taking the economy hostage, and many GOP members are willing to "shoot the hostage." This is the insanity in which we now live each day.

Do you have a job right now? Do all you can to hang onto it, my friend, because there are no more coming down the pike. Out of work? Hang on to your hat, if you still have one, because at least nine states are cutting, shortening, or abolishing unemployment benefits. What is a grim situation grows more impossible every day.

The GOP try to pin the lack of economic growth and now, the downgraded credit on the President, but it all fits perfectly into McConnell's "Obama as a one-term president" strategy, but the lady doth protest too much. The Rethugs are happy as Hell to create an unsustainable situation. No more jobs being made, no taxes actually being paid by the richest people and corporations, and no end in sight. It's the perfect storm for a Republican win in 2012, in both the legislative and the executive branches. But there is more to the story.

There's an interesting phenomenon happening here. In recent polls, Congressional Approval ratings are the lowest in history: The New Your Times poll comes in with the record low of  82% of Americans disapprove of the job that Congress is doing. That's eight out of ten Americans thinking that Congress needs to remove its head from its collective behind...and this from polling by a relatively conservative-leaning publication. "What makes the American people think this?" you might ask. Well, the poll goes on to state that Americans feel creating jobs should be the priority right now, and they are obviously not agreeing that the GOP plan is creating them. I believe that most folks who actually work for a living like we do, simply could not believe the recent pettiness of the "pissing contest" loosely known as the "debt ceiling debate" (a real misnomer) staged by the GOP. And while they may have made their puppet-masters (read: rich and corporate donors) happy, they just may have inadvertently pissed into the wind, so to speak. With an election year rolling right around the corner, eight out of ten people just might kick any GOP/Teabag candidates out on their rears.

Is this just "buyer's remorse"? Perhaps, in regard to the Tea Partiers. After all, these were the idiots who claimed they'd go kick butt in Washington; instead, they stuck their heads in the sand and propelled forward the biggest economic disruption this side of the Wall Street Bailout. And the GOP candidates? Working class people are justifiably angry at the selfish power grab they're making, protecting their big donors from any tax increase, no matter how small...and just forget the fact that they don't even pay the taxes they are supposed to pay now. The lawmakers in this country have betrayed the intent of democracy itself. They've destroyed the idea of representative government - they're certainly not standing up for the will of the people. Meanwhile, they take the rest of the summer off, after taking a 2 week break for every week in session all year long. Nice work if you can get it.

I'm not one that makes a lot of predictions, primarily, as Rachel Maddow says, "I'm terribly bad at prognosticating." But I will make this prediction, right here, right now. As long as the Democratic Party continues to stay on message and point out the unjust inequities and favoritism of the GOP toward the rich and the punishments they deal out to the poor and the middle class, we'll have a Democratic Congress come November 2012. And as long as the Tea Partiers continue to grab the GOP by the cojones, well, the Rethugs will hold the line and keep protecting the status quo, while letting the Tea Partiers take the blame. Thankfully, this time around the American people are smarter than that...a good 82% smarter than last time.

For more on my take on politics, come by my blog, Momma Politico, or follow me on twitter @mommapolitico. You can also catch me as co-host on A World of Progress Radio, every Sunday at 4 p.m. Pacific and 7 p.m. Eastern - listen or call in and let your voice be heard!

My thanks to Political Packrat for generously loaning me her soapbox this week. Hope we can do it again sometime!

Alaska Smacks Down Palin and Tea Party

Looks like Alaskans are less than impressed by Sarah Palin.  The mid term election votes are still being counted, but it looks like incumbent, Senator Lisa Murkowski,  running as a write in candidate, is going to have an improbable win over Tea Party and Palin endorsed  right wing Republican challenger, Joe Miller.  MIller won the Republican primary, but Murkowski looks set to win the election. The Alaska voters are speaking out loud and clear, and it's not an endorsement of either Sister Sarah or the Tea Party.

Certainly, when Katie Couric interviewed her on the CBS Evening News last night, Murkowski seemed confident of her win and personally, I can see why. She is refreshingly sane and a welcome voice of moderation in a sea of right wing dis-information and fear mongering. Here's what she had to say about Palin  when Katie asked her about Sarah Palin for President in 2012.

""I just do not think she has that -- those leadership qualities, that intellectual curiosity that allows for building good and great policies. You know, she was my governor for two years, for just about two years there, and I don't think that she enjoyed governing,"

Personally, it gives me hope for the country to see a moderate Republican winning in Alaska.  Time to reign in the right wing and get back to reality.

