Teabagger Watch

Va. Teabagger Senate Candidate Hosts Fundraiser at Shooting Range

2012-02-13T10:18:00.008-05:00

It's $500 a pop to attend, so save up your Ameros, folks

Virginia candidate for US Senate, Jamie Radtke, has had the novel idea of pandering to her "base" by holding a fundraiser -- the "Shoot For Liberty" -- at a nearby shooting range on February 17th and 18th. What could possibly go wrong here?

Blast from your past: 04.19.10: Area Gun Nuts Infest DC, Nearby Virginia Parks

CPAC 2012 Occupied!

2012-02-12T14:19:00.002-05:00

...and that was only the beginning!

OCCUPY CPAC! from Wespennest on Vimeo.

Daryle Lamont Jenkins reports at One People's Project:
It was only a matter of time, although we are amazed it took this long, that the nonsense coming from the right at the Conservative Political Action Conference would get the attention of those that have just about had enough of this crap.

For the first time in the entire 39-year history of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a major protest, spearheaded by the Occupy movement, was held in opposition to the event being held at the Marriot Wardman Hotel, which has been plagued with a low morale among attendees and the embracing of open white supremacists who organized and participated in workshop alongside Republican elected officials as well as served as CPAC co-sponsors. It is a marked development for an event that over the past four years has increasingly the go-to event for the conservative sensationalists and hatemongers that threaten the growth of the Republican Party and conservatism overall...

Florida: The Final Frontier

2012-01-29T10:41:00.003-05:00

These are the voyages of the Starship Teabag...

"When they found me they had no model to put me back together..."

More of this zaniness courtesy of our friends at Mock, Paper, Scissors...

Last Surviving Tea Party Candidate Meets Dumbest SNL Cast Member Ever

2012-01-28T00:13:00.003-05:00

Via Winning At Everything:

Chuck Norris Endorses Gingrich for President

2012-01-20T20:59:00.004-05:00

Newt didn't go looking for Chuck Norris' endorsement -- it came looking for him.

Hollywood roundhouse-kicker Chuck Norris writes at WeirdNet Daily:

Our republic as America’s founders created it is under assault from extremists outside our country and anti-constitutionalists inside our country. Combined with the flailing American economy and global markets, Western civilization remains on the brink, as experts and all the GOP presidential candidates agree.

President Obama has tried and failed miserably to fix our economy, deepening us and our posterity into more than $6 trillion in additional national debt – something he criticized former President Bush for as “unpatriotic” and “irresponsible.” Yet unemployment rates remain at higher levels than when Obama was elected, and the dollar is as unstable as the Middle East.

As important as it is, now is not the time to be mincing through minutiae and infighting via typical partisan battles. Rome is burning, and we need to appoint the best firemen possible to rush in and put out her fury. What’s critical at this point is to appoint a commander in chief who can clearly lead America to a more solvent and secure future. ...>more, if you dare

"Pimp Daddy" O'Keefe Could Land Allies in Prison for Voter Fraud Stunt

2012-01-13T10:21:00.003-05:00

MORE IRONY THAN WE CAN STAND DEPT: Party Responsible for Widespread Vote Fraud Pisses and Moans Loudest About Voter Fraud, Commits Vote Fraud to Prove Necessity for Skanky "Voter ID" Laws

Joan McCarter reports at Daily Kos:
James O'Keefe, conservative "film-maker," has another hobby-horse: voter fraud. You never saw that one coming, right? Anyway, in an attempt to prove that voter fraud could exist, O'Keefe had some lackeys actually commit fraud, and face potential criminal charges. They got ballots under the names of dead people to try to prove voter ID laws were necessary... >more

Falling Behind, Bachmann Struggles to Stay Relevant

2012-01-03T19:13:00.003-05:00

Former Baby Mill Operator Just About Aced Out of GOP Field; Still Manages to Snag Commercial Endorsement Deal

via FAILblog.

Batshit Bachmann Breaks The Goofy Meter Again

2012-01-02T17:06:00.004-05:00

GOP Presidential Hopeful Beats Lame Euphemism "Job Creators" to Death, Hangs "Socialist" Tag on Wall Street Stooge

As per usual, the Washington Times bends over backwards to give right-wing nutcakes all the space they need to bloviate until the cows come home. Here's GOP freak-show exhibit Michele Bachmann spewing onto the Times' op-ed pages:

I have often been criticized for saying that I could turn around the U.S. economy in just a few short months. That is not blind optimism talking, but rather the realization that the biggest impediment to true economic recovery has been the signal President Obama’s policies have been sending to the key audience for recovery, the job creators. Should I be fortunate enough to be elected by the American people to serve as president of the United States, I will have an ambitious agenda in the first 100 days that will send a signal to our country’s job creators and to the world that the days of socialist policies are over, that our free market is once again open for business and that we will once again lead the world as the true exceptional nation.

Maa-aan, you could play a drinking game with this column. Eyes not burning yet? Well, all-righty, then... >more

Palin: Not Too Late to Enter GOP Goat Rodeo

2011-12-24T10:01:00.004-05:00

The Associated Press reports:

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Sarah Palin says it's not too late for someone to jump into the Republican presidential race.

Asked by Fox Business Network's "Follow the Money" about the likelihood that she'd become a candidate, the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee said it's not too late for "folks" to jump in. Said Palin: "Who knows what will happen in the future."

The full interview is scheduled for broadcast Monday night... >more

Virginia Teabaggers Take Issue With Allen's Endorsement Claims

2011-12-03T19:20:00.004-05:00

Senator Macaca steps in it

Wesley P. Hester reports in the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

While surfing the Web last week, Kerry Scott was surprised to learn that she had endorsed U.S. Senate candidate George Allen.

After receiving a quizzical email from a friend, Scott found her name attached to a release from Allen's campaign titled: "Virginia Tea Party Patriots Endorse George Allen for U.S. Senate." The list includes more than 100 individuals from across the state, and in most cases, their respective organizations.

But while Scott is indeed affiliated with the movement, heading the Alexandria Tea Party, she never lent her support to Allen, a former Virginia governor seeking to reclaim the Senate seat he lost to Jim Webb in 2006.

"I don't know where that list was generated or who put it together," she said, noting that she immediately called Allen's campaign and had her name removed from the list on Allen's website.

In fact, Scott was already spoken for - by one of Allen's rivals for the GOP nomination. For months, Scott has been on an endorsement list for Jamie Radtke, a Chesterfield County tea party activist.

"I really, really want a fresh face in D.C., and I really want a citizen legislator who's going to say no to all the spending and growth of government," Scott said.

She noted that Allen's release also had the name of her tea party organization wrong... >more

Batso Bachmann: "Absurd" to volunteer for waterboarding to prove it's not torture

2011-11-22T18:16:00.003-05:00

GOP Presidential hopeful defends practice, breaks Goofy Meter again

Eric Kleefeld reports at Talking Points Memo:
In an extensive interview with the Des Moines Register’s editorial board, Michele Bachmann defended the practice of waterboarding. But would she herself ever get waterboarded, so that she could more knowledgeably speak about it? Don’t be absurd.

During her defense of the practice, Bachmann disagreed with the questioner’s premise that waterboarding is torture: “It was called an enhanced interrogation technique that was used to bring about information.” She did concede, though, that it is “uncomfortable.”

“If I had knowledge that we could use something like a waterboarding to be able to save the American people, would I use that?” Bachmann asked rhetorically. “Yes I would, because waterboarding does not kill anyone. Is it uncomfortable? Yet, it’s uncomfortable, but I am more concerned that we would prevent aircraft from going into the Twin Towers, taking them down, and taking out 3,000 innocent American lives, than I am about the comfort level of a terrorist, and what that means for them..." >more

Rick Perry Doesn't Know If Obama's Birth Certificate Is Real

2011-10-24T15:44:00.004-04:00

Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Any More St00pid: Corndog Deep-Throating Texas Guv Infected With Trumpitis

Kim Geiger reports in the L.A. Times:

After dining last month with Donald Trump, Texas Gov. Rick Perry isn't sure that President Obama's birth certificate is real.

The GOP presidential candidate was asked by Parade magazine whether he believed that Obama was born in the United States.

"I have no reason to think otherwise," he said.

Pressed for a "definitive" answer, Perry continued: "Well, I don't have a definitive answer, because he's never seen my birth certificate."

"But you've seen his," the interviewer replied.

"I don’t know. Have I?" Perry said. ...>more

Texas Hotel Tosses Out Tea Party Conference Featuring Pam Gellar After Threatened Protests

2011-10-22T22:19:00.003-04:00

Does that tacky little pendant of hers say... "Love"?

Daryle Lamont Jenkins reports at One People's Project:

Pam Geller has two degrees of seperation from Jared Taylor. She works for neo-con bigot David Horowitz, who has also published writings by Taylor and others that are also found in Taylor's publication American Renaissance. So she should not be surprised that she is being treated like Jared Taylor. It seems the locals of Sugarland, TX are none too pleased about a teabagger outfit bringing her to town. And they were making noise about Hyatt Place hosting it. Responding to their complaints, as they have with American Renaissance, they shut their doors to the event. The teabaggers moved the event to another location, but it is a good sign that people are making this kind of noise about these particular characters a lot more now. Hey, she and her crowd might take a cue from Jared Taylor & Co. and start holding their events in public facilities where they say they cannot be denied use. That's why the National Policy Insitiute held their conference at the Reagan Building in DC on Sept. 10, and why Taylor is using government-owned facility that is about a 45 minute drive from Nashville, TN on March 16-18, 2012. A little flaw in that by the way: A facility that's open to the public means it is open to the public they don't like which means events like this can be pretty damned interesting to the creative activist. In other words, if folks are being proactive against people like this be they Geller, Taylor, NPI or whatever, they are going to be pretty effective in that, no matter what those clowns do... >more

Tea Party Nation goes off meds, calls for small businesses to stop hiring to undermine Obama

2011-10-19T15:57:00.004-04:00

Not that we here at the TW give a rat's ass what happens to Obama, but, still...

...check out this epic Tourette's outburst at Tea Party Nation. They really do want small businesses to go "on strike" -- to stop hiring workers just to bring down the Obama Administration... as if Obama isn't already doing a bang-up job of bringing down himself:

Resolved that: The Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Senate, in alliance with a global Progressive socialist movement, have participated in what appears to be a globalist socialist agenda of redistribution of wealth, and the waging of class warfare against our constitutional republic's heritage of individual rights, free market capitalism, and indeed our Constitution itself, with the ultimate goal of collapsing the U.S. economy and globalizing us into socialism.

Resolved that: President Obama has seized what amount to dictatorial powers to bypass our Congress, and that because the Congress is controlled by a Progressive socialist Senate that will not impeach one of their kind, they have allowed this and yielded what are rightfully congressional powers to this new dictator...

Eyes not burning yet? Great! There's more...!

Breitbart's Delicate Dance: Embracing Racists and Denying Racism

2011-09-27T14:02:00.003-04:00

For the real scoop, check out some of the comments on his Web site

John Amato writes at Crooks & Liars:
I've seen Breitbart's "conservative racism" demagoguery up close and personal a few times and I called him out on it on a panel. He'll go on for hours on end about how liberals use racism as a tool against the tea party and conservatives because we're just meanies. Because there is no racism in American conservatism.

Breitbart's real bugaboo is the accusation of racism against the patriotic Americans in the tea party. In his March 25 column "2010: A Race Odyssey," he writes:

"As I have said over and over and over, the left has one trick that it will use again and again when its back is in the corner: shout "racist" in a crowded country.... Are we going to allow the left to use its despicable acts of lies and intimidation to shut up legitimate dissent on a subject that has nothing to do with race?"

Maybe he can read his own commenters.

Little Green Footballs:

Of all the right wing race-baiting demagogues, Andrew Breitbart is one of the most duplicitous and dishonest, continually denying that any racism exists in the conservative/Tea Party movement, and whipping out the tired old “reverse racism” talking points every chance he gets.

So let’s have a look at Breitbart’s own website, where commenters are responding to a video clip of President Obama speaking to the Congressional Black Caucus, with the ridiculously exaggerated title: Breitbart.tv » Obama Loses Cool At Black Caucus Dinner; ‘Stop Complaining’ And March.

These comments are just from a quick skim through the first few pages. And keep in mind that these dozens and dozens of vile, openly racist remarks are right next to complaints that they’re being unjustly accused of racism.

…and can I get a ham sammich with some grey poupon and an orange soda up in this mthrfckr. I gots to get on the plane and fly out west to meet with some rich white folk- gonna get me some money and Michele goin get her freak on at Nordstroms.

[…]

That’s it Barry Zero. Jack everyone up maybe you can start a race war,

then blame it on the tea party. ...>more

For your further entertainment: watch Little Andy go off his meds at last year's CPAC.

Sarah Palin Offered $1 Million To Take Polygraph Test

2011-09-26T17:25:00.003-04:00

Watch The Machine Explode

Alexis Tereszcuk reports at radaronline.com:
Put your money where your mouth is Sarah Palin!

In a newly released book by Joe McGinniss the former Governor of Alaska is accused of cheating on her husband Todd Palin, with his ex-business partner, a charge which she vehemently denies, and RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned that the adult website AshleyMadison.com has offered the Palins $1 million to prove their innocence.

EXCLUSIVE DOCUMENT: Sarah Palin Offered Big Payday To Take Polygraph

"His book is full of disgusting lies, innuendo and smears," Todd Palin said of the book, The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin.

The website has offered Sarah and Todd Palin a "unique platform to prove that these allegations are not true," according to a letter exclusively obtained by RadarOnline.com. ...>more

Meet The Death Panel

2011-09-13T13:33:00.005-04:00

Real America Shows Itself To World; CNN Studio Audience Of Teabaggers Cheers Idea Of Sick, Uninsured People Being Allowed To Die

The video pretty much says it all.

