Tea Party Madness

Would Jesus Approve of the Tea Party?

August 18, 2011 By mario piperni

In case you’ve ever wondered exactly what it is Tea Party folk really, really want, you might be interested in a piece written by Abe Sauer who spent the last two years hanging out at Tea Party functions.

When I started going to Tea Party meetings two years ago, I was sympathetic. Just after attending one in North Dakota in August of 2009, I wrote: “Most tea partiers are not bad people. They’re just mad. In many meaningful ways, today’s Tea Party attendees’ lives have gotten consistently worse for the last 20 years, regardless of which party was in power.” I concluded that trying to figure out what they wanted was a dead end because what they wanted was simply to complain—that the Tea Party “is not a group of listen and respond; this is a group of respond and respond.” Two years of Tea Party functions later, and I finally know what the Tea Party wants: A Christian nation.

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The Tea Party is no longer about economics, not that it ever solely was. At the larger rallies and for the cameras (CNN or laptop), they hold forth about founding fathers, liberty, spending, deficits, TARP, kicking cans down roads, taxes, living within means and fiscal responsibility. But when the lights are off, it’s all about Jesus, with “God” thrown in, on occasion for Israel.

Back in 2009, the movement appeared genuinely stumped with a conundrum of its key documents. Subservience to the Constitution of the United States of America was paramount, but then what to do about the Bible?

So they’ve engineered a backstory that essentially proves the nation’s founders were just conduits for God. Essentially, the Constitution is just the word of God passed down through guys who wore wigs and snazzy cuffed jackets.

And to back up Sauer’s claim, here is an op-ed piece from the NYT which pretty much says the same.

Next to being a Republican, the strongest predictor of being a Tea Party supporter today was a desire, back in 2006, to see religion play a prominent role in politics. And Tea Partiers continue to hold these views: they seek “deeply religious” elected officials, approve of religious leaders’ engaging in politics and want religion brought into political debates. The Tea Party’s generals may say their overriding concern is a smaller government, but not their rank and file, who are more concerned about putting God in government.

This inclination among the Tea Party faithful to mix religion and politics explains their support for Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas. Their appeal to Tea Partiers lies less in what they say about the budget or taxes, and more in their overt use of religious language and imagery, including Mrs. Bachmann’s lengthy prayers at campaign stops and Mr. Perry’s prayer rally in Houston.

Concerned? Don’t be. The latest polls indicate that public opinion is trending strongly against the Tea Party. With an approval rating of 20%, teabaggers are rated lower than Republicans, Dems, atheists and Muslims. The Tea Party star is dimming and while they did have a major impact in last year’s midterms, there is less chance of Tea Partiers effectively repeating their dog and pony act in next year’s general election.

As for the question I asked in the title to this post, I’m betting Jesus would have kicked teabaggers out on their sorry asses in much the same way he cleansed the Temple of thieves and charlatans. Besides, I have it on good authority that Jesus had a disdain for tricorn hats and much preferred wine over tea.

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Filed Under: Tea Party Madness Tagged With: constitution, Religion

Tea Party Sets Sights On Venus and Beyond

August 11, 2011 By mario piperni

Well, if nothing else, they do keep you amused.

An offshoot of the South Florida Tea Party called “Tea Party In Space” is looking to break apart the government’s socialist takeover of the final frontier.

Andrew L. Gasser launched Tea Party In Space in June as a way to “bring fiscal responsibility” into the space program, he told TPM Tuesday. He called the group, which was formed in conjunction with the South Florida Tea Party, the first “issue-specific” tea party in the country.

Gasser explained that the group aims to bring the free markets into the space program, because right now, he say, there is only the government — which amounts to socialism. “It is socialism when you have the government coming down and saying, ‘this is what we want to build, and this is how we want you to build it,’” he said.

I’m liking John Cole’s idea on all this.

Maybe we can get all these guys together, shoot them into outer space where they can do less damage. Plus, if they have their way, the rockets will be made by the lowest bidder, and I am ok with that.