Thank you Alaska for " refudiating" Sarah Palin and the right wing extremism of the Tea Party Candidate

Anarchists Then and Now

This is a guest post by Dr. Steve Gallop. Steve sends his thoughts to a group of online friends via email, one of whom sends them on to me.  His observations are  trenchant and articulate and often quite original.  Today I offer you his excellent comparison of the Tea Party to Sixties Hippies and Anarchists of old.  It's a fascinating read.   

source

The Tea Party phenomenon has captured the attention of Americans across the political spectrum. The thing I find most intriguing is their demands resemble what in the past was often reviled as those of angry, anti-American anarchists. Today’s Tea Partiers/Libertarians seem far more threatening in demeanor, rhetoric and signage.

The long-haired hippie liberals who protested policies of the Federal Government in the Sixties and Seventies were mocked, denigrated, infiltrated by the FBI, beaten by police, shot and killed by National Guardsmen and told to “love it or leave it” by those who saw themselves as patriots. The protesters were denounced as anarchists who hated America. In general they (we) did not want to abolish the government, only certain policies like government-sanctioned discrimination based on race and gender and the increasingly disastrous Vietnam War.

Many of today’s protesters more closely resemble the most radical element of the Sixties protest movement except previously that element was a tiny minority of the movement whereas today they ARE the movement, including one senate candidate warning of “Second Amendment remedies” if elections don’t turn out as hoped.

Tea Partiers aren’t the first to rail against their own government, but they are very visible and well-armed. Tea Partiers sound like anarchists when they talk about government, yet they have massive corporate backing. The movement was all but created by lobbyist Dick Armey. The movement and now its candidates are heavily funded by, among other heavy hitters domestic and foreign, the Koch brothers whose Koch Industries ironically benefits tremendously from federal subsidies. Tea Partiers also have their own cable network in Fox where their events are publicized free of charge and their candidates can solicit contributions free of charge.

Many Tea Partiers spent last summer shouting down elected officials and making a show of carrying firearms in public. What makes the Tea Party’s anti-government rhetoric more palatable than the anti-government rhetoric of the Sixties? Does America prefer right-wing anarchists to the left-wing variety?

The so-called anarchists of the past fought to protect the people from the depredations of corporations, while today’s anarchists are not only corporate-sponsored, they are trying to protect corporations from the people. Maybe that is why the Tea Party candidates avoid any microphone not bearing the Fox logo. Patriots like Abbie Hoffman never shied away from the press because they believed in the positions they espoused. The old malcontents wanted to move forward, away from discrimination, unjust war and corporate greed dominating our society; the new anarchists want to return to a past where states’ rights ruled the day and Robber Barons ran free.

The Sixties malcontents were mostly young people. They saw what they believed to be injustices in the world they were just beginning to understand and wanting to improve the life that lay mostly ahead of them. Today’s complainers are mostly older people who clearly enjoyed the Vietnam War and racial segregation. Perhaps nobody is urging them to “love it or leave it” because they were the ones previously urging others to do so.

Tea Partiers have a new twist to how democracy works. They are not in favor of a majority being free to carry out its agenda if they disagree with it. Tea Partiers who call themselves patriots – to the exclusion of any with whom they disagree – are apparently the only ones worthy of being free to carry out their agenda, whether or not they are in the majority. The Tea Party already acts like the big government they bemoan. How can we elect to office people who despise government?



There were strong arguments and feelings both for and against independence while the Colonies debated separation from England. Loyalists wanted to remain loyal and subservient to The Crown, preferring the comforting protection of the familiar super-power whose colonists they were. The Patriots believed the comforting protection had become oppressive tyranny. They also wanted freedom from bullying at the hands of any particular religion or of multi-national corporations, particularly the East India Company whose tea ended up in Boston Harbor.

Tea Partiers wail about deficits and bloated, oppressive federal government. Let’s at least be factually accurate about big government in America. The Bush/Cheney administration increased the powers of the Executive Branch more than anyone since Richard Nixon. Some of the biggest bloating of the federal government and the largest federal deficits came at the hands of Ronald Reagan (who presided over the largest tax increase in American history) and George W. Bush. I know this is not what most people believe; look it up for yourself.