CNN Throws A Tea Party

2011-09-13T12:53:00.003-04:00

Allegedly "Centrist" News Network Snuggles Up To Far Right

fair.org reports on 09.12.11:
Tonight's Republican debate might look familiar, with a well-known journalist posing questions to a stage full of candidates. But CNN's event is actually a co-production of sorts with the far-right Tea Party Express, raising serious questions about a journalistic outlet's decision to formally partner with a controversial political group.

As CNN explained the relationship (9/8/11):

CNN and the Tea Party Express, along with more than 100 local Tea Party groups from every state across the country, will team up Monday, September 12, to present a first-of-its-kind debate from the site of the 2012 Republican National Convention.

The CNN statement adds:

In addition to questions from [CNN's Wolf] Blitzer, audience members inside the debate hall, made up in part by members from Tea Party groups in 31 states and the District of Columbia, will be invited to ask questions directly to the candidates. Questions will also be taken live from Tea Party members at debate watch parties in Phoenix, Arizona; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Portsmouth, Virginia.

There were earlier indications that the event would be structured to cater to the Tea Party's ideological agenda. The Associated Press (6/14/11) reported that, according to CNN, "topics for the debate will be tailored for the interests of this political insurgent movement." When the partnership was announced, CNN political director Sam Feist (Daily Kos, 12/17/10) called the Tea Party movement "a fascinating, diverse grassroots force."

It's unusual for a centrist news outlet to take an openly partisan group as a partner in producing a political event; we can't recall progressive groups being granted any similar opportunities in recent years. ...>more

Sam Smith: How To Outflank The Tea Party (And Barack Obama)

2011-09-11T08:57:00.002-04:00

"...we are faced with a politics reduced to two Mafia mobs, between which we will be asked to choose in 2012."

Sam Smith writes at the Progressive Review:
Pablo Davis in Memphis sent me a quote from the Argentinian essayist Arturo Jauretche that got me thinking about the key question of the day in a different sort of way.

That question, if you haven’t noticed, is this: what the hell do we do now?

The quote from Jauretche was: “The technique of our enemies is to demoralize and depress the people. Demoralized people don’t triumph and that’s was we come here today to battle joyfully. Nothing great can be accomplished from sadness. “

One of the reasons the right is doing so much better than the left these days is that the right has passion, while the left mostly has logic.

The problem with logic is that it easily ignores the passionate and the joyful. In its name, we trivialize the trivial, discounting the importance of the little things that keep people going in bad times.

The journalist Russell Baker understood this, writing once that, “Being solemn is easy. Being serious is hard ... Children almost always begin by being serious, which is what makes them so entertaining when compared to adults as a class ... Adults, on the whole, are solemn ... Being solemn has almost nothing to do with being serious.”

I understood this from an early age because my introduction to politics was not ideological or logical but as an eleven year old stuffing envelopes in a campaign that ended 69 years of Republican rule in Philadelphia. I had never seen anything quite as much fun and exciting as a political campaign office.

Many years later, I would write, “We have lost much of what was gained in the 1960s and 1970s because we traded in our passion, our energy, our magic and our music for the rational, technocratic and media ways of our leaders. We will not overcome the current crisis solely with political logic. We need living rooms like those in which women once discovered they were not alone. The freedom schools of SNCC. The politics of the folk guitar. The plays of Vaclav Havel. The pain of James Baldwin. The laughter of Abbie Hoffman. The strategy of Gandhi and King. Unexpected gatherings and unpredicted coalitions. People coming together because they disagree on every subject save one: the need to preserve the human. Savage satire and gentle poetry. Boisterous revival and silent meditation. Grand assemblies and simple suppers. Above all, we must understand that in leaving the toxic ways of the present we are healing ourselves, our places, and our planet. We rebel not as a last act of desperation but as a first act of creation." ...>more

Miss Piggy Pitches A Fit On "Fox & Friends"

2011-09-06T23:44:00.004-04:00

AFL-CIO Honcho Calls Teabaggers "Sons Of Bitches"; Champion Purveyors Of Violent Rhetoric Whine, Stomp Little Feet; Hilarity Ensues

So, just to recap... Jimmy Hoffa Jr. delivers a typically Hoffaesque speech in which he rips the Teabaggers a new one and calls for voters to "take out the sons of bitches", followed by the Teabaggers -- who frequently show up at rallies armed and whose candidates for the House and Senate talk about "Second Amendment solutions" -- getting all butthurt about coarse, violent rhetoric. What a bunch of pussies. Here's Miss Piggy on Fox & Friends getting her little panties in a twist while interviewing Donkeycratic Party Chair "Little Debbie" Wasserman Schultz:

Now, mind you, we here at the offices of the TW aren't exactly fans of the tepid corporate centrists which comprise the Donkeycratic Party, and yet we found ourselves cheering just a bit as we watched Little Debbie flicking off Miss Piggy in what had to be the most awesome catfight we'd ever seen on the screen since the legendary stripper catfight in 1962's The Brain That Wouldn't Die, shown here for comparison:

Meeeooowwwww.

Quitty McQuitter Quits Again

2011-08-31T21:46:00.005-04:00

Reported Bailing on Iowa Teabagger Event

Danny Yadron reports at the Wall Street Journal:
Sarah Palin’s Saturday appearance at a tea party rally in Indianola, Iowa, is on hold, a person close to the former Alaska governor told The Wall Street Journal.

The person said Ms. Palin’s appearance was “no longer confirmed” and cited “continual lying” from event organizers at Tea Party of America, including a recent mixup over whether former U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell of Delaware would also speak.

Ms. Palin is known for last-minute schedule changes that whipsaw supporters and media across the country. But the latest decision is puzzling. Ms. Palin’s speech at the rally was viewed as her most high-profile appearance of the summer, fueling speculation she was indeed plotting to run for the Republican presidential nomination... >more

Frantz Kebreau: We Tried To Tell You, Man!

2011-08-20T20:51:00.004-04:00

Black Conservative who spoke at Philly "Uni-Tea" Party rally leaves group; cites white supremacist connections

Daryle Lamont Jenkins writes at One People's Project:

Truth is truth no matter how much someone tries to spin it, and when it comes to the racial antagonism teabaggers pretend they are not about, the truth will keep coming at them until it takes them out. The number of times we have caught the teabagging crowd cavorting with neo-Nazis and other assorted white supremacists makes them look sillier and sillier when they deny it is going on. But one thing that we knew was going to happen sooner or later was a black conservative having enough of it. That happened today, with a guy we came across at the "See? We're not racist" event in Philly last year called the Uni-TEA rally. Frantz Kebreau (pictured) was the National Director of the so-called National Association for the Advancement of Conservative People of All Colors, but he had since stepped down, and his replacement James C. Marshall reached out to conservative people who were only interested in one color - and it was most certainly not black. That upset Kebreau something awful, and after giving the group the chance to correct this, decided to cut his ties. Now the NAACPC is one of those right-wing groups that like to pretend conservatives are not racist by touting all the pro-black things the Republican Party 100 years ago. Needless to say, that crap never works because we are talking about what conservatives are doing and what they are doing now. Mr. Kebreau, last year we reached out to you about the scumbags in your camp that do this, but like most of the folks in it we just assumed that you were more interested in being a conservative than being a human being for you to care. We hope this means we're wrong... >more

Bachmann Staffer's Ties To Uganda's "Kill Gays" Bill

2011-08-19T22:11:00.001-04:00

Igor Volsky reports at ThinkProgress:
Jim Burroway has a good post exploring the troubling connection between GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann and Peter E. Waldron, a campaign staffer “responsible for her faith-based organizing both in Iowa and South Carolina.” Yesterday, the Atlantic reported on Waldron’s “arrest in Uganda in 2006 on charges of running illegal guns and ammunition,” but Borroway explores his deeper ties to the country’s infamous “kill gays” legislation and radical Christian theology... >more

Charles Dyer: Teabagger, Oath Keeper, Fugitive

2011-08-15T19:26:00.006-04:00

Daryle Lamont Jenkins reports at One People's Project:

In January 2010, we reported on Former Marine Sgt., teabagger favorite and then-Oathkeeper member Charles Allan Dyer, who is better known among the right-wing looney bin as "July4Patriot" on YouTube, as he was being picked up on charges that he stole a grenade launcher from an Army base and raped an underaged member of his family. Well when you're dealing with this crowd of idiots everything is conspiracy and nothing that you see is real, even the stuff that is. So to that end, the pseudo-patriots rallied around him enmasse, and voila, charges started to fall by the wayside, namely the grenade launcher charge and we still don't know how he pulled that off. The child-rape charge stuck, however, but in April the case ended up in a mistrial. The retrial was today. But wait! There's more! It seems that his trailer home was burned to the ground on Friday and his girlfriend is now sitting in jail on possible arson charges. But wait! There's MORE! Charles Dyer's stuff - including all his firearms were not in the home during the fire! No doubt, the looney bin will still support him, but the saner folks among us are most assuredly saying that this guy is dirt, but we need to catch up to him and fast - before he decides to keep his "oath" Oslo style or something. That's not a joke either... >more

Newsweek Releases Outtakes From Bachmann "Crazy" Photo Sessions

2011-08-10T15:37:00.003-04:00

Teabaggers Feeling All Butthurt; Geezing Old-Guard Feminists Cry "Sexism"

Never mind the fact that here at the offices of the TW, none of us can recall seeing a single photo of Michele Bachmann where she doesn't look flat-out batshit -- not to mention the fact that the old broad pretty much is batshit, and exploits the rage of white working-class America.

The Daily Beast reports:

The straight-ahead shot of Michele Bachmann on the cover of this week's Newsweek, taken by freelance photographer Chris Buck in a Washington, D.C., hotel room, “raises eyebrows,” according to The Huffington Post. “There’s no denying that Bachmann firmly believes what she believes. Some might think she’s crazy because of it. Cover photos like this one help to cement that image,” wrote The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart. “It’s sexist,” NOW president Terry O’Neill told The Daily Caller. ...>more

BREAKING: Andrew Breitbart's BIG Announcement

2011-07-22T09:48:00.003-04:00

BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG!

140 Characters, No Plot

2011-07-21T23:25:00.002-04:00

The winners in TheTeaParty.net's GOP Twitter debate: the candidates who didn't show up

David Weigel reports at Slate:

There were five winners in today’s first-of-its kind Twitter presidential debate. They were Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Buddy Roemer, and Mitt Romney. All of them are running for president, and all of them skipped the event, missing out on the most dignity-shredding, IQ-lowering pseudo-event of the campaign so far.

The six candidates who participated did themselves no damage. They couldn’t if they’d tried. The debate, put on by TheTeaParty.net and a grab-bag of conservative groups, attracted an audience of devout activists, smart-assed liberals, and easily-ignored interest groups. They started early, tweeting thoughts @140townhall and clicking a button on the event website that informed fellow tweeters who they thought would win.

“@TheHermanCain Will you be able to out debate Pres. #Obama as you did Pres. Clinton?” asked @BradMarston.

“@TeamBachmann You go!” tweeted LisaRichards124. “You're a real conservative & we need You! Keep speaking out & don’t give up!”

Shortly after 3 p.m., when the event was supposed to start, the conservative radio host Rusty Humphries began his live broadcast. His theme song was a straight rip/loving tribute of the theme from Team America.

RUSTY! Heck yeah! On the air, and he's gonna save the day, yeah!

It took a while for things to get going. Humphries killed time by interviewing the moderator, the author and TV pundit S.E. Cupp, about the meaning of it all.

“This is, I think, as substantive as you can get,” said Cupp. “You have a limited amount of time, a limit amount of text.”

What was wrong with the candidates that didn’t show?

“I question their judgment,” said Cupp. “They’ve got a captive audience.”

“I think some of this is cowardice,” offered Humphries. “Mitt Romney thinks he's going to sail to the nomination.” ...>more

NC Tea Party Lunatic Congressional Candidate Back and Better Than Ever for 2012

2011-07-19T17:54:00.005-04:00

More clutter, more tackiness, more crazy!

As you'll recall, we here at the TW awarded loony Teabagger George Hutchins our coveted "Funniest Campaign Web Site EVER" Award about a year and a half ago. Well, ol' George is back and better than ever for his 2012 Congressional run. Move your coffee and cat away from the keyboard and check out the bigger, better and loonier than ever George Hutchins For Congress campaign site! Don't say you weren't warned.

GOP Candidates Prepare for "Tea Party Debate" on Twitter

2011-07-14T20:57:00.003-04:00

...but GOP officials unsure if most Teabaggers know how to use Twitter: "It's like a fax machine, right?"

Alex Pappas reports on The Daily Caller:

This isn’t your typical Jim Lehrer-moderated debate on PBS.

Next week, seven Republican presidential candidates will take the virtual stage on Twitter in what’s being billed as the first “Tea Party presidential debate.”

The website "TheTeaParty.Net" says seven candidates for president have agreed to participate in its July 20 Twitter debate. The group will pose questions to the candidates on the social networking platform. The candidates are expected to respond in real-time.

Radio host S.E. Cupp will moderate the event, which viewers can watch live at www.140townhall.com.

“It’s about time the candidates started acknowledging the relevance of social networking,” Cupp said in an email. “Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are democratizing the media and changing the way we consume news. It was only a matter of time before someone thought to put the traditional debate format online.”

The group says Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will participate.... >more

Outrageous Revisionism: Breitbart's "Big Government" Compares ACORN to KKK

2011-07-12T22:09:00.003-04:00

Are you sitting down for this one?

David Neiwert reports at Crooks And Liars:

As Eric Boehlert notes, Andrew Breitbart has a real credibility problem, and it extends well beyond his journalistic malfeasance in the ACORN video hoax.

His website, Big Government, is similarly developing a reputation for running blatantly dishonest commentary, often in the cause of defending the videos and their makers or likewise attacking ACORN. The latest example was pointed out by Matt Tatum at AmSpec and Dave Weigel, who both called out this atrocity from "historian" Michael Zak at Andrew Breitbart's "Big Government" blog:

Democrats used the Klan to suppress their political opposition, with vote fraud and intimidation and violence. Klansmen aimed at African-Americans, nearly all Republicans in those days, and at white Republicans who tried to help them. Once threatened by the KKK, Republicans could in many cases save their lives only by publicly swearing allegiance to the Democratic Party. According to a southern governor, "Few Republicans dare sleep in their houses at night."