Works for me.

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Filed Under: Tea Party Madness Tagged With: NASA, space

Teabaggers Are S-T-U-P-I-D

August 9, 2011 By mario piperni

I try to resist calling teabaggers idiots but, damn, they are IDIOTS! Here is another example of teabagger lunacy in action.

As the Tea Party express rolled into Fond du Lac, Wisconsin to support six Republican candidates in Tuesday’s recall election, the main speaker of the evening, Florida talk show host Andrea Shea King, was determined to pin the blame for the credit rating downgrade on Democrats.

But after she told the audience that commentators were describing the downgrade of US debt to AA+ from AAA as the “tea party downgrade,” the audience cheered proudly that their right wing faction in Congress had caused it.

Here is the transcript.

SHEA KING: This week—I wrote it down—they are blaming the credit downgrade on the tea party movement.

CROWD: Yeah! [Cheers, clapping]

SHEA KING: They are calling it “the tea party downgrade.” They are objectivizing [sic] us.

For whatever reasons S&P downgraded the U.S. credit rating (i.e. rising debt, too few cuts in spending, political gridlock), the fact remains that it is bad news for the U.S. and its struggling economy. For teabaggers to cheer the downgrade and gleefully take credit for it is another clear sign that the Tea Party is comprised of people who are, for the most part, unhinged and dangerously delusional.

That they form a large portion of Republicans in Congress should be a major cause for concern for any thinking American.

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Filed Under: Tea Party Madness Tagged With: credit rating, economy

Budget Highlights the Republican Divide

April 6, 2011 By mario piperni

Who would have thought that the Tea Party could end up being Dem’s biggest friend in Congress? By sticking to their radical, outlandish and unworkable ideals, the Tea Party has been successful in splitting the GOP down the middle. Case in point: the 2011 budget debate.

A government shutdown looms ahead and you can ‘thank’ the Tea Party if it does happen. The President has agreed to $33 billion in budgetary cuts for 2011 – a move which has angered progressives and highlighted the great divide in the Republican Party. While John Boehner was more than ready to accept the Obama proposal as a victory for his side, his party’s newest members, Tea Party backed loons , have forced him to up the ante to $40 billion, a number which the White House appears unwilling to accept. All of which leads conservative Michael Gerson to write:

Obama’s offer is more than reasonable. A $30 billion reduction, after all, was the initial Republican negotiating position back in early February. Given that Republicans control only the House, this level of cuts would normally be viewed as a remarkable success. But a portion of the Republican conference longs for a confrontation that results in a government shutdown, preferring a fight over a victory. And the only worse outcome for Boehner than a politically risky shutdown is a deeply split conference, pitting the Republican establishment against Tea Party purists — a result that would undermine all future Republican progress.

So Obama has managed to lighten his liberal baggage, turn Republicans against each other and ensure they would be (justifiably) blamed for a shutdown.

John Boehner is struggling to appease the likes of Michele Bachmann and her Tea Party cohorts. He is literally in a battle to keep the peace between the established conservative crazies on one side and the newly elected insane on the other. It should be interesting to see how it all plays out in 2012 and whether Dems will be able to exploit the divide to their maximum benefit. It seems unlikely that independents will be attracted to Teapublican politics.

Filed Under: Republican Madness, Tea Party Madness Tagged With: budget, White House

The Tea Party’s Mad Hatters

March 26, 2011 By Jimmy Zuma

Jimmy originally posted this piece at the Tucson Sentinel.

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The Tea Party’s B-team Mad Hatters are back in the news after a few months of wallowing in election-season failures. Now back in the game, they will once again try to bury substance under a giant pile of tea.

Losing Senate candidate Joe Miller

Miller was the Alaska Senate candidate (and Palin pick) that looked to be winning until he wouldn’t answer any questions and hired thugs to intimidate a reporter who was asking them. The bodyguards turned out to be Alaska National Guardsmen who were cheating on their employer, giving the 50^th state yet another black eye.

