Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Teabagged Nation



After months of licking their collective wounds, and unable to accept the results of Nov. 4th, today the angry white masses took to the streets to declare their freedom from...sanity. Whipped into a furor by media hacks, a right-wing news channel, and a complicit GOP-Corporate smear machine, dozens and hundreds and in a few cases "allegedly" thousands, marched to declare their freedom from "tyranny" and "fascism"--and spew enough hate, incoherent rhetoric and babble to jump start a Palin rally. It seems, unable to win at the ballot box, they've decided to defeat the rest of America (the overwhelming majority) by inducing laughter.

But hey, it's a free country--or at least certainly more free today than it's been in the past eight years. So heck, if right-wingers want to open up the conservative loony-bins and let us gawk at the spectacle that spills out, why not.

More after the fold...


First off, these guys call themselves "teabaggers." That alone can start so much justly deserved juvenile snickering, it's a wonder some reporters can actually talk about it with a straight face.

Seeming to suffer from what some have rightly termed "grassroots envy," the GOP has decided if they can't get a popular groundswell of democratic support to emerge organically from their ranks, they'll just throw a lot of money, media resources and fake websites together to create one. Supposedly, the main concern of these teabaggers is that Obama is going to raise their taxes. Yet, every factual indication is that Obama's tax plans will provide a cut for everyone making under 250,000 a year. The only people who will see a significant increase are those in the top 10%, who will end up paying a tax rate still significantly lower than under Ronald Reagan. So either all these teabaggers are millionaires looking out for their own self-interest and greed, or they're really, really, really...DUMB.

Bernie Horn at Campaign for America's Future notes:
Of course, the corporate organizers of the Tax Day Tea Party are neither ignorant nor mad. They have an agenda, but you have to dig a little to find it. Look at their Resources page. It takes you to “The Tool Kit for Tea Parties,” which is a few PDFs on a website called “American Solutions.”

And what are the principal solutions? Cut tax rates for the rich. Cut the corporate tax rate. Abolish the capital gains tax. Abolish the estate tax. Oh, and oppose the Employee Free Choice Act.

Wow! Who in the world is American Solutions? Why it’s Newt Gingrich’s organization. (Click here for a fine picture of Newt grinning like a Cheshire Cat.) The whole tea party scam is designed to push people toward the maddest, craziest, most irresponsible right-wing corporate agenda Gingrich could imagine. And—once again—the lower-income, right wing rank-and-file are just being played as suckers by the rich.

Pathetic.

Some video and photos of what this convergence of faux populism, manufactured irrational anger and ignorance has wrought.

Some background:

David Shuster on how Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, right-wing financiers and FOX News cooked up the entire "teabagging:"



Twas' the night before Teabagging, and Keith Olbermann further exposed this manufactured "movement:"




Full frontal teabagging craziness:

Susan Roesgen at CNN finds herself caught up in the middle of a mob who can't seem to answer any questions with a hint of sanity:



Media Matters highlights FOX News bringing on the crazy:



Oh that's a gem. A definite keeper:



Straight to the point nuttiness. I respect that:



Crazy with an artistic flair:



Crazy with Photoshop skills:



Please, please, please... leave Jesus out of your teabagging:



Yeah. Because you know how Obama's really murdering babies? SCHIP.



Teabagging party or Gay Pride Parade?



No, seriously. Someone cue-up Diana Ross and get this guy a feather boa already:



Yeah. This unfortunately is where lunacy can become disturbing:



More gun violence threats with that tea:



Yes. That tactic worked well in the 08 elections. Keep pitching it:



That was almost some clever race-baiting. Almost:



Thanks to Dkos, Huffington Post and Media Matters for the material.


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