"The suppression of enough GOP votes could ensure a Democratic victory," wrote one historian. "There's no question that Klansmen closely watched the polls" - easy to do before the secret ballot was introduced in the United States in the 1880s. All too often, Republican ballots were not even counted.

Like ACORN, the Ku Klux Klan operated with impunity until Republican politicians and journalists sounded an alarm. In 1869, Nathan Bedford Forrest, the KKK's Grand Dragon, ordered the Klan disbanded. Why? The national organization was getting too much attention, so Klansmen would have to soldier on in state-level organizations, such as the Red Shirts in South Carolina and the Men of Justice in Alabama. Nonetheless, most members of these spin-off groups considered themselves to be Klansmen.

Good God. It's hard to know where to begin. Let's try with Weigel's observation:

The fact that the KKK suppressed and terrorized black voters while ACORN, well, doesn’t — sort of left out here.

More to the point, the entire raison d'etre of the Klan was to disenfranchise black voters, to terrorize them into submission and to ensure that they could not participate as full citizens. According to historians, they killed an estimated 20,000 people in the years 1866-1870 alone (see Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America, p. 49). Indeed, the Klansmen of the postwar period essentially negated the war's outcome by destroying Reconstruction through a campaign of terrorist violence that encompassed massacres, white citizen militias destroying black townships, and the complete destruction of the voting franchise for black people, thereby ensuring white rule for the next century and beyond. (For more on this, be sure to read Stephen Budiansky's riveting account, The Bloody Shirt: Terror After the Civil War, which was excerpted in the New York Times.) ...>more

Democratic Group Asks Koch Brothers for Donations After Attacking Them

2011-07-09T09:34:00.004-04:00

It's official: there's no difference between Democrats and Republicans

Chris Moody reports at The Ticket:
Koch Industries, the billion-dollar energy conglomerate that faces regular attacks from liberal groups for donating millions to conservative and free-market political causes, reported that a national Democratic group approached the company seeking campaign donations. The appeal went out out over the signature of Washington Sen. Patty Murray, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).

The DSCC asked Koch for a five-figure donation, a request the company is making very public after it weathered months of criticism from Democrats, including the DSCC.

A Koch spokesman responded to the request with a scathing letter to Murray.

"For many months now, your colleagues in the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee leadership have engaged in a series of disparagements and ad hominem attacks about us, apparently as part of a concerted political and fundraising strategy," wrote Philip Ellender, Koch's president of government and public affairs. "So you can imagine my chagrin when I got a letter from you on June 17 asking us to make five-figure contributions to the DSCC. You followed that up with a voicemail indicating that, if we contributed heavily enough, we would garner an invitation to join you and other Democratic leaders at a retreat in Kiawah Island this September." ...>more

Tea Party Nation Column Warns of Dangers of "Non-European Immigrants"

2011-07-05T16:28:00.002-04:00

Kase Wickman reports at The Raw Story:

Former Washington Times columnist Eliana Benador, who was fired for writing a piece speculating that former Rep. Anthony Weiner had converted to Islam and was pushing a "socialist political agenda," has found a new home for her controversial work: Tea Party Nation.

RightWingWatch.org, a watchdog for conservative media that is part of political activism group People for the American Way, excerpted Benador's debut column on the conservative social networking site, meditating on the "invasion of America" by "non-European immigrants."

"As we celebrate America’s Independence Day, it’s noteworthy that the percentage reduction of original American voters, might have been a defining factor in the election of someone like the current president, who among other goals, seems to be keen in opening further our borders to endlessly increasing numbers of immigrants who, regardless of their skin color, are bringing in a whole new texture of culture, 100% foreign to what America’s origins were as its wonderful adventure began back in 1776," Benador wrote.

Tea Party Nation has previously published writings that warn of the impending "extinction" of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) population. ...>more

NY Man Gives Life in Struggle Against Odious Federal Nanny State

2011-07-05T12:21:00.004-04:00

Freedom Isn't Free

Hollyweird's Jewish Right Embraces Bachmann "The Hated Jew" as One of Their Own

2011-07-03T01:16:00.006-04:00

"Big Journalism" Crank Pens Weirdest, Craziest Load Of Crap Ever: "...She dresses like a lady, modest but fashionable...I’ve never seen her in a Hillary-style pants suit... Blood libels..." Jeezus, Where Does Breitbart Find These People?

Robert J. Avrech spews at Big Journalism:
When Sarah Palin burst upon the national scene and the liberal media attempted to destroy her, it occurred to me that this honest and decent woman was being transformed into a hated Jew. No matter what she said, no matter how she acted, to the herd mentality of the liberal media she was not just wrong but evil.

Each rhetorical bombardment against her was and is reminiscent of the Arab strategy to demonize Jews and Israel.

The attacks on Palin were and are blood libels.

The latest ghoulish assault — liberalism is socialism as lynch mob — on her was the mob frenzy to analyze some 24,000 Palin e-mails from her tenure as Alaska’s governor.

When Obama’s twenty-year discipleship to Jew-hater Jeremiah Wright was finally revealed, the liberal media dismissed this disgusting alliance as nothing more than guilt by association. We wonder if liberals would have the same attitude if it were revealed that a Republican presidential candidate attended KKK meetings for twenty years.

We sort of doubt it.

Wright’s church is the black ideological mirror of the KKK. But for the liberal media the Obama/Wright man-crush was of zero interest. And there certainly was no clamor to turn up, let alone comb through, any juicy correspondence or cyber trail Obama may have left behind as a state legislator and U.S. senator.

Much to the chagrin of the propagandists who masquerade as journalists, the mountains of e-mail reveal Palin as a hard-working, effective public servant: transparent, humorous, distrustful of oil companies and willing to take on the corrupt Republican Party elite of Alaska.

Nevertheless, the blood libels will continue because liberals simply cannot bear the notion that a smart, beautiful and independent woman can be ideologically conservative... >more (if you can stand it)

Michele Bachmann's New Campaign Song...

2011-06-29T10:17:00.004-04:00

...because Tom Petty won't let her use "American Girl" -- and because the old gal really knows how to bring the Crazee!

Bachmann Flunkies Edit Wikipedia to Cover Candidate's Recent Gaffes

2011-06-28T17:26:00.003-04:00

Life Imitates "Saturday Night Live"

Stephen C. Webster reports at The Raw Story:

Several strange edits have shown up on Wikipedia entries pertaining to famed Americans referenced by Republican presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann -- specifically, it appears that her fans have attempted to rewrite the lives of actor John Wayne and President John Quincy Adams to fit her woefully inaccurate retellings of history.

Bachmann, who officially launched her campaign yesterday in Waterloo, Iowa, told a Fox News reporter that she was proud to be in the town where John Wayne was from, because she embodies his ideals. Unfortunately for her, it turns out that the actor John Wayne was not from Waterloo, but serial killer John Wayne Gacy was.

Shortly after the gaffe, the Wikipedia page for actor John Wayne was altered to change his birthplace from Winterset, Iowa to Waterloo, apparently as an effort to cover for the misguided politician.

Another edit came after she declared Tuesday morning that the nation's sixth president, John Quincy Adams, was a "founding father," even though he was just a child when his father, the nation's second president, signed the Declaration of Independence. ...>more

All That's Glittered Is Not Gold -- Sometimes It's Silver

2011-06-19T19:38:00.003-04:00

Alright! Looks like somebody finally got Ol' Crazy Eyes!

Mock, Paper, Scissors reports:
Anyway, it looks like Michele got glittered, though the news accounts I read makes it sound like the would-be glitterer missed and that notable homophobe and baby-mill operator Bachmann-the Nut didn’t even know it happened.

(via Buzzfeed)

New! Tea Party Barbie!

2011-06-18T20:45:00.003-04:00

Tip of the hat to our pals at Mock, Paper, Scissors.

Michele "The Mad" Bachmann Lied About Raising 23 Children

2011-06-18T19:13:00.004-04:00

How is keeping kids in your house for two or three weeks "raising" them?

Ezra Grant reports at EzKool:

The only quality I’ve appreciated about Michele Bachmann is slowly beginning to fall apart. On many occasions, Mrs. Bachmann has claimed that she raised 23 foster kids along with her 5 children, but new reports being released shows the opposite. Bachmann didn’t raise 23 foster kids, some of these kids only stayed in her home for a few weeks. How is that raising them? ...>more

Was Americans For Prosperity NJ Director Taking A "Double Dip" Salary?

2011-06-16T19:47:00.001-04:00

Corrupt? US? Nahhh, Get Outta Here!

New Jersey Channel 12's "Kane In Your Corner" reports:

(06/15/11) TRENTON - During his 2009 campaign for governor, Steve Lonegan received $2.7 million in matching funds. But a Kane in Your Corner investigation is taking a look at whether he misled state officials to get that money.

Lonegan was the executive director of the New Jersey chapter of Americans for Prosperity. But to obtain the matching funds, he signed forms stating that he did not manage an issue advocacy group. When his opponents challenged that statement, the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission ruled in Lonegan's favor. Commissioners believed Lonegan's claims that he was never a manager at AFP, that he only worked for the group's educational foundation, not its political advocacy side, and that he never received any personal benefit from the group.

However, Kane in Your Corner found Lonegan's statements may not have been completely accurate. ...>more

How To Write A Speech For The Teavangelicals

2011-06-09T15:21:00.002-04:00

Riehl Politics reports:

If the Ralph Reed-inspired Faith and Freedom Coalition event this past weekend taught me anything, it was that there is a discrete formula being used by speechwriters to address the emerging “teavangelical” social conservative base, being orchestrated by Reed. The self-conscious effort to meld the tea partiers to the evangelical base was on explicit display at the conference, and Reed made clear he sees this highly motivated minority as a game changer in 2012 turnout. I don’t think he’s wrong. If the libertarian tea partiers can be melded to the Christian evangelical cohort, Reed would have achieved something along the lines of the “fusionism “ of earlier conservative leaders who brought together anti-communist crusaders and more subdued Wall Street Republicans.

Another thing is clear: The messaging people behind all of the major GOP candidates who are wooing this critical base are all reading off the same script. Bachmann, Hunsman, Pawlenti, Romney, Santorum, Cain, Palin — those who appeared at the event, and those who didn’t — all give the same speech, with the only notable differences being in style and delivery. Here is the not-so-secret talking points memo. ...>more

How The Tea Party Gave New Life To Mexican-Hunting Right-Wing Extremists

2011-06-08T21:07:00.003-04:00

Yasha Livine writes at The eXiled:

In May 2009, I profiled a nutty 71-year-old border vigilante named Glenn Spencer, who had converted his ranch on the Arizona-Mexico border into a hi-tech militarized security zone packed with infrared cameras, aerial drones and motion detectors. Spencer was all that stood between European-American liberty, and a Mexican Anschluss with its former territories. His goal was to demonstrate to the feds how easy it was to stop illegal border crossers, and he blew through his life savings to prove it. But Spencer’s reputation as a white supremacist and nativist meant no one heard his message in Washington; CNN’s Lou Dobbs was about the only mainstream media figure who took him seriously.

When I left his ranch back in 2009, I was sure that Spencer had reached the end of his line. His project had failed; Obama was heralding in a liberal future; the old geezer had nothing else waiting in the wings for him and nothing to look forward to, except maybe a miserable prolonged death by Alzheimers tempered by lonely alcoholism in his double-wide trailer.

So it was surprising to learn that Spencer was a big player in the Tea Party scene. Suddenly, no one in Arizona cared about his past associations with white supremacists. Instead, they were very keen on hearing his anti-immigration solutions. All of a sudden Spencer found himself hanging out with Arizona state senators, hosting GOP political events, speaking at rallies and rubbing shoulders with the creme de la creme of Arizona’s Tea Party beau monde. He was not only back in the game, he’s bigger than ever. ...>more

If Teabaggers Are Miffed When People Call Out Their Racist Elements...Well, Jeff McGeary Isn't Helping

2011-06-05T22:50:00.005-04:00

Newtown, PA Crank Makes One People's Project "Rogues' Gallery" for Bleatings About "Western Way Of Life"

Daryle Lamont Jenkins writes at One People's Project:
In recent months, those who call themselves Tea Party activists have been trying to suggest that they only march and rally because of economic and fiscal concerns, never social and cultural issues. Someone forgot to tell teabagger Jeff McGeary that, given his remarks during the April 6, 2011 meeting of his Thomas Jefferson Club in Bucks County, PA:

"Stand up for your rights, your beliefs, your culture, your heritage, and your identity. What binds us together in this room and this republic guys, is worth fighting for, more than any taxes, more than any other issue, is this issue of our culture and our values and our Western way of life. And the last thing that I heard from both speakers was the word 'love'. To love your people, to love your heritage, love our national family, our culture, our value, our republic. And guys, stand up for it. It's worth fighting for. Your work, your employment, about your daily task, stand up, stand up proudly and don't apologize guys."

And if those same teabaggers are miffed that people keep pointing out the racist elements in the Tea Party scene, well Jeff McGeary isn't helping. See, the two speakers that he was referring to were noted white nationalists Peter Brimelow of the hate site VDARE, and former Jesse Helms aide Louis March, a past speaker at American Renaissance and Council of Conservative Citizens conferences who touted as successes overseas what hate groups like the British National Party and France's National Front were doing in their countries. McGeary is one of those teabaggers that have been playing it coy for a few years now, but when this meeting took place it pretty much put a spotlight on what he and his Thomas Jefferson Club is really about. ...>more

Teabagger GOP Official In No. Carolina Busted For Collecting Unemployment After Libertarian Party Laid Him Off

2011-06-02T21:44:00.002-04:00

Election campaign rode wave of anger against incumbents, opposed tax increases and Big Government™; you can't make this shit up, folks!