Miller, it was revealed, had also tried to increase his influence in the Alaska Republican Party by putting a poll on his website, then secretly using his coworker’s government computers to vote on it. Then he’d lied about it, again and again. He also wanted to repeal the 17^th Amendment, eliminating the election he was running in. But it was the handcuffing of a reporter that finally killed his campaign.

Miller will now become CEO of the Sparks, Nevada-based Western Representation PAC. Politico reports it isTea Party affiliated. But a search of Google News reveals their sole accomplishment is the hiring of Miller.

Former actress Victoria Jackson

Famously miscast as a funny person on Saturday Night Live, Jackson’s career was dead until she revived her singing-loudly-off-key shtick at Tea Party rallies. Her rally songs were mostly unintelligible and appeared entirely unrehearsed. But the crowds seemed to love her incredibly-dumb blond act.

She’s known for such idiotisms as “Obama bears traits that resemble the anti- Christ,” and, “I said he [Obama] was a Communist, and I got a lot of hate mail, but I got some that said I was a prescient, which means ‘a prophet.’”

Now Jackson’s completely jumped the shark. Her latest public pronouncement is,

“Why do liberals embrace Shariah [sic] law even though “beheading your wife” seems to go against the feminist movement’s mantra? Why do liberals embrace Islam knowing it frowns on homosexuality? Because they have the same goals. Progressives, communists, liberals, globalists and Muslims want to destroy America. When that goal is reached, they will fight for top billing. It will be bloody.”

Count the leaps of logic; I counted at least seven. She also thinks that gay men who kiss are “disgusting.” And she’s still not funny.

Losing Senate candidate Sharron Angle

Angle started her Nevada Senate race with a big mouth, spouting nutty-ism after nutty-ism. The most famous of these was her call for “Second Amendment remedies” if people like her weren’t elected. After national players took an interest in her campaign (and professional handlers arrived) she didn’t answer a single other question. There is funny video of her fleeing out the garage door three minutes into what was billed as her “press conference.”

Then she lost. Oddly, Angle didn’t shoot anyone. It turns out she was just another blowhard pretending that gun-waving is a sign of bravery rather than an act of cowardice.

Now thanks to the retirement of John Ensign – Nevada’s screw-your-friend’s-wife Senator – Angle has another chance. Let’s hope the Gabby Giffords shooting serves as a wakeup call to anyone who was seduced by her gunpowder politics.

Deposed Liberty Central founder Virginia Thomas

One could forgive you for thinking Ginny Thomas exists merely to funnel conservative influence into Clarence Thomas’ bank account. As far as we know, she’s never done much of value, she’s never successfully led anything, and her speeches at Tea Party rallies were mostly infomercials for the foam Statue of Liberty hats she sells.

Yet that didn’t stop her from getting a paycheck from the Heritage Foundation, where she wrote (or co-wrote) seven intelligent sounding documents, all totaling about 20 pages. For that, she was paid $686,589 –nearly $100,000 each. Later she founded Liberty Central, which never had a real address or a real office but was given a $500,000 startup donation (that smelled like Koch money). That’s not simply idle conjecture. When I and others started looking into Liberty Central, two operatives with Koch Brothers ties were quickly brought in to sideline Thomas. Then she started a lobbying firm, Liberty Consulting, but never registered as a lobbyist.

And now she’s a “journalist,” hired by Tucker Carlson to interview for The Daily Caller? Given that this town stinks of out-of-work journos with actual credentials, the hire seems awfully suspicious. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if The Daily Caller also got a new equity investment from some familiar dirty-industry capitalists. The Caller was started with $3 million from a guy named Foster Friess who attended at least one Koch Cabal meeting along with Justice Thomas. The notion that The Caller’s newest hire was bought and paid for is pure speculation at this point. But given the players, well, it already walks like a duck.

I can’t wait to hear what Christine O’Donnell is up to.

Filed Under: Tea Party Madness Tagged With: jimmy zuma, Republicans, teabaggers