Our nation’s founders did great and terrible things. They fought the Revolution, wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, created a nation unlike any other and raised and nurtured it from a seedling. They owned slaves; they fathered children with some of them. They oversaw the slaughter of the Original Inhabitants as they simultaneously learned from them, incorporating their ideas of governance into their own thinking. Nobody’s perfect yet our system is a beacon to many across the globe.

There was great division even among those who would become known as the Founding Fathers. Adams believed in a strong government with long-lasting implications regarding future behavior. Jefferson believed it was wrong to shackle subsequent generations with inflexible rules and laws enacted before the living were even born. Jefferson held that one generation had no more right to impose its beliefs on future generations than one independent nation had to command another. The contrasts are exquisite if not irreconcilable on some level, yet they managed a consensus and founded a new nation.

This nation was founded on the right to disagree. We must somehow find a way to avoid so much all-or-none posturing on the issues of the day. We must learn better how to disagree while simultaneously respecting, accepting and truly understanding the sincerity and legitimacy of the other side. And if we are going to call the malcontents of one generation anarchists, we should be ready to do the same in another.

The Tea Party Gears Up for Halloween

source:  Time.com  cartoons of the week

Tea Party Hand-Puppets

see more Political Pictures

Something to think about over the long, Labor Day Week-end

Tee Shirts for the Tea Party Crowd

At last,  tee shirts for the tea party.  I seem to be into tee shirts these days, but there are some very cool political  ones around, especially if you are a sane American watching the far right fall apart. Nothing like a good laugh to clear the air-- and perhaps the mind as well.

These dynamite designs are the brainchild of  Jeremy Kalgreen  who describes himself as " a slacker, former art student, and general ne'er-do-well."  You can view all of the  reasons why Jeremy is voting tea party here on his website and online shop and order up any of a dozen  in the collection for your next get-together on the White House Lawn.    I love this guy and I hope he makes a fortune.

Meanwhile, maybe these tee shirts will keep the tea  party crowd from carrying dumb mis-spelled  signs making ignorant statements. Hmmmm then again, don't hold your breath. Oh well, at least they will keep the rest of us laughing.

H/T to Political Irony for putting me on to  Jeremy and his political T's.

Teabaggers on Parade

Remember the tea parties-- those well orchestrated " grass roots" gatherings orchestrated by lobbyists and attended by right wing riff raff? Remember those oh so sincere, all American teabaggers carrying signs that could make you laugh or cry-- or both?

Here's an internet album of stupid tea party signs and the teabaggers who believe them along with some sardonic captions by yours truly. In all cases I've linked to the original source of the image.

Have a laugh or get out the kleenex:-)

Oops. Don't look now, but Medicare IS socialized medicine

How do you spell racist?


LMAO--'nuff said :-)


Muslim and Marxist both start with "m" but that's about all they have in common. Did these folks flunk seventh grade or something? At least they can spell


huh?

Learn to Spell!


Fair and balanced?? yeah-- sure and I'm the tooth fairy

Stay tuned for more from the lunatic fringe. They're planning more teaparties once the weather warms up. Kinda makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and proud to be an American, doesn't it?

So Much for the Tea Party

Thank God the tea party is over. It seemed like something out of Alice in Wonderland to begin with. Didn't you find the whole thing a little surreal? Kids carrying faintly racist placards, geezers in colonial costume, blue rinse ladies in wide brimmed hats festooned with teabags-- I mean it was a pretty bizarre happening from the looks of things on TV.

In spite of being billed as a grass roots, nationwide event, the whole thing had the smell of an orchestrated publicity ploy that didn't quite come off. From the use of the word "teabagging"( yes, Virginia, we all know what it means) to forgetting to get a permit to dump teabags in Washington's Lafayette Park, this was the gang that couldn't shoot straight. I don't know about you, but I was laughing my head off during most of it. It was like a cross between a church supper and a Saturday Night Live skit.

The Texas tea party featured lots of talk about Texas secceeding from the Union.... love it. Go ahead, Texas. Mexico is waiting to annex you. Adios, amigos. New York barely noticed and Boston simply tolerated the whole thing.

I am sooo glad it's all over. Now Fox News can get back to bashing Obama and MSNBC can get back to bashing Fox News and everybody can stop snickering about "teabagging"

Let's put the kettle on and have a nice, soothing cup of tea. Wonder what fun public relations stunt the Rush Limbaugh crowd will think of next?