Kevin Maurer reports at the Wilmington Star-News:
New Hanover County Commissioner Brian Berger was getting unemployment benefits for at least five months from Washington, D.C., according to documents obtained by the StarNews.

Officials at Washington's Office of Unemployment Compensation sent a “wage audit notice” to New Hanover County in January asking the county to provide Berger's salary information after he was elected in November and sworn in Dec. 6.

The notice is used by the Benefit Payment Control Branch to make sure “payments are proper” and is part of the agency's fraud detection program, according to the letter. The agency confirmed that Berger's benefits stopped May 21, but would not release how much he was collecting. A New Hanover County commissioner earns about $17,000 a year, and it is not considered a full-time job. Having a part-time job does not stop the benefits, officials said, but only adjusts the benefit amount from the agency.

Berger said Thursday after a commission agenda review meeting that he worked inhouse for a trade association doing nonprofit management. He declined to name the group or when he worked there. He said the group cut staff and he lost his position.

Erna Vance, a customer service specialist at the Office of Unemployment Compensation, would not verify how much or how long Berger received the benefits. She said it is not uncommon for people to live outside Washington and get benefits because they worked in Washington. ...>more

Tea Party Rally Fizzles in South Carolina

2011-05-29T14:37:00.003-04:00

Trump Bails, Rally Fails

This from our new friends at Look At This Fucking Teabagger:

Tea Party Rally Fizzles in South Carolina
Though as many as 2,000 people were expected at a Tea Party rally in South Carolina, just 30 showed up after Donald Trump cancelled his appearance with Gov. Nikki Haley (R), according to the Columbia State.

The picture from the rally is priceless.

Survey: White Americans Believe Anti-White Prejudice Bigger Problem Than Anti-Black Prejudice

2011-05-24T19:01:00.003-04:00

Whiny Whites Reach New Squeaky Milestone In Victimhood

Larry McShane reports in the New York Daily News:

Anti-white prejudice - considered almost non-existent in the '50s - is now perceived among white Americans as a bigger problem than anti-black bias, according to a new study.

The report found that both races agreed anti-black prejudice declined steadily over the last 60 years, but white Americans felt that bias against them was on the upswing.

Asked to rank prejudice against blacks on a 1-10 scale in the 2000s, white respondents put the number at 3.6 - compared with 9.1 in the '50s. ...>more

Ron Paul Comes Out Of The Crypto-Segregationist Closet

2011-05-17T18:04:00.005-04:00

Says Basic Freedoms Secondary To Property Rights

Muriel Kane reports at The Raw Story:

On the same day that he announced his candidacy for the presidency, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) made waves by telling MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that he would not have voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act if he had been in Congress at the time.

Paul dismissed claims that he is a racist as “outlandish” and said he would have voted to desegregate public facilities. He insisted, however, that private business owners have an absolute right to decide what to do with their own property. ...>more

Groundbreaking Right-Wing Research Yields "Teabagger Oil Theory"

2011-04-28T12:47:00.002-04:00

Solar-panel installation at gunpoint part of Kenyan Marxist President's fiendish master plan

Yasha Levine writes in The eXiled:

The price of oil hit $125 today, a 33-percent increase since the start of the year, and will most likely keep going up.

For those wondering “why,” there’s a new theory that explains everything.

You’ve probably heard of “peak oil,” a theory that explains the spike in oil prices in terms of dwindling world oil reserves, and predicts a total collapse of civilization as we know it sometime in the near future unless we all move to Montana and live off the grid. But did you know that there’s a newer, better, more commonsense theory that unravels the mysteries of the oil market while staying friendly to oil companies and praising speculators? Well, there is. It’s called “teabagger oil” and comes courtesy of the same liberty-lovin’ freedom fighters who brought us the Tea Party Movement.

Just like peak-oil types, teabagger oil researchers claim to know the answer. They have unravelled the hidden Truth about Oil and why gasoline prices are so high. They know our fossil fuel-dependent society is in decline and understand the dire, apocalyptic consequences if we don’t take drastic steps to change our ways. But that’s where the similarities with peak-oilers end, and the teabagger-oil schism begins. Because unlike peakers, ‘baggers aren’t worried about scarcity or dwindling world oil reserves at all. Quite the opposite: ‘baggers are supply-optimists, hardcore believers in bottomless American oil reserves (and other fossil fuels, too), which can be extracted in a perfectly safe manner, providing cheap energy, fueling the economy, and keeping this country energy independent for a long, long time.

But there is only one thing standing in the way of this bagger-oil utopia: A grand conspiracy hatched by our Kenyan-born President Obama to purposefully strangle America’s domestic oil production and push up the price of oil. Why would Obama want to do that? Because this way, he and his radical left-wing cronies could push forward with their green-leninist energy plan that will ultimately result in collectivizing private property and forcing every American at gunpoint to put a government-subsidized windmill/solar farm in his yard. ...>more

Blast From Your Past: Palin Lovin' Teabagger Grady Warren Declares Teahad on "Nigras"

2011-04-24T21:59:00.005-04:00

YouTube commenter says: "...his boner for Sarah Palin does not make him racist. Pretty much everything else he says does make this huckleberry a racist."

Sarah Jones reports at PoliticsUSA:

The next time a Tea Partier tells you they’re not racist, introduce them to Grady Warren. Warren is a self-described angry white man from the Tea Party, who explains to the “negras” (that’s racist for negro) that the Tea Party isn’t racist. Grady says he is running for President. I guess after Trump and Palin, anything is possible for the Teapublicans.

In order to properly dissect this animal, we need to flashback to last fall’s “We’re not racists, you ignorant negras!” video, where Grady declares a Teahad on us all. This video is also handy to show your in-laws after they denounce the President and you for “playing the race card” over Easter dinner and general debunking of conservatives’ claims that Rush et al aren’t inciting racism. Think of this as holiday inoculation, general amusement, and an answer to the question, “How low can they go?” ...>more

Orange County, California, Planet Of The Gapes: Another Teabagger Caught Emailing Racist Images

2011-04-18T09:12:00.005-04:00

But, remember -- according to the media, the Tea Party is not racist

R. Scott Moxley reports in Orange County Weekly:

UPDATE, APRIL 17, 3:40 P.M.: Orange County Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh determined today that his group's bylaws prevent a vote to remove Marilyn Davenport as an elected member even though she emailed a racist image of President Barack Obama to fellow Tea Baggers and Republicans.

The most drastic action the party can take is a censure, he said. Meanwhile, Davenport refuses to resign and Baugh continues to seek an apology and her voluntary resignation from the central committee.

UPDATE, APRIL 16, 5:55 P.M.: This afternoon, Marilyn Davenport sent an email to fellow Orange County Republican elected officials, apologizing if anyone was offended by her depicting President Barack Obama as an ape--while also blasting the "liberal media" for reporting the story.

"I simply found it amusing regarding the character of Obama and all the questions surrounding his origin of birth," Davenport wrote. "In no way did I even consider the fact he's half black when I sent out the email. In fact, the thought never entered my mind until one or two other people [Scott Baugh, Orange County GOP boss, and this writer] tried to make this about race. . . . I received plenty of emails about George Bush that I didn't particularly like yet there was no 'cry' in the media about them."

Davenport continued: "That being said, I will NOT resign my central committee position over this matter that the average person knows and agrees is much to do about nothing."

Tim Whitacre, a longtime conservative Orange County Republican activist in Santa Ana, defended Davenport: "Marilyn Davenport is a staunch, ethical Republican lady. There is nothing unethical about this from a party standpoint because it wasn't sent out to the party at large with any racist statements and it wasn't signed as a central committee member. As a private individual, she is just real big on Birther stuff. One of her passions that drives her is the president's lack of forthrightness about where he was born. Marilyn believes that nobody knows where he was born and so this picture says a thousand words." ...>more

And now, Teabaggers FAIL at Social Media

2011-04-12T14:01:00.003-04:00

It's not "guerilla", it's douchebaggery; right wingnut "social media" hack explains how to bias ratings and reviews on Web sites toward right wingnuts

Thanks for the tip-off to Mock, Paper, Scissors, where commenter Count Typo writes:

I can foresee a day when groups of red necked geriatrics in three-cornered hats will march down the National Mall waving “I can haz cheezberga?” placards, prompting the White House to issue an urgent press release saying “Yez U can!”.

Blast From Your Past: Ron Paul for President Rally, Philadelphia 11.10.07

2011-04-06T17:20:00.003-04:00

Birthers and Truthers and Skinheads, Oh, My!

So many k00ks, so little time. Get a load of the crowd at this Ron Paul rally in Philadelphia in November of 2007, which kicked off his last Presidential bid. Also check out Daryle Lamont Jenkins of One Peoples' Project having an encounter with a gaggle of Keystone State Skinheads at around the 03:30 mark.

Infowars: Ron Paul to Announce Presidential Bid Next Month

2011-04-06T07:30:00.004-04:00

Go for the Article, Stay for the Comment Threads

Normally, here at the TW, we like to steer well clear of Alex Jones and Infowars, but this piece on Texas Rep. Ron Paul's expected announcement for the 2012 Presidential freak circus couldn't be resisted -- especially when the comments section afterward was so chock full of lulz:

Appearing on the Alex Jones Show today, Texas Rep. Ron Paul said he will make a final decision within a month on whether he will run for president in the 2012 election.

Congressman Paul said he will soon make a “token decision” if he will participate in a presidential debate to be held in South Carolina in May. Dr. Paul said he will likely agree to be included in the debate between potential presidential contenders without a commitment to run or officially filing legal papers declaring his candidacy.
“We’re getting awfully close,” Paul explained, “and there are just a few other things I have to iron out personally to make my final decision.” He noted no other hopefuls – with the exception of Obama – have announced their intention to run for president.

Alex Jones asked Paul if he would leave the Republican Party and run as an independent. On Monday, the former governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura, told Jones he would join Ron Paul as a running mate if the Texas representative left the Republican Party. Ventura declared both establishment political parties are the problem and he will not run under the banner of either... >more

The Gold-Standard Hustle

2011-04-02T10:46:00.004-04:00

Does Anyone Here Speak Paul-Tard?

Mark Ames writes at The eXiled:

Does anyone here in this house speak goldbug-babble? Anyone who can make sense of Dr. Paul’s logic in the clip below, I’m curious what the fuck this man is trying to hawk to his 1988 C-SPAN viewers. I mean I know it’s snake-oil, but even snake-oil pitches have a logic to them. This one just sounds like bat-shit blather.

As far as I can tell, the reason why the Koch brothers hire tools to promote the gold standard is the same reason that robber barons of the 19th century loved the gold standard so much: Gold locks in the power and wealth of those who have all the power and wealth; and gold locks out everyone else who’s not so lucky, condemning them to serfdom. Which leads to Populist uprisings, labor unrest, and all that century-old misery. That would explain why Koch fronts like Ron Paul hustle the gold standard to us suckers as the equivalent to “freedom”–just like coal companies pitching the public the lie about “clean coal”–you want the suckers to believe that a gold standard will offer them the very opposite of the misery it delivers.

That part of the scam I get. Fair enough. But this 1988 gold standard pitch? Makes no sense.

Over the years, Congressman Ron Paul, hero of the libertarian cult, has hawked his beloved “gold standard” as the cure-all for [NAME OF CURRENT CRISIS], logic be damned. In this video, Dr. Paul promises that the gold standard will solve the trade deficit with Japan, the hot topic in 1988–in fact, Dr. Paul says there won’t even be a trade deficit to worry about if there’s a gold standard, and moreover, people won’t even have to keep accounting records anymore! ...>more

The Big Troubles of James O'Keefe and His Sponsors

2011-03-25T21:23:00.004-04:00

"Project Veritas" DC Office On M Street Turns Out To Be Rental Mailbox

Wade Rathke writes at the Chief Organizer blog:
New Orleans: It turns out that just like the song says, “it’s hard on a pimp” or a “punk” or a “pretend pimp,” which turns out is the case for video-sting-man James O’Keefe and his futile attempts to “come clean” and pull off his greatest ironic caper: boy journalist.

You know it’s a dog pile when something as staid, boring and nose-in-the-air as The Chronicle of Philanthropy takes a look down at your problems, but sure enough, O’Keefe wants to make sure he gives his right-wing buddies a tax break for supporting his chicanery, so he’s applied for tax exempt 501c3 status for his paradoxically named “Project Veritas,” which used to be Latin for truth, but who knows what O’Keefe thinks it stands for. But here’s the Chronicle’s cut:

“An attempt to visit Mr. O’Keefe at Project Veritas’s official address in Washington—2100 M Street N.W., Suite 170-241—was also unsuccessful. Suite 170 is a UPS store and No. 241 is a small mailbox that rents for $35 a month.

Project Veritas’s first step in getting an exemption is to file an application with the IRS known as Form 1023.

As part of that application process, Project Veritas must meet key requirements about how the group is organized and operated and spell out what charitable mission it will pursue.

Organizations must also prove that their assets do not unjustly enrich board members or officers and that board members do not pursue business activities unrelated to their tax-exempt purpose. Applicants must also show that they do “not engage in activities that are illegal or violate fundamental public policy.”

…Mr. O’Keefe pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor crime after he and three others entered the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, last year pretending to be telephone repairmen.

The fact that Mr. O’Keefe has stated in public that he would do it again, albeit “differently” would probably be the biggest stumbling block to gaining charity status, said Marc Owens, a Washington tax lawyer who formerly oversaw the IRS division that monitors tax-exempt groups.

“If he is proposing to do something that is, in fact, illegal, can the IRS believe, with any degree of credibility, what he is saying?” Mr. Owens said. “Is he going to continue to enter government offices illegally? He pled guilty to it once and said he would do it again. It’s reasonable to conclude that the organization may be engaged in criminal activity in the future.”

Bottom line: They are not sure you should get tax free donations when you announce that you may break the law with the money. Geez, they have kind of a point there.... >more

How Long Has "New Media Strategies" Been Trolling Wikipedia on the Kochs' Behalf?

2011-03-18T21:29:00.004-04:00

It’s official: the Kochs pay social media PR companies to troll the Internet on their behalf.

Yasha Levine reports at The eXiled:

According to Lee Fang over at ThinkProgress, an internal Wikipedia investigation revealed that a number of Wikipedia users making pro-Koch edits were actually sock puppets set up by employees at an Internet marketing company called New Media Strategies. After being outed, a New Media Strategies rep all but confirmed the findings of the Wikipedia investigation:

Soren Dayton, a GOP operative and executive at New Media Strategies, is reported to be the contact for Koch Industries at NMS. Reached by phone yesterday by ThinkProgress, Dayton exclaimed, “I’m not going to talk about this, thanks,” before hanging up. Lyndsey Medsker, a senior account director for NMS, spoke to ThinkProgress today. She explained that NMS also maintains the Koch Industries Twitter page, Facebook page, and has an active team working on promoting Koch Industries in the comment section of blogs and news websites.

Reading Lee Fang’s post, I couldn’t help but think that the name of the company, New Media Strategies, sounded oddly familiar. ...>more

Nevada Teabagger Diva Launches 2012 Congressional Campaign

2011-03-18T11:50:00.002-04:00

Angle's Disappointing Inaugural Campaign Ad Lacks Over-The-Edge Zaniness that Gave '10 GOP Ads That Special "Zing"

Alriiiiigghhht! She's running again! Bring on the LULZ!

US Anti-Muslim Rally Raises Fears

2011-03-05T10:07:00.003-05:00

Fascist Yahoos Shout Abuse, Insults at California Fundraiser Attendees

via Al Jazeera English:

The US-based advocacy group, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has published a video of an anti-Muslim protest, at a fundraising event in California last month.

Muslim residents say the demonstration has raised fears in their community.

Al Jazeera's Rob Reynolds reports from Yorba Linda in California's Orange County.

BOO YAH! "Anonymous" Nails Americans For Prosperity!

2011-02-28T14:01:00.004-05:00

"Shadowy" Collective Calls for Boycott of Paper, Other Products Manufactured by Koch Industries

Christopher Weber reports at Politics Daily:

The shadowy activists who call themselves "Anonymous," and who made headlines last year for attacking websites opposed to WikiLeaks, have entered the Wisconsin budget fight fray.

The group temporarily knocked out a site belonging to Americans For Prosperity, a political organization backed by David and Charles Koch. In a press release, "Anonymous" said Sunday's denial of service attack was to protest the billionaire brothers' support of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is seeking to end collective bargaining rights for state workers' unions.

From the release:

The Koch brothers have made a science of fabricating 'grassroots' organizations and advertising campaigns to support them in an attempt to sway voters based on their falsehoods. Americans for Prosperity, Club for Growth and Citizens United are just a few of these organizations. In a world where corporate money has become the lifeblood of political influence, the labor unions are one of the few ways citizens have to fight against corporate greed. Anonymous cannot ignore the plight of the citizen-workers of Wisconsin, or the opportunity to fight for the people in America's broken political system. For these reasons, we feel that the Koch brothers threaten the United States democratic system and, by extension, all freedom-loving individuals everywhere. As such, we have no choice but to spread the word of the Koch brothers' political manipulation, their single-minded intent and the insidious truth of their actions in Wisconsin, for all to witness.

...>more

Walker PWN3D!

2011-02-23T15:09:00.002-05:00

Buffalo Beast Crank-Yanks Wisconsin Guv, Exposes Plans To Crush Workers

Everybody Wants Some Of That Koch Money

2011-02-22T08:04:00.003-05:00

Washington Post Shamelessly Shills for Right-Wing Billionaire Brothers and their Supreme Court Lackeys

in a Washington Post editorial of February 20, 2011:

SUPREME COURT Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas have been in the news lately for attending events sponsored by conservative interest groups. But they are not the only members of the high court who routinely enjoy all-expenses-paid excursions funded by third parties, including some that may be considered controversial.

Take Justice Stephen G. Breyer's 2008 trip to Vienna to attend the World Justice Forum, which is sponsored by what some conservatives consider the liberal American Bar Association; Justice Breyer next traveled on the ABA's dime to attend the group's international law symposium in Japan, where critics might assume that he picked up fresh ideas about how to insert foreign judicial notions into his jurisprudence. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent several days in Montreal in 2006 courtesy of the American Sociological Association, which billed its meeting as "an intellectual platform to explore how the constructs of race, religion, gender, sexuality, class and nation create serious inequalities, conflicts and human suffering." And in 2009, just before her Supreme Court nomination and while she was a federal appeals judge, Justice Sonia Sotomayor enjoyed a week's respite in sunny San Juan, Puerto Rico, thanks to the American Civil Liberties Union. Enough said.

Were these justices, often characterized as left-of-center, unduly swayed by their hosts' allegedly liberal agendas? Not likely. Was their presence an indication of being in sync with the group's views - or were they invited in the first place because the groups believed they shared common values? Perhaps.

The same could be said of the outings by Justices Scalia and Thomas. The two drew fire from the liberal interest group Common Cause for accepting free trips from the Federalist Society to speak at dinners hosted by corporate titan and political donor Charles Koch. The group has asked the Justice Department to determine whether the justices should have recused themselves from the 2010 Citizens United case that paved the way for increased corporate and union donations. The move is far-fetched, because both justices had expressed hostility toward certain campaign finance restrictions. In other words, they did not need Charles Koch to prod them.

But all the members of the high court should take steps to avoid the kind of damage that can be inflicted if justices are simply seen as political players with ideological agendas.

Justices should ensure that all outside appearances are open to the public or the press to discourage the kind of conspiracy theories that inevitably surround closed-door events. They should consider paying their own way or, if possible, seeking court funds to underwrite travel that has a legitimate educational purpose, to eliminate concerns about being indebted to outside groups.

Appearances before groups that do not obviously or necessarily share a justice's legal views but extend an invitation would be refreshing.

Justices should not be forced to live cloistered lives devoid of meaningful exchanges with individuals and outside groups - even those with strongly held beliefs. But they should be careful not to put themselves in situations where their impartiality is cast in doubt or allow themselves to be seen as on one side. The legitimacy and independence of the high court are at stake.

Surprise, Surprise! Koch Bros. Own A Huge Chunk Of Scott Walker's Soul

2011-02-19T08:57:00.003-05:00

Andy Kroll writes at Mother Jones:

Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker, whose bill to kill collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions has caused an uproar among state employees, might not be where he is today without the Koch brothers. Charles and David Koch are conservative titans of industry who have infamously used their vast wealth to undermine President Obama and fight legislation they detest, such as the cap-and-trade climate bill, the health care reform act, and the economic stimulus package. For years, the billionaires have made extensive political donations to Republican candidates across the country and have provided millions of dollars to astroturf right-wing organizations. Koch Industries' political action committee has doled out more than $2.6 million to candidates. And one prominent beneficiary of the Koch brothers' largess is Scott Walker.

According to Wisconsin campaign finance filings, Walker's gubernatorial campaign received $43,000 from the Koch Industries PAC during the 2010 election. That donation was his campaign's second-highest, behind $43,125 in contributions from housing and realtor groups in Wisconsin. The Koch's PAC also helped Walker via a familiar and much-used politicial maneuver designed to allow donors to skirt campaign finance limits. The PAC gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, which in turn spent $65,000 on independent expenditures to support Walker. The RGA also spent a whopping $3.4 million on TV ads and mailers attacking Walker's opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Walker ended up beating Barrett by 5 points. The Koch money, no doubt, helped greatly... >more

Teabagger Welfare Queen Votes To Kill Hydrocephalitic Babies

2011-02-07T18:27:00.003-05:00

Michele "The Mad" Bachmann Accepts "Heroes Of Hydrocephalus" Award

Karl Bremer writes at Ripple In Stillwater:
Once again, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has been honored for supporting something that she has repeatedly voted against.

The Minnesota 6th District Republican was recognized recently as one of the Pediatric Hydrocephalus Foundation’s “Heroes of Hydrocephalus” for her sponsorship of H.Res. 373 in 2009 designating September “National Hydrocephalus Awareness Month.”

It’s a curious honor, though, since Bachmann has voted against federal funding for hydrocephalus research at every opportunity since she was elected to Congress in 2006.

Hydrocephalus is a condition in which excessive cerebrospinal fluid — a clear fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord — accumulates to cause an abnormal dilation of the spaces in the brain called ventricles. This dilation causes potentially harmful pressure on the tissues of the brain. The disease may be congenital or acquired, and occurs in about 1 in 500 births.

“What Congresswoman Bachmann and Congressman Lance have done for the Hydrocephalus Community cannot be overstated. In just under 2 years, we saw September named as ‘National Hydrocephalus Awareness Month,’ and just this past month, a Congressional Caucus to educate and raise awareness about Hydrocephalus was created,” said Michael Illions, PHF’s National Director of Advocacy. ...>more

US Senate Teabagger sez: Wipe Israel Off The Map

2011-02-03T17:46:00.002-05:00

Rand Paul proposes cutoff of all foreign aid

Fayyad writes at KabobFest:

Well, not literally, but the title would be a plausible conclusion if you subject the translation of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul recent remarks to the same journalistic standard the New York Times used to translate Ahmedinijad’s comments about dreaming of a world without Zionism. I just blew your mind there, didn’t I? If not it means you read slowly.

So the Tea Party-packed senator just expressed that he favors cutting foreign aid to all countries, including Israel. This is probably the first time a sitting senator openly calls of ending aid to the apartheid state since Paul Findley of Illinois, who was subsequently ousted by AIPAC. ...>more

Michele "The Mad" Bachmann Busted Lying To Reporter About Being In Minnesota

2011-02-02T18:24:00.004-05:00

Teabagger Queen in Hawaii Today, not Own Sub-Zero District, as Staff Claimed

Karl Bremer writes at Ripple In Stillwater:

When Bloomberg reporter and former Time magazine White House correspondent Margaret Carlson called Michele Bachmann for a comment on the people’s uprising in Egypt, Carlson wrote that Bachmann’s office told her the Minnesota congresswoman “wouldn’t be giving any interviews this week while she concentrates on district work.”

But according to the Grassroot Institute Hawaii, Bachmann is scheduled to give a luncheon talk at the Ala Moana Hotel in Honolulu today—4,476 miles and 80 degrees F. from the subzero temperatures her constituents in Minnesota’s 6th District woke up to this morning.

According to the Grassroot Institute website, Bachmann’s $35-a-head luncheon is sold out. The Grassroot Institute Hawaii was founded in 2001 and says its mission is “to promote individual liberty, the free market and limited accountable government.” The Institute promises the speech from the “potential 2012 presidential candidate” will offer “great insight into the 2011 congressional session." ...>more

Did NYC's Neo-Pagan Teabagger Councilman Make Up Story About Union Plot To Stop Plowing Snow During Dec. 26 Storm?

2011-01-31T09:52:00.005-05:00

Evidence Elusive On Charge Of Blizzard Slowdown

Russ Buettner and William Rashbaum report in the New York Times:
The story rocketed around New York City when streets went uncleared after the Dec. 26 blizzard: Sanitation workers, angry about job reductions, had deliberately staged a work slowdown.

It resulted in wisecracks on “Saturday Night Live,” fiery denunciations of unions on cable news and four criminal investigations.

And it occurred because one man, Councilman Daniel J. Halloran, Republican of Queens, said five city workers had come to his office during the storm and told him they had been explicitly ordered to take part in a slowdown to embarrass Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

But the more that investigators look into Mr. Halloran’s story, the more mystifying it becomes.

Mr. Halloran said he had been visited by two supervisors in the Transportation Department and three workers in the Sanitation Department. But the two transportation supervisors did not back up his story in interviews with investigators, according to two people briefed on the inquiries. And Mr. Halloran has steadfastly refused to reveal the names of the sanitation workers. ...>more

Second Amendment Solutions Dept.

2011-01-30T19:02:00.004-05:00

Probably Bad News: Putting Out Your House Fire FAIL

Utah to Honor Browning M1911 Semi-Automatic

2011-01-26T13:43:00.003-05:00

Official State Gun has "defended American values"
Lester Haines reports at The Register:

Utah is poised to adopt the classic Browning M1911 semi-automatic as its official "state gun", in honour of native John Browning who invented the weapon in 1911.

The proposal to add the M1911 to Utah's roster of approved symbols, including state cooking pot and state folk dance*, "breezed" through a House Political Subdivisions Committee hearing this week, and will now go before the full Utah House for a final vote.

Speaking to the committee, Republican Carl Wimmer said of Browning: "He invented a firearm that has defended American values and the traditions of this country for 100 years."

Inevitably, the recent shooting of Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona, who was hit by a round from a Glock 19, has prompted doubts that honouring a semi-automatic is a very tasteful idea.

Steve Gunn, a board member of the Gun Violence Prevention Center, told AP: "It's an embarrassment to the state to have as a symbol that was used only a few weeks ago to kill innocent people."

Wimmer responded: "There is nothing about the actions of a madman to change the fact that firearms have been used throughout our history to defend American values and traditions."

Fellow Republican Stephen Sandstrom had already addressed the matter when he told the committee: "Tragic events happen because of bad people in this world. But handguns, and firearms in general, do not kill people. We need to stop demonizing firearms."

So, Timmy... How'd That Siege Thing Work Out?

2011-01-25T19:27:00.007-05:00

Wannabe Right-Wing Populist Uprising Leader Disappointed In Turnout At January 21 "Siege Of DC"

Fantastically unpublished Western writer and failed revolutionary Timothy Davis writes at the Guardians Of Liberty blog:

Tomorrow is the 24th and if the lack of participation is anywhere near the same as on the 21st, which I highly expect it will be, then the idea of a siege, or holding our representative's feet to the fire and making them battle through the trials of ripping Obamacare out of the lawbooks will largely have been for nothing. I know, I know, we accomplished something, yes, I agree. No effort is without result, either good or ill.

The 24th will not be the end of anything, or indeed the start, but a necessary stop along the winding path of justice and liberty. On the long, rising grades of a steam engine in the mountains, a good dose of water is needed. While maintaining the momentum would seem to be the wisest choice, going up the hill without sufficient water for steam is insane. There can be no good outcome of that. So, like the locomotive, I have stopped here in DC as a moment of necessary taking on water for the grade ahead...

Translation (by our comrades at The Liberty Lamp):

"you're all a bunch of stinky butts because no one wanted to support my confrontational and thinly veiled attempt to threaten members of congress to listen to my half-baked and functionally retarded demands (buy my book) so I'm going to be the ULTRA SUPER PATRIOT and write some rambling quasi-jeffersonian (buy my book) screed about how I've got more patriot points than all of you FALSE patriots, because I ACTUALLY WENT TO (buy my book) WASHINGTON DC when it's COMMON KNOWLEDGE that BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA has NEGRO DEATH SQUADS of KENYAN ACORN MARXISTS roaming the streets and scanning everyone's precious bodily (buy my book) fluids to find out who the TRUE PATRIOTS ARE so they will be MARKED FOR EXECUTION!"

What Else Haven't They Told Us?

2011-01-23T15:53:00.004-05:00

Justice Thomas fails to disclose spouse’s income at Heritage Foundation and Liberty Central

Clarence and Ginny, living in perfect harmony

CommonDreams reports:

WASHINGTON - January 21 - Today’s acknowledgement by Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Thomas that they attended functions sponsored by Koch Industries in 2007 and 2008 is helpful, but does not resolve questions about their possible conflicts of interest in the Citizens United case. In addition, Common Cause research around this issue has revealed a further problem involving Justice Thomas – a repeated failure to disclose his wife’s income in his annual financial disclosure forms.

“Common Cause is concerned about omissions in Justice Thomas’s annual financial disclosures,” said Common Cause President Bob Edgar. “While researching potential conflicts of interest in Citizens United, we discovered apparent gaps over seven years in Justice Thomas’s disclosures of his wife’s earnings.”

According to records filed with the IRS, Virginia “Ginny” Thomas was paid $686,589 by the Heritage Foundation, a think tank, for her work there from 2003-07. Published reports indicate that Ms. Thomas also drew a salary from Liberty Central, a political education and action group she co-founded in 2009.

None of his wife’s earnings are disclosed on Justice Thomas’ annual financial disclosure forms, however. The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 requires federal officials, including Supreme Court justices, to disclose their spouse’s income. On the appropriate section of his 2003 to 2009 disclosure forms, Justice Thomas checked the box for “none.” Click here to view a chart Common Cause compiled on Thomas’s financial disclosures forms reporting no spousal income. ...>more

Also at the TW: Three Reasons Why It's OK That Clarence Thomas' Wife Is A Teabagger

Tennessee Teabaggers Want All This Talk About Slavery Stricken From The History Books

2011-01-16T21:28:00.004-05:00

No, seriously; this isn't from The Onion

Daryle Lamont Jenkins writes at One People's Project:

You know, we had to check and make sure this wasn't some joke article coming from the Onion or something. We checked and rechecked, just so we were sure we weren't going to get pranked posting this. But damnit, this is a real story, and we should have known simply from the fact that it was conservatives from Tennesseee. For some reason that particular crowd pulls something racist and downright stupid out of their collective behinds without fail every few months. So we are just assuming that the teabaggers there felt they were past due their latest racist WTF. To that end they give us this: They come up with a list of demands to the state legislature, among them to educate students about the "truth" about America and her history - which to them means leaving out that pesky "minority experience", particularly slavery, because it obscures the contributions of the Founding Fathers or the majority of citizens! Yes, they actually wrote this, and they held a press conference to announce it! We have to be honest and say this is too damned bold a statement for people to make without being associated with some WP group or whatever. Were one to look at those who have stepped forward, one would more than likely find some connection in paleoconservative circles that would prompt your average political insider to keep their distance from them. But even if there isn't that connection, you can pretty much add these folks to the People Who Aren't Helping file for teabaggers who are having a devil of a time trying to shake the racist charge. Sucks to be them. ...>more

SHE BE DA' MAN! Michele Bachmann Considering '12 Presidential Run

2011-01-06T20:37:00.003-05:00

Sometimes the jokes just write themselves

Kevin Diaz and Jeremy Herb report in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

WASHINGTON - Fresh off winning reelection and proving she can raise massive amounts of campaign cash, Rep. Michele Bachmann is beginning to consider a presidential run, according to close congressional aides.

As part of that effort, the Minnesota Republican will travel to the early caucus state of Iowa on Jan. 21 to confer with state GOP leaders and address a group of conservative tax activists.

That puts Bachmann in Iowa more than a week before former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who will appear there later this month as part of a book tour that starts in New York on Tuesday. Pawlenty has spent nearly two years laying the groundwork and building credentials for a possible presidential campaign. A Bachmann presidential run could complicate that.

Bachmann has made no firm decision about a White House bid in 2012, but "nothing is off the table," press aide Sergio Gor told the Star Tribune Wednesday, confirming an earlier ABC News report that quoted Bachmann chief of staff Andy Parrish.

Asked about presidential aspirations shortly after she was sworn in for a third term on Wednesday, Bachmann answered indirectly. "I'm continuing speaking out on the issues just as I have for the last few years," she told the Star Tribune. "Part of that will include going to Iowa and some of the caucus states. My commitment level remains the same, and that's to making sure that President Obama doesn't have a second term." ...>more

WANTED, TROLLED OR ALIVE: Bank Of America CEO Brian Moynihan

2011-01-02T14:37:00.002-05:00

If your house has been foreclosed on by Bank Of America, meet the criminal asshole who did it

Once again, that's:
26 Wachusett Rd
Wellesley Hills, MA 02481
(781) 235-1004
Email: brian.t.moynihan@bankofamerica.com

While Moynihan's been stealing your house, he's been living in this one. (red arrow, left)

Wife’s name: Susan.E.Moynihan

Dr. Susan E. Moynihan is a physician based in Marblehead.

She is associated with the Marblehead North Shore Physicians Group. Dr. Moynihan specializes in Internal Medicine and provides adult primary care services.
Fax: 781-631-5175
Hours: Mon – Fri, 9am – 5pm (by appointment)
Affiliations: NSMC Salem Hospital, NSMC Union Hospital
Specialties: Internal medicine

UPDATE:
Interesting facts about scumbag Moynihan and his antics on The Grumpy Lion.

Delusional Teabaggers to Attempt "Siege", Overthrow Government...Again

2010-12-31T03:43:00.003-05:00

Fantastically Unpublished Western Writer Has Master Plan For Right-Wing Populist Revolt... Really, He Does

Timothy Davis, tldavis61@earthlink.net
4033 Dogwood Ct. Loveland CO, 80538 US Tel. +001.9709629578

Lady Liberty's Lamp writes:
Meet Timothy L. Davis, a bottom-feeder fringe nutter in the world of teabaggers.

Yet another in a long line of fame-minded opportunists who are convinced that society is on the cusp of another southern secession, he fancies himself at the vanguard of a murky, ill-defined populist uprising.

Like other political opportunists who have come before him, he too has a poorly defined plan to overthrow the evil commie/nazi dictatorship– but his master plan to take over the world will succeed where one hundred percent of all previous attempts have crashed and burned!

You see, his master plan is–wait for it– to lay seige to federal offices!

He and his cohorts plan to stage a rally in DC on January 21st where they will announce their intention to beseige the offices of their representatives until “Obamacare is repealed, the federal reserve is audited and ended and our rights are recognized by every government agency.”

That probably sounded better than the original slogan of “We’re angry teabaggers who missed our chance at the limelight last year when people wanted to listen to our racist bullshit.” To be honest, the latter was a lot less nebulous than the one you decided on, man.

It’s quite clear Timothy is an amateur at this game. He plasters his name all over the whole operation, he links to the two teabagger sites he writes for (Washington Rebel and Teaparty Editor), as well as his personal site, which he registered with his full name, address and telephone number. If you’re so worried about being crushed by the imaginary “iron fist of communism”, maybe you shouldn’t link your master plan to your real name and the site where you advertise the novels you wrote wherein you romanticize the defeated South.

The teabagger movement is not only dead in the water, it’s starting to smell.

Really, teabaggers, this the best you could come up with– a fantastically unpublished old-west writer who is desperately trying to convince the world that he’s not ripping off the hippie tactic of sit-ins (it’s not a sit-in! Hippies have sit-ins! It’s a SIEGE! MEN have SIEGES!) with the notion that this will be what gets health care reform wholly repealed? THIS is IT? To be honest, we wouldn’t have even noticed this if it wasn’t given a nod of endorsement by our other favorite would-be revolutionaries (and FBI honeypots), Restore The Constitution. When the militia psychos start talking about laying siege to federal buildings, a wildly entertaining spectacle is sure to follow.

Alaska Judge Rules Against Miller In Senate Suit

2010-12-11T16:55:00.003-05:00

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Sean Cockerham reports in the Anchorage Daily News:

A Superior Court judge has ruled on all counts against Joe Miller's challenge of Alaska's election for U.S. Senate. The judge on Friday found the state tallied the ballots properly and there was no evidence for Miller's suggestions that fraud tainted the election.

The state judge, William Carey of Ketchikan, gave Miller until early next week to appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court. The timing is critical because a federal judge has blocked certification of Sen. Lisa Murkowski as the winner until the lawsuit is settled.

The newly elected Senate is to be sworn in Jan. 5, and state officials have argued that Alaska will be left with just one senator, Democrat Mark Begich, until the election is certified. Murkowski argues a delay could cost her seniority and top positions on committees... >more

Wikileaks Lives! Alternate Links Available

2010-12-03T21:20:00.003-05:00

Our comrade Mike Flugennock writes at his political cartoon blog:

It’s often been said, ever since the days of Usenet and Tiananmen Square, that the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. As it was in those bygone days, so it is today, as the US State pressures Wikileaks’ “cloud” provider and DNS service to take steps in an attempt to silence dissent.
The problem is — at least, if you’re the US State, it’s a problem — Wikileaks can still be reached on the Web via any number of alternate links, such as through its numeric “dotted quad” IP addresses here and here. It can also be reached through its alternate domains in Switzerland and the Netherlands.

I’d like to encourage everyone reading this to follow that grand old Web censorship-defeating tradition of “mirroring” and passing alternate links around, and post these links to your blog or Web site:

http://213.251.145.96/
http://46.59.1.2/
http://wikileaks.ch/
http://www.wikileaks.nl/
Wikileaks is also mirrored at over 200 sites worldwide.

Tough luck, Barack. Better luck next time, Hillary.

Teabaggers Accused Of Rigging "Dancing" Vote To Favor Bristol Palin

2010-11-22T18:17:00.004-05:00

Flaws Exposed In ABC Network's Email Voting System; GOP Extremists Provide Preview Of 2012

Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol dances with "Mama Grizzly" (artist's concept)

John Leyden reports in The Register:
Flaws in the email voting system deployed by ABC for the talent show Dancing With the Stars are being credited with allowing Tea Party supporters to stuff the ballot in favour of Bristol Palin.

Palin junior and partner Mark Ballas qualified for Monday's final of the show despite consistently mediocre marks from expert judges that have been overturned by public support. Conservative Tea Party activists are apparently using a loophole in ABC's email voting system to submit multiple votes for Bristol, daughter of former Alaskan governor and possible Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

MSNBC reports that activists are using sites such as the HillBuzz blog to co-ordinate a campaign that relies on a failure in ABC's systems to validate whether an email address submitting a vote is real or not. Activists reckon keeping Bristol on the show helps to promote the Tea Party, or at least keep it in the public eye with free exposure on national TV.

Dancing With the Stars executive producer, Conrad Green, told the New York Daily News that multiple email votes from the same IP address would be annulled. Whether this and the use of cookies is enough to prevent election fraud seems questionable. ABC is reportedly considering changing the voting system, placing more weight on the opinion of the judges, for Monday's final.

Texas Teabagger Apparatchik Rick Perry Gung-Ho To Invade Mexico

2010-11-21T14:21:00.005-05:00

Hey, we're totally into sending the state militia on a cross-border raid into Mexico -- and watching them being slaughtered and beheaded by the Zetas! Yeeee-hahhh!

Peggy Fikac reports in the San Antonio Express-News:
AUSTIN — GOP Gov. Rick Perry, who continues to insist he's not interested in the presidency, is nevertheless always ready to tell the federal government how to do a better job on such matters as border security — including indicating the U.S. should be open to sending military into Mexico to help fight the drug war.

Appearing on MSNBC on Thursday, Perry was asked, “Would you advocate military involvement in Mexico on the Mexico side of the border to help Mexico in this drug war?”

Perry answered: “I think we have to use every aspect of law enforcement that we have, including the military. I think you have the same situation as you had in Colombia. Obviously, Mexico has to approve any type of assistance that we can give them.

“But the fact of the matter is, these are people who are highly motivated with money. They are vicious. They are armed to the teeth. I want to see them defeated. And any means that we can to run these people off our border and to save Americans' lives we need to be engaged in.”

Perry has long called for more federally paid National Guard troops on the border and has cited the state's efforts to try to fill the void caused by what he describes as the failed federal effort on border security.

Thursday's answer reflected a difference in tone, though not in substance, from one he gave in an interview this summer with the San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle, when he was asked whether the U.S. should consider sending the military into Mexico as it did in 1916 after border violence... >more

James "Pimp" O'Keefe Hurting People Again...

2010-11-15T21:48:00.005-05:00

...and the Governor of New Jersey loves it

(at left: Passaic, NJ Special Ed teacher Alissa Ploshnick, James O'Keefe's latest target for personal destruction.)

Daryle Jenkins writes at One People's Project:

Okay, it's official. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is an utter and complete fool. We thought that when seasoned conservative propagandists like L. Brent Bozell started to kick amateur conservative propagandist James O'Keefe to the curb after his discredited stunts, a standing governor would be that last person to heap praise on him for one of them. And we most certainly would not expect the subject of such stunts to end up being punished for them. But here we are again. A few weeks ago, O'Keefe, still smarting from the failed stunt to smear a CNN reporter, went to a convention for the New Jeresy Education Association, the teacher's union that has been at war with Gov. Christie after he declared it on them. One of his underlings talked up (or rather hit on) a teacher there named Alissa Ploshnick to get her to open up enough to say something that they could use later in the latest of O'Keefe's doctored videos. Now at the time, NJEA officials said they weren't going to do anything because O'Keefe had no credibility to be concerned about, but Ms. Ploshnick, a special education teacher in Passaic, NJ, was suspended for nine days and will be docked a pay raise because of what he and his boy produced. But once again, O'Keefe might be in hot water. See, not only is Ms. Ploshnick considering a lawsuit against O'Keefe and his crew for their stunts, but apparently he has been caught hanging out around her house as well. Now if he gets in trouble for harassing this teacher, that's a probation violation, and he won't be videotaping anyone for awhile. The thing is, that should not be the only thing that makes him go away. Truth of the matter is no one should have any dealings with him, and definitely don't take actions based on his videos. ...>more

Pimp Hard, Libertard, Pimp Hard!

2010-11-11T21:14:00.003-05:00

In which Reason editor Matt Welch grabs an anti-Koch conspiracy theory in his teeth and runs with it like a big dog

Matt Welch writes at Reason:

Back in 2008, if you pressed a libertarian planning to vote for Barack Obama, chances are he’d yelp out the name Austan Goolsbee. The Libertarians for Obama website (which, appropriately, shut down after November 2008), claimed “Obama’s chief economic adviser—a friend from the University of Chicago, where they both taught—sounds an awful lot like a libertarian.” The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle repeatedly pinned her preference for the Democrat on his closeness with Goolsbee, “one of my favorite professors, and a hell of an economist.” The libertarian economist David Friedman cited Goolsbee when musing to the San Francisco Chronicle that Obama might end up emulating the liberals who launched New Zealand’s wildly successful deregulation project in the 1980s.

Two years later there probably isn’t a libertarian-leaning person on earth who still thinks Obama has it in him to pull a Nixon-goes-to-China when it comes to downsizing government. The president has followed up George W. Bush’s big-government disaster with a big-government catastrophe, setting consecutive annual records for spending, deficits, and debt while extending the pernicious too-big-to-fail doctrine all the way to the auto parts business. And every day on the hustings in advance of the Democrats’ midterm drubbing, Obama campaigned against a wholly fictional Bush record of deregulation and spending cuts.

“Between 2001 and 2009,” the president falsely claimed in September, “a very specific philosophy reigned in Washington: You cut taxes, especially for millionaires and billionaires; you cut regulations for special interests; you cut back on investments in education and clean energy, in research and technology. The idea was if we put blind faith in the market, if we let corporations play by their own rules, if we left everybody to fend for themselves, America would grow and America would prosper.” As any good 2008 libertarian for Obama could tell you, that description does not square with Bush’s record of jacking up federal education spending by 58 percent in real terms, increasing significant regulations and regulatory spending at rates not seen since Richard Nixon, and boosting discretionary spending more than any president since Lyndon Johnson.

And what about our University of Chicago hero Austan Goolsbee? In September he became chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. Just before the appointment, Goolsbee gave a background briefing to reporters on behalf of the administration in which he trashed the most influential donors the libertarian universe has ever seen: Charles and David Koch, funders of the Cato Institute, the Mercatus Center, the Institute for Humane Studies, and much more. (David Koch sits on the Reason Foundation’s Board of Trustees.)...

...>more (if you can stand it)

Don't Tread On Me?

2010-10-28T17:24:00.004-04:00

Historic Gadsden Flag Updated To Reflect Recent Events

Our comrade Mike Flugennock writes at his political cartoon blog:

In light of the recent incident at a Rand Paul appearance in Kentucky, in which a couple of his goons assaulted and stomped on the head of a woman counterdemonstrator from MoveOn, we thought it was time to update the design of the historic Gadsden Flag -- a.k.a. "Don't Tread On Me" flag.

Downloadable in three glorious revolutionary sizes:
Letter-size, high resolution, 600kb
Tabloid size, medium resolution, 468kb
34 x 22.527 inches, medium resolution, 1mb

Head-Stomping Teabagger Outed!

2010-10-27T20:27:00.005-04:00

Lady Liberty's Lamp reports:

Timothy M Proffitt
591 Redmon Rd Paris, KY 40361-8829.
(859) 987-6015. Age: 50-54 …

Rumor has it this scumbag works at a HIGH SCHOOL?????

related to:

Carolyn S Proffitt (53)
Phillip Profitt (24)
Amy M Profitt (37)

More to come…

American Hero Hugo Chavez Holds Venezuelan Tea Party!

2010-10-26T15:41:00.005-04:00

Nationalizes Businesses Owned By Teabagger-Bankrolling Koch Brothers

We are all Venezuelans now! CHA-VEZ! CHA-VEZ! CHA-VEZ!

The Gulf Today reports:

CARACAS: Koch Industries said it had received no word that Venezuela nationalised Fertinitro, a large fertilizer maker in which the US-based group has a substantial stake.

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez announced that the takeover of Fertinitro, one of the world’s main producers of nitrogen fertilizer, days after vowing to radicalize his socialist “revolution” following legislative elections last month.

Koch has a 35 per cent stake in Fertinitro and Venezuelan state-run petrochemicals company Pequiven has 35 per cent. Saipem, a unit of Italy’s Eni, holds 20 per cent and local brewer and food company Polar has the rest.

“Koch Fertilizer has not received any official or informal notice, nor have we received any notification from Fertinitro regarding any disruption,” a Koch spokeswoman told Reuters by email. “We are attempting to obtain details and information.”

Chavez has put much of the OPEC member’s economy into government hands during his 12 years in power. He has said he will accelerate the pace of reforms after the opposition won 40 per cent of National Assembly seats and almost half the popular vote in Sept.26 parliamentary elections.

Also on Sunday, Chavez announced the nationalization of a local motor lubricants company and said the state would take control of nearly 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of land owned by British meat company Vestey Foods.

Last week, the government nationalised a major local agricultural supplies company, Agroislena.

Venezuela’s Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said the nationalization of Fertinitro guaranteed the government access to all the fertilizer it needed for farmers and a nationwide seeding plan that would ensure abundant, cheap food for all. ...>more

Going Benedict Arnold: Teabagger Candidates Funded By BP, Other Foreign Corporations

2010-10-25T19:11:00.003-04:00

DeMint, Imhofe, Other Climate Change Deniers Receive Over $240k From Corporate Polluters

Suzanne Goldberg reports in the UK Guardian:

BP and several other big European companies are funding the midterm election campaigns of Tea Party favourites who deny the existence of global warming or oppose Barack Obama's energy agenda, the Guardian has learned.

An analysis of campaign finance by Climate Action Network Europe (Cane) found nearly 80% of campaign donations from a number of major European firms were directed towards senators who blocked action on climate change. These included incumbents who have been embraced by the Tea Party such as Jim DeMint, a Republican from South Carolina, and the notorious climate change denier James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma.

The report, released tomorrow, used information on the Open Secrets.org database to track what it called a co-ordinated attempt by some of Europe's biggest polluters to influence the US midterms. It said: "The European companies are funding almost exclusively Senate candidates who have been outspoken in their opposition to comprehensive climate policy in the US and candidates who actively deny the scientific consensus that climate change is happening and is caused by people." ...>more

Heads Up, Teabaggers: USA Not A Christian Nation!

2010-10-25T17:41:00.003-04:00

Man, it must suck when stuff like this happens, huh?

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

--United States Treaty with Tripoli, 1796-97

FreedomWorks PWNED!

2010-10-22T14:05:00.004-04:00

$80k In Donations Lost At Opening Of Fund Drive Hyped By Glenn Beck

The Wall Street Journal reports:
A mysterious cyber attack apparently struck the computer servers at the pro-tea party group FreedomWorks this morning, just as it launched a major fund-raising drive.

FreedomWorks officials are investigating, but they suspect they were attacked deliberately, perhaps by a political opponent seeking the thwart its fund-raising efforts.

The attack crippled the site at about 9:45 a.m. just when the fund-raising drive was publicized on the radio by conservative talk show host Glenn Beck. The group estimates it lost about $80,000 in potential donations as it struggled to bring its site back online...>more

Caught On Tape: Koch Bros. Reveal Selves As Tea Party Astroturf Funders

2010-10-14T13:10:00.004-04:00

Various Local Teabagger Commissars Report Back To Hive Mind Overlord At "Americans For Prosperity" Shindig

Find out more; view the entire documentary and order the DVD at astroturfwars.com.

Formerly Bold Alaska Tea Party Senate Candidate Runs, Hides From Media

2010-10-12T21:25:00.003-04:00

"Run away! RUN AWAAAAYYYY!" Alaska Teabagger Senate Hopeful Joe Miller.
AP foto by Chris Miller (no relation)

Is there not one single Tea Party candidate who isn't a totally spineless pussy when it comes to dealing with the media?

Justin Elliott reports at Salon:

In a bizarre press conference Monday, Alaska GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller announced he will no longer answer questions about his past and blamed the media for focusing on personal attacks instead of the issues.

"We’ve drawn a line in the sand. You can ask me about background, you can ask about personal issues — I’m not going to answer. I’m not," he said, continuing:

This is about the issues. This is not about continuing the personal attacks, it’s not about continuing the diversions based in illegal acts. This is about moving the state forward. And that’s our commitment.

There has been a steady stream of revelations in recent weeks about Miller, who was a little-known attorney until he beat Sen. Lisa Murkowski in an upset in the August primary (she is now running as a write-in candidate). It has emerged in recent weeks that Miller took advantage of various programs that he thinks are unconstitutional or should be gutted, like Medicaid and federal farm subsidies.

The press conference appeared to be a response to a report on the news website Alaska Dispatch about Miller's employment at the Fairbanks North Star Borough, where he worked for seven years as a part-time attorney before leaving last year under unclear circumstances. (A borough is the Alaskan equivalent of a county.)

Citing an anonymous former borough employee, Alaska Dispatch reported that Miller was caught in 2008 using borough computers to do personal politicking. Miller has conspicuously not denied the report, but he blasted Alaska Dispatch at his press conference Monday. "Their so-called journalistic objective is anything negative about Joe," he said. He also claimed, without citing evidence, that someone in the media had illegally gained access to his personnel file. ...>more

Twittergate! How Internet Jerks Pranked The Tea Party

2010-10-10T08:28:00.003-04:00

Hysterical Glenn Beck Claims Democrats Paid "E-Thugs" To Provoke Teabaggers Online

Adrian Chen reports at Gawker:

The best way to deal with jerks online is to ignore them. But when prominent Tea Partiers on Twitter started being harassed by a group of Internet trolls, they launched a twitter militia and concocted an elaborate conspiracy theory.

Twittergate is the hottest new conspiracy theory out of the conservative blogosphere. Yesterday, Glenn Beck's news site, The Blaze, posted an epic YouTube video which purports to expose a massive conspiracy by Democrats to take over Twitter: "DID DEMOCRATS HIRE A ‘TWITTER-THUG' TO SMEAR THE TEA PARTY?" The Blaze asks. ...more

"Tea Party" Republicans Nothing But Big Government Whores...

2010-10-06T18:06:00.003-04:00

...just like their billionaire masters

Yasha Levine writes in The eXiled:

If tea party candidates were serious about stopping runaway spending and bringing fiscal responsibility to Washington, they would have to address one of the most egregious wastes of taxpayer dollars: federal farm subsidies. These handouts have become little more than taxpayer robbery, sending billions of dollars every year to wealthy “farmers,” even some who do not farm at all. It is not an opportunity the tea party is willing to take.

“Washington paid out a quarter of a trillion dollars in federal farm subsidies between 1995 and 2009, but to characterize the programs as either a ‘big government’ bailout or another form of welfare would be manifestly unfair—to bailouts and welfare,” says Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, a watchdog that tracks federal farm subsidies. “After all, with bailouts taxpayers usually get their money back (often with interest), while welfare recipients are subjected to harsh means-testing, time-limited benefits, and a work requirement. …”

Not so with farm subsidies. Forget about helping struggling farmers—this taxpayer-funded gravy train is skewed primarily toward the rich, paying out billions to “McRanches” and to businesses like Fidelity National Financial, a Fortune 500 company, which got $6.5 million over four years to not farm its land.

If you think such blatant waste would galvanize the tea party, think again.

Truth is, the primary goal of tea party politicians is not to shrink the government, but to use it to transfer taxpayer wealth to rich Republicans. And there is no bigger welfare-for-the-rich program than federal farm subsidies, which have been paying out $20 billion a year to some of the richest—and predominantly Republican-affiliated—people in the country.

With so much money sloshing around, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that tea party politicians have gotten their share.

Take Rep. Michele Bachmann, the self-appointed leader of the tea party movement and recent founder of the Tea Party Caucus, whose stated mission is to promote “fiscal responsibility, adherence to the Constitution and limited government” in the House of Representatives.

But, as I first reported on Truthdig in December 2009, Bachmann’s free-market beliefs do not seem to apply to her own pocketbook. According to federal records compiled by the Environmental Working Group, since 1995 the congresswoman profited from $251,973 in dairy and corn subsidies via a stake in her family’s farm. Bachmann’s financial disclosure forms indicate that her piece of the business earned her a (federally subsidized) income of up to $50,000 in 2008, a nice addition to the $174,000 taxpayer-funded salary she gets as a House member.

Bachmann is not the only tea party subsidy queen. Many of the fresh-faced tea party candidates jockeying for a spot in Congress on a platform of “fiscal responsibility” and “small government” are quite content to allow themselves—and their constituents—to keep feeding at the “big government” trough. ...>more

Anatomy Of A Libertard

2010-10-03T16:41:00.003-04:00

Will Wilkinson: Libertard With Sadditude

Mark Ames writes in The eXiled:

Ever since Yasha and I first broke the story about the Koch brothers financing the Tea Party Campaign in February of 2009–a scoop that the New Yorker plagiarized from us a mere 18 months later, waytago fellas!–ever since then, I’ve been wondering: Have all those billions that the Brothers Koch invested into their libertarian brain-washing project paid off?

The answer: You betcha.

Let me demonstrate how the Kochs’ investment into libertarianism has paid off by way of a near-stroke experience I just had a couple of days ago. There I was, just wasting time on Reddit, when I came across one of those beyond-idiotic-and-evil headlines that bite you if you’re not careful: “Is rising inequality in America exaggerated?” The headline linked to an article in The Economist.

H’m, is inequality exaggerated? Gosh, let me get my ol’ chin-scratching machine out for this one…

Naturally, I did the exact wrong thing and clicked the headline, which brought me to an Economist article titled, “The Inequality Myth: Is Rising Inequality in America Exaggerated?” It was an oddly meat-headed headline for The Economist–usually that magazine’s formula is to zap the reader with somewhat more nuanced right-wing shock value, counteracted with elitist irony and know-it-all charm. Not this time:

SLATE’S Timothy Noah has just wrapped up a ten-part series on the rise of economic inequality in America. Most of Mr Noah’s instalments are devoted to examining the impact of one of the usual suspects—immigration, trade, de-unionisation, education, executive pay, etc—on the level of inequality in the United States. I found Mr Noah’s series disappointing from the start because he failed squarely to confront recent findings that challenge the premise of his exercise.

Many popular narratives about inequality are grounded on the alleged fact that wages and incomes at the middle and bottom of the distribution have been stagnant for decades. It appears that this, too, may be an artefact of insufficiently sophisticated methods for building the price indices used to calculate rates of inflation.

The author of this Economist blog post, identified as “W.W.”, sounded nothing like one of those sly Economist correspondents I’ve known in the past, and everything like a typical ham-fisted right-wing libertarian, the sort that are a dime a dozen in this country. So I wondered: Are the Kochs debasing even their own natural propaganda ally, The Economist, by dumbing it down with one of their own Koch-sponsored libertard meatheads? Who was this “W.W.”? ...>more

White Nationalist Running as Tea Party Candidate for the Monongahela, WV Board Of Education

2010-10-01T09:32:00.004-04:00

Take Me Home, Country Roads!

Lady Liberty's Lamp writes:

Monongahela, West Virginia;- Harry Bertram is a member of the American Third Position party, a racist crew of losers we’ve covered in the past.
Much like his hatchling-nest mate Ryan J. Murdough, Bertram is attempting to slither his way into mainstream politics by appealing to the bloc of voters with whom he thinks he resonates– and he chose the Tea Baggers.

Memo: your pleas to not be viewed as racists are neutered when you not only refuse to ostracise but instead embrace and support blatant white nationalists like Harry Bertram and Ryan J. Murdough.

Here is the Jamie Kelso from the neo-Nazi forum Stormfront and White News Now announcing Bertram’s candidacy.

Please pay close attention to what’s going on in this thread: Bertram is not only running under the A3P banner, he is also the campaign manager for Ryan J. Murdough. This is a clear, documented link between not just two white nationalists, but the entire white nationalist forum, of which Bertram is a senior moderator of White News Now.

These are not specious allegations to “slander” the teabaggers, this is a clear case of teabaggers embracing white nationalists. ...>more

4chan PWNS Teabaggers!

2010-09-22T11:02:00.003-04:00

Operation "Payback Is A Bitch" Rolls On!

John Leyden writes in The Register:

A website run by the conservative Tea Party movement was overrun by the denizens of 4chan on Tuesday.
Website vulnerabilities on the official teaparty.org website allowed pranksters to divert surfers landing on the photo section of the site to smut and shock sites. It's unclear what website security shortcomings were exploited in that attack and whether these are now closed. Boing Boing has screenshots from the attack in a short article here (NSFW).

The assault coincides with ongoing DDoS attacks by members of 4chan against entertainment industry websites in protest against legal actions against torrent tracker website The Pirate Bay.

"Operation: Payback Is A Bitch" began over the weekend as an attack against Aiplex, an Indian firm that acts as a hired gun for Bollywood film studios, resorting to DDoS attacks on websites hosting BitTorrent trackers that fail to respond to takedown notices. The attacks moved on to assaults that flooded websites maintained by the MPAA and RIAA and, most recently, ACS:Law. ...>more

Another Teabagger Welfare Queen Exposed

2010-09-22T07:49:00.003-04:00

US Senate Candidate From Alaska Received Federal Farm Subsidies In 1990s

Sean Cockerham writes in the Alaska Politics Blog:

U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller, who in a recent Project Vote Smart survey opposed federal spending on agriculture, is acknowledging receiving farm subsidies during the 1990s from land that he owned in Kansas.

Miller spokesman Randy DeSoto said Miller, who is from Kansas, purchased the farmland in 1990 when he was in the Army and essentially rented it out to be farmed, finally selling the last of the 140 acres that was being farmed in 1998.

Miller moved to Alaska in 1994. ...>more

Funniest. Campaign. Ad. EVER. (so far)

2010-09-16T18:31:00.003-04:00

...and, he lives in a van down by the river.

Remember Phil Davidson, the failed GOP candidate for Treasurer of Stark County, Ohio? Well, he hasn't let that setback stop him. He's already thrown his hat into the ring for the Tea Party ticket for 2012!

Sadly, though, Screamin' Jay Hawkins he ain't.

9/11 Anniversary, NYC: Left Keeps it Classy, Teabaggers Keep it Zany

2010-09-15T17:41:00.002-04:00

Word of the Day: HATEFEST

Here's a quick video roundup of the day's events in NYC from our comrades in the Town Hell Posse:

Get the detailed lowdown on last Saturday's events in the Big Apple from our friends at Lady Liberty’s Lamp.

Sharpton Marches, Teabaggers Sit; Honor Restored, Dream Reclaimed

2010-08-30T23:44:00.004-04:00

Word Of The Day: "Doughy"

Mike Flugennock writes:

From Our Better Late Than Never Department:

The Washington Post, possibly suffering a massive brain seizure due to the heat, referred to the Beckapalooza at the Lincoln Memorial as a “grassroots” event. Oh, absolutely; I’ve lost track of how many up-by-the-bootstraps, grassroots mobilizations had rallies with custom-built stages, state-of-the-art sound, high-end multi-camera video production and five or six Jumbotrons.

And, oh, did they use those Jumbotrons — to crank out a steady diet of smarmy, syrupy video trailers full of classically empty nationalistic propaganda language about the Greatest Country In The World and the Greatest People On Earth. The stage production may have been pure Albert Speer, but the video pieces were pure Reifenstahl. For a bunch of people who cherished freedom and hated being made to do something, they sure did enjoy being told what to do. Not even the most craven, tweedy Liberals enjoyed being bossed around more than this bunch.

The Posse and I could only stand in awe at the high number of pasty, doughy, Twinkie-fed folks who turned out to help Restore Honor. It’s almost a good thing Glenn Beck didn’t schedule a march, because he’d have been sued by the families of the nearly 100,000 heart attack and heatstroke victims among the roughly 200,000 who Restored Honor on Saturday. It was at this rally that the folding camp chair would become symbolic and synonymous with your slackly-rallying Teabagger.

I thought it was interesting that Beck made such a bit deal about his people not bringing signs. Did they honestly think they could cover up the rank hate and racism that oozes out of them? They may not have had signs, but we saw some nasty t-shirts at that rally. Besides, we’ve already seen plenty of them for the past year and a half, so it’s not like the rest of us don’t know who they are, and where they’re from, and what they stand for, and what they’re about... >more

NY Teabagger Platform: Relocate Welfare Recipients to Prison Dorms

2010-08-22T00:20:00.003-04:00

Racist Email Blasting Gubernatorial Candidate to go Head-to-Head with Fellow Asshole Rick Lazio in Sept. 14 Primary

Beth Fouhy reports from Associated Press:

NEW YORK — Republican candidate for governor Carl Paladino said he would transform some New York prisons into dormitories for welfare recipients, where they would work in state-sponsored jobs, get employment training and take lessons in "personal hygiene."

Paladino, a wealthy Buffalo real estate developer popular with many tea party activists, is competing for the Republican nomination with former U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio. The primary is Sept. 14.

Paladino first described the idea in June at a meeting of The Journal News of White Plains and spoke about it again this week with The Associated Press.

Throughout his campaign, Paladino has criticized New York's rich menu of social service benefits, which he says encourages illegal immigrants and needy people to live in the state. He has promised a 20 percent reduction in the state budget and a 10 percent income tax cut if elected.

Asked at the meeting how he would achieve those savings, Paladino laid out several plans that included converting underused state prisons into centers that would house welfare recipients. There, they would do work for the state — "military service, in some cases park service, in other cases public works service," he said — while prison guards would be retrained to work as counselors.

"Instead of handing out the welfare checks, we'll teach people how to earn their check. We'll teach them personal hygiene ... the personal things they don't get when they come from dysfunctional homes," Paladino said. ...>more

When "Unity" Is Spelled Wrong

2010-08-05T12:01:00.004-04:00

The "Uni-Tea" Party Facade

Last Saturday, July 31, was a day made of FAIL. The “Uni-Tea” rally was an event organized by New Jersey neo-con Jeffrey Weingarten to prove that the Tea Party wasn’t a hotbed of racism by pushing the microscopic numbers of black people who are willing to teabag for Republicans into the front lines.

Still, there were probably twice as many black people on the speakers list as there were in the actual crowd. And oh, what a crowd — an event which predicted attendance in the thousands was lucky to have two hundred people, of which less than half a dozen were people of color.

The Tea Party protests too much, we think; the more noise they make about how they aren’t racist, the less everybody believes them, especially while they continue to step on their own cranks as their supporters show up at public rallies with racist signs and their candidates for elected office pop off in public about blacks and Muslims.

An endless procession of pro-rightist shills lead by black Republican David Webb, were paraded across the stage mouthing the standard rightist tropes about free enterprise and picking one’s self up by one’s bootstraps — basically, saying what the crowd of pudgy Caucasians in folding camp chairs wanted to hear. Deneen Borelli ranted about Obama’s supposed “war on fossil fuels” and the offshore drilling moratorium even as Gulf Coast ecosystems and economies are devastated by the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Black Republican David Webb Was MC For the Event

The most gob-smacking of the bunch, though, had to be Janks Morton who, after going on for so long about God that we found ourselves silently begging him to stop, looked us all right square in the eye and told us that “healthcare is a privilege”. Yes, that’s right; this tool was basically telling us that people with catastrophic injuries and illnesses should be allowed to remain sick and debilitated — and probably die — because they aren’t rich enough to afford the “privilege” of healthcare.

The day’s headliner, Little Andy Breitbart, was in fine form, accusing the opposition of doing everything he’s guilty of — including the ham-handed doctoring of video footage — and accusing his opposition of (wait for it) slandering “the good name of Karl Rove”, while totally avoiding the issue of his own attempt to slander USDA employee Shirley Sharrod with hacked-up video footage edited to make Sherrod seem to be saying the opposite of what she actually said. He continued to hammer on that tired old “politics of personal destruction” riff while totally ignoring his destruction of ACORN with James O’Keefe’s video footage which was edited in the manner of an old Benny Hill sketch. He pissed and moaned about how the mainstream media was mistreating the Tea Party, even as he and the Tea Party were relentlessly fawned over by Fox News and now he is gaining a crowd of fans from the neo-Nazi crowd on Stormfront.com.

Photos by Isis and The Cubster. Find more photos here and here.

Confessions of a Tea Party Casualty

2010-08-03T18:27:00.003-04:00

GOP Rep. Bob Inglis slams Republican demagoguery, bemoans anti-Semitic tea party conspiracy nonsense, decries Sarah Palin’s ignorance, and looks for a job.

David Corn writes at Mother Jones:

It was the middle of a tough primary contest, and Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) had convened a small meeting with donors who had contributed thousands of dollars to his previous campaigns. But this year, as Inglis faced a challenge from tea party-backed Republican candidates claiming Inglis wasn't sufficiently conservative, these donors hadn't ponied up. Inglis' task: Get them back on the team. "They were upset with me," Inglis recalls. "They are all Glenn Beck watchers." About 90 minutes into the meeting, as he remembers it, "They say, 'Bob, what don't you get? Barack Obama is a socialist, communist Marxist who wants to destroy the American economy so he can take over as dictator. Health care is part of that. And he wants to open up the Mexican border and turn [the US] into a Muslim nation.'" Inglis didn't know how to respond.

As he tells this story, the veteran lawmaker is sitting in his congressional office, which he will have to vacate in a few months. On June 22, he was defeated in the primary runoff by Spartanburg County 7th Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy, who had assailed Inglis for supposedly straying from his conservative roots, pointing to his vote for the bank bailout and against George W. Bush's surge in Iraq. Inglis, who served six years in Congress during the 1990s as a conservative firebrand before being reelected to the House in 2004, had also ticked off right-wingers in the state's 4th Congressional District by urging tea-party activists to "turn Glenn Beck off" and by calling on Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) to apologize for shouting "You lie!" at Obama during the president's State of the Union address. For this, Inglis, who boasts (literally) a 93 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union, received the wrath of the tea party, losing to Gowdy 71 to 29 percent. In the weeks since, Inglis has criticized Republican House leaders for acquiescing to a poisonous, tea party-driven "demagoguery" that he believes will undermine the GOP's long-term credibility. And he's freely recounting his frustrating interactions with tea party types, while noting that Republican leaders are pushing rhetoric tainted with racism, that conservative activists are dabbling in anti-Semitic conspiracy theory nonsense, and that Sarah Palin celebrates ignorance